S.N.F.;
The post is off-topic I know, but, like millions of others, I'm trying to come to terms with last Saturday's tragedy in Tucson and the pattern of American public life, discourse and the values being expressed, and I guess it boiled over, here, as well as other dialogues elsewhere entered into. The man's behaviour seemed to epitomize that model of private and public life which we now carry around in our heads and which governs much of what passes for "rational" behaviour, which today is executed without the slightest sense or comprehension of grace under fire.
Just as it wasn't "selfish" in the usual sense of the term, it isn't even describable as "arrogant" - it was a man chasing his papers after leaving an airplane involved in a serious ground incident where fire was involved, a spectacle to be sure, but it was far, far more than that. Wth apologies to the thread's contributors for enduring the diversion, I thank you for asking if you can use it...of course you can.