# nonpolar, front and center **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 1, 2004, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553 "2004-09-01T08:10:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Green\_Means\_Go](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cc9497/32.png) [@Green\_Means\_Go](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Means_Go)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/41 "2004-09-01T16:04:34Z")
Bah, I hate it when I post what I thought was an original argument and then go back through and realize 3 people have already put it better than I did. _sigh_ :smack: Carry on folks… nothing to see here. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/42 "2004-09-01T16:16:39Z")
Yeah, I was just pointing out what I thought was a case of **Gaudere** ’s Law. I really was curious if that was a legit spelling, which it doesn’t seem to be. I didn’t mean to come across as snarky. ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/43 "2004-09-01T16:24:55Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > **Gaudere** ’s Law at work there, I suspect. :smack: It’s powerful mojo this **Gaudere** ’s Law. You can try, but you just can’t avoid its all embracing influence. I have _no idea_ where that ‘k’ sneaked in from. > [@jlzania](#): > > the pleasant memory which help me survive the mortification. Ahem, case in point… “ **will** help me”, perhaps?? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/44 "2004-09-01T16:31:24Z")
> [@Duke](#): > > **nonpolar** , on the other hand, has a heart made of concrete. Ohhh, that’s goood. You reckon it is that one? You could be right. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/45 "2004-09-01T16:37:52Z")
By the way, [stuffing the horse](http://www.roadsideamerica.com/pet/trigger.html) has been done. ---
**Author:** ![Aldebaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Aldebaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aldebaran)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/46 "2004-09-01T16:39:59Z")
> [@LastCall](#): > > Sisyphus’ Stone, > > I was just wondering… > > Are you living in a box and giving every penny of your money to people in 3rd world countries? Not on my bank account he did. (I don’t think I ever got namesless gifts.) Confession: I am not very convinced myself of my role as typical third worlder but I came across such clear-sighted descriptions of my situation on message boards. Including on this one I think… So I think I can rightfully apply to receive the generous gifts of SS Salaam. A ---
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/47 "2004-09-01T16:46:55Z")
Okay, I’ll plead ignorance. What’s the significance of **nonpolar** ’s heart being made of concrete? ---
**Author:** ![Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/48 "2004-09-01T16:47:44Z")
I really feel sorry for people who can’t understand how important and precious the love of an animal is. I’ve loved many animals during my lifetime, both my pets and other people’s pets, and some wild animals who allowed me the privilege to get close to them. I’ve loved cats, dogs, birds, fish, reptiles and rodents. All have taught me compassion, understanding, tolerance, and patience. They have shown me true friendship, and enriched my life in a way I can’t describe in words. When I hold my rat, Bettina, and she looks up at me with her eyes shining, full of love and joy and intelligence and trust, I feel so glad to have met this little soul, who makes me feel so special. **ETF,** I’m so sorry about your horse. Don’t worry about ignorant people like **nonpolar**. Remember you’re luckier than they’ll ever be, to have had the gift of an animal’s love. ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/49 "2004-09-01T17:14:11Z")
> [@TwoTrouts](#): > > Okay, I’ll plead ignorance. What’s the significance of **nonpolar** ’s heart being made of concrete? It’s probably a reference to a beloved former member of the SDMB, who has [graced us with his presence](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=106348) from time to time. Others have surmised that **nonpolar** , is his latest incarnation. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/50 "2004-09-01T17:20:53Z")
Many thanks, to all you who understand and share my feelings. I’ve had [Nick](http://community.webshots.com/photo/805338/805338) for 12 of his 22 years, and owe him far more than I can ever repay. He changed my life. When I bought him, I was living a bored, unhappy, pointless-feeling city existence. His coming into my life precipitated an upheaval that landed me in the life I love now: a comfortable home in a gorgeous part of coastal Massachusetts, an ever-widening circle of horse-mad friends, healthy exercise that’s a joy, not a chore (even the chores part), and the companionship of two horses who are… well, some folks never even find one “horse of a lifetime”. I’ve got two, and they are the hub, the heart of my life. I am daily amazed at my great good fortune. Anyone who dismisses the love we share with our companion animals has a lump of coal where their heart should be. Let them natter on as they will about their chosen “correct” objects of compassion; I shall continue to doubt that it is compassion that moves them in fact, but rather mere narrow-souled hatred for anything outside the constricted ambit of their approval. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/51 "2004-09-01T17:52:31Z")
[littel boy from _Sling Blade_] I like the way you talk. [/lbf_SB_] Sorry 'bout yer horse and the other stuff happening to you, including having your sorrow spat upon by ingrates. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/52 "2004-09-01T17:54:05Z")
Why thank you, no, I don’t use spell check. Why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![jlzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/67e7ee/32.png) [@jlzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jlzania)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/53 "2004-09-01T17:59:29Z")
> [@](#): > > **Futile Gesture** -Ahem, case in point… “will help me”, perhaps?? Alas and alack, I’m apparently condemned to make numerous spelling and grammatical errors on the Dope today. That said, I’m just a little bit flattered that you’re paying such close attention to my posts today, **Futile Gesture**. Normally they don’t generate any comment. Can’t wait to see what I’ve fucked up in this one. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/54 "2004-09-01T18:13:02Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Hey, **SS** , i think that just about every one of us who lives a reasonably comfortable existence with all the modern conveniences feels, from time to time, a certain guilt about our situation. I don’t. Never have. And I’ve been to India and Bangladesh and had a chance to see dirt-poordom at its very finest. If anything, my modern conveniences makes me want to bring such elightened liberal democracy/capitalism to everyone on Earth. Of course, none of that is incompatable with the notion that nonpolar is a idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/55 "2004-09-01T18:19:28Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > …Of course, none of that is incompatable with the notion that nonpolar is a idiot. Or, for that matter the notion that **Sisyphus’ Stone** is an ass. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/56 "2004-09-01T18:27:04Z")
> [@Binarydrone](#): > > Or, for that matter the notion that **Sisyphus’ Stone** is an ass. Well, let’s say neither of them has cornered the market on assholery. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/57 "2004-09-01T18:35:19Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > If anything, my modern conveniences makes me want to bring such elightened liberal democracy/capitalism to everyone on Earth. W? That you? ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/58 "2004-09-01T18:40:01Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Well, let’s say neither of them has cornered the market on assholery. But assholery isn’t a zero sum game, so both can be complete and utter assholes without negating the assholerization of each other. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/59 "2004-09-01T18:58:23Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > If anything, my modern conveniences makes me want to bring such elightened liberal democracy/capitalism to everyone on Earth. You realize, i assume, that if you brought your own levels of “modern conveniences” to all the world’s poor, the drain on our finite resources would be such that humanity itself would be in even greater danger than it is now of making the planet completely uninhabitable. While the extent to which we ought to feel guilty about it is an open question, the fact remains that part of our lifestyle, with all its “modern conveniences,” is paid for by the world’s poor. It may not be complete zero-sum game, and it is certainly not impossible that all humanity can rise together, but there are times when our gains come at their expense. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553/60 "2004-09-01T19:14:09Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > You realize, i assume, that if you brought your own levels of “modern conveniences” to all the world’s poor, the drain on our finite resources would be such that humanity itself would be in even greater danger than it is now of making the planet completely uninhabitable. > > While the extent to which we ought to feel guilty about it is an open question, the fact remains that part of our lifestyle, with all its “modern conveniences,” is paid for by the world’s poor. It may not be complete zero-sum game, and it is certainly not impossible that all humanity can rise together, but there are times when our gains come at their expense. I don’t buy that. It’s well within our current technology and resources to wipe out starvation and many diseases, as well as make every human literate. Granted, it would take a significant improvement in efficiency to make everyone’s lives _luxurious_ (i.e. standard western middle-class or better) but I don’t see any economic or technological barriers to doing so, not does it absolutely require that a segment of the population be kept in abject poverty to ‘pay for’ it. In any case, I’m still absolutely guilt-free on this subject. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nonpolar-front-and-center/262553.md?page=4)