Re: RAT Cheese it, it's Bill Houts!!!!

["matthew" <sweeney@as-if.com>]

While I share a propensity for sweeping generalities just as 
my friend Bill does,  I also hope I share with him a 
knowledge that generalizations are only valid when dealing 
with large groups of people, not individuals. But sweeping 
generalities are just so much fun, dammit!!

Having said that, I also have spent plenty of time around 
cops, and have several high school classmates who have 
entered in to law enforcement. Keeping in mind I'm only 
speaking anecdotally, I must agree with much of Bill's 
premise, although I would argue that the violence he speaks 
of is a symptom of what drives them, not the actual drive 
itself. In my experience, it's all about desperately seeking 
power, or desperately trying to hold on to the power you 
think you have. Resorting to violence is obviously just the 
simpletons way to achieve the power he thinks he's lacking.
To put it in annoyingly glib and smug terms....every cop I 
ever met either HAD been popular in high school, or wanted 
to be. (Spare me the flames on that one, I know how lame it 
is....and apologies if someone else has already said as 
much...I only recently re-subscribed to the list.)

Enough about cops. I'm in South Dakota for a while to play 
some theater games at the local university, so I'm 
interested in the conference in Iowa City I've been reading 
about. Can someone email me and give me the skinny? 
(Privately, so the list doesn't clog with a bunch of stuff 
you all know already)

Anyway, it's good to be back and see you're all still here.

Love,
Matthew Swee

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