McKiernan quotes Sam Walter Foss
Prominent blog challenger revealed as earnest truthseeker
Well known and prolific HIV∫AIDS blog comment poster with the moniker “McKiernan” finally broke down on the Larry Altman’s Guide to AIDS Conferences comment thread last night and revealed that he was no troll or spoiler, as many other posters had thought, but an earnest seeker after truth in the realm of HIV?AIDS. An ex Air Force man who lost lost two sisters to cancer and chemotherapy, he retains a certain skepticism as to the economic motivations of modern medicine.
McKiernan clinched this surprise revelation by quoting from a verse which describes the behavior of paradigm scientists and their cult like followers in the TAC and elsewhere to a T:
The Calf-Path
by Sam Walter Foss
(NH 1858-1911)
One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then three hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day,
By a lone dog that passed that way.
And then a wise bell-wether sheep,
Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep;
And drew the flock behind him too,
As good bell-wethers always do.
And from that day, o’er hill and glade.
Through those old woods a path was made.
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about;
And uttered words of righteous wrath,
Because ’twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed – do not laugh -
The first migrations of that calf.
And through this winding wood-way stalked,
Because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane,
that bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load,
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half,
They trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,
A city’s crowded thoroughfare;
And soon the central street was this,
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half,
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.
Each day a hundred thousand rout,
Followed the zigzag calf about;
And o’er his crooked journey went,
The traffic of a continent.
A Hundred thousand men were led,
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent,
To well established precedent.
A moral lesson this might teach,
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind,
Along the calf-paths of the mind;
And work away from sun to sun,
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah! many things this tale might teach -
But I am not ordained to preach.
In his honor, we are putting up a symbolic picture of our well known commentator checking out a HIV paradigm follower:
September 2nd, 2006 at 8:45 am
Wonderfully written, probably a lot of truth for our time. One could deduct alot from this defending upon whether one is an optimist or a pessimist. The pessimist would rather follow than lead and “this is the way that we’ve always done things “. While the optimist is not afraid of pressing ahead and forging out new paths for others to follow.