Ben Franklin: Scientist or Magician?

zooba ^ | 1/28/2002 | Alison Freisinger

[Exigence]

I asked you to look at a thread and defend your actions, and you won't do it. You can't.

No one can defend his or herself against someone else's unfounded accusations and wild imaginings.

Move on, Faith. You're out of line and off topic.

[Doctor Doom]

No, I said that you've spent several months now posting threads trying to make witchcraft look cute

Who has to try? She's cute as all get out.

[Doctor Doom]

[Exigence]

that magic is more rightly linked to evil than 'science'.

Spreading oil on the water is hardly "evil." When you toss that word around so carelessly you devalue it. Much in the same way when you accuse someone you don't even know of murder. Then, for some reason, you can't understand why no one reacts to your diatribes. You do more harm to your own "cause" than anyone else possibly could.

Try reading the fable about the boy who called "wolf." You might find it applicable -- or you won't. But, nutty websites about murders are hardly applicable to Ben Franklin's explorations into electricity and parlor tricks with oil and water. It was that kind of thinking that led to the Salem Witch trials where innocent people *were* murdered by those who could only see evil -- even where there was only innocence. I had hoped we'd learned from history. But, I guess not all of us have.

[Young Rhino]

In addition to being a Trilateralist, CFR member, and Mason, Franklin served as an adjunct professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry teaching defense against the dark arts. To this day, wizards and witches credit Franklin with the invention of the invisibility cloak.

[Doctor Doom]

To this day, wizards and witches credit Franklin with the invention of the invisibility cloak.

I'm wearing one now. And nothing else.

[Jolly Rodgers]

Apparently you haven't the sophistication required to discern a sham concocted as an insanity defense. It's nothing more than a modern version of "the devil made me do it."

[Buckeroo]

I heard that all of our founding fathers were queers. Any comment?

[Jolly Rodgers]

I heard that all of our founding fathers were queers. Any comment?

They may have seemed queer at the time, but in retrospect they were actually quite stodgy. Well, Ben was a naturist, but that's a whole different story...

[Doctor Doom]

I heard that all of our founding fathers were queers.

Queer:
Pronunciation: 'kwir Function: adjective
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: 1508
a : differing in some odd way from what is usual or normal

Yep - they were queer. Thank Galt.

[Jolly Rodgers]

On the other hand -- British royalty -- they are a queer lot.

[Buckeroo]

The liberal press actually portrays our nation's fathers as "fondling. I pray the liberal press eats their own agenda.

[Jolly Rodgers]

Fondling? Probably niggardly, too. Some of them might have even been thespians. I even heard that George Washington masticated with wooden dentures!

[Born in a Rage]

A serious scientist, Franklin was not above using science to perform a little "magic" now and then. At an English estate in 1772, Franklin boasted that he could quiet the river. Walking to the water's edge, he made sweeping passes over the river with his bamboo cane, and the waters ran smooth. His astonished viewers didn't know his cane was filled with oil, which had coated the water.

He found out how to do that trick by watching what happened to the sea when the ships cook threw oily water into it. He was on his way to merry 'ol England to convince the King and his ilk to let PA people vote about their own taxes :-)

[Doctor Doom]

I even heard that George Washington masticated with wooden dentures!

In front of women and children, no less.

[Buckeroo]

Yup!

[Jolly Rodgers]

I really shouldn't give dictionary.com free hits like that. ;-)