Wish I had said that.................

"It is not my purpose here to flense his critique point by point, only to 
note that his intellectual malnutrition is, of necessity, determined by
what he feeds his head."
-Gerard Vanderleun


I will confess to reaching for my Webster's New World College 
Dictionary to look up the word "flense."  I knew I knew it, but......
Flense (flens)  vt.  to cut blubber skin from (a whale, seal, etc.). 
Then it all came back to me.  Sophomore year.  English class.
Sitting with Patty and Susan,  where, under Dom Consolo's 
tutelage, we learned to hate Moby Dick.  But I digress.


The quote above comes from Vanderleun's well-worth-reading essay,
The American Argument.  Bonus quote is here:


"There are many ways of stating the American Argument with itself -- 
indeed, it is many arguments -- but one of the most straightforward 
is 'How shall men be free and how shall a society of free men then 
be structured?'"