# N. and S. Korea firing artillery at each other

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [December 9, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483 "2010-12-09T00:27:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 240

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**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/n-and-s-korea-firing-artillery-at-each-other/563483/240 "2010-12-15T16:53:40Z")

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> [@Frank](#):
>
> At this point, my friend, you have ceased being internally consistent by any standard. Even a Jesuit, my friend, could not follow your gaps in logic and self-contraindications.

I am reminded of an old joke about a young man who, in the spirit of going along to get along, tried to absorb the State’s lessons about Marxist philosophy but simply couldn’t make any sense of them. In desperation, he resorted to discreetly consulting his rabbi.

The rabbi thought for a moment, and finally said, “I shall illustrate by a parable. Two men climb down a chimney. When they reach the bottom, one is dirty but the other somehow comes out clean. Which one washes himself?”

“The dirty one, of course!”

The rabbi shook his head. “No. Each of them sees the other, and so the clean one believes that he is dirty and the dirty one believes that he is clean, so the clean one goes to wash himself. Now, two men climb down a chimney. When they reach the bottom, one is dirty but the other somehow comes out clean. Which one washes himself?”

“You already asked that question! Well, now that you’ve explained it, it would be the clean one.”

The rabbi shook his head again. “No. Each of them looks at his own hands, and so the clean one knows that he is clean, and the dirty one knows that he is dirty and goes to wash himself. Now, two men climb down a chimney…”

“Stop! You’re just making things up so it will come out the way you want!”

The rabbi smiled. “A-ha! **Now** you understand Marxist philosophy!”

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