Sir, in answer to your earlier speculation, I believe you do speak in "hyperbole" as your two lenghty posts on this topic confirm. Leave it to lawyers (and I now assume writers/authors?) to use 10 words when 2-3 will do.

I have highlighted some of what I consider hyperbole, as well as the condescension oozing from your words, below. You have overstated in many sentences simply "for effect."

I smiled as I read "brevity is the soul..." in your lengthy post.

I do however, agree with your assessments on Senator Boxer, but I think MTV rarely plays music these days.

Thank you for your now infamous and very hopeful post sent during a period of despair that others here hang on as evidence PTSC will be alright. I mean if a CEO/CFO friend, or a friend of a friend is interested in this stock, it must be good. [that is sarcasm, not hyperbole or condescension].

A clever, if sophomoric tactic. It is not dissimilar from calling someone a racist or a bigot. The utterance takes but few seconds; the defense takes several minutes, and people turn away thinking they might be missing an important song on MTV.

Since we have many smart people on this board, let’s take a moment and unpack your statement, shall we? See if you can follow along. I shall write slowly.

Scholars, teachers, professors, speechwriters, philosophers, etc. have claimed since Socrates was suckling from his mother’s breast that simplicity and clarity are the hallmarks that define the best communication. A cousin of that saying was penned by perhaps the most famous of all playwrights, who noted that “brevity is the soul of wit.” I am sure you can appreciate how those relatives stand together.

Now let me see if I understand your claim: since 7th graders are on occasion taught and can understand Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” a brilliant allegory about the 1917 Russian Revolution and the seeds of communism and central control at the expense of the individual, it must not have any worthwhile meaning or applicability to the real word? It’s extrapolative value is minimal to today’s political system and how they might vote on legislation that affects our investment?

So if I tell a 6-year-old, “Don’t spend all your money just because you have it; save it for a rainy day,” because he is young and can understand the simple example, the statement has no meaning? Using your “logic,” people 10 times his age cannot get something from it? All the economic advisors, from Warren Buffet to Bob Brinker, must be fools, no doubt.

Perhaps “Thou shall not steal,” “Thou shall not lie,” and “Thou shall not kill,” also quite simple examples 7th graders are taught have no extrapolative value because seventh graders can understand them?

What a fool I have been lo these many years, Placenta. You are right. I want my money back. Like an idiot, I sat for weeks in an expensive graduate school literature class, discussing, debating, examining, and applying to difference civilizations and political structures the merits of Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” Other Ph.D. and Masters’ candidates participated in this wasteful expenditure of time and money, all under the watchful eye of a grandmaster of literature. Someone forgot to tell the old fool that because “Animal Farm” can be generally taught and understood in Middle School, it has no relevance to the modern world or thought.

And your ignorant comment that I should leave America if I don’t like it: Let me get that straight, too. If I disagree with the road our political class is taking, and voice that disagreement, I should leave my country? Shall I open the Constitution and teach that to you as well?

My only hope is that you are not in a position to influence young people.