white male conservative that plays by the rules...
the government takes 50% of what i make, so it'll probably take me twice as long to get where i want to be.
plus, the 20% ripoff tax if i access any of my funds before i'm 59 n 1/2....need more?
The whole world is out to get me.
Back when I spent a lot of time debating on the talk.origins newsgroup (dedicated to the evolution/creationism issue), one of the posters who impressed me the most was Tero Sand. His posts were always impeccably written, extremely well researched, and revealed a very keen intelligence.
Imagine my surprise when I learned years later that Tero Sand had been a quadriplegic requiring a 24/7 respirator almost his entire life, (as a result of a car accident while a toddler), and that he had managed to acquire his broad knowledge without ever being able to travel to a library (the web was in its infancy even at the time I knew him), and he wrote all his numerous, lengthy posts by painstakingly punching a keyboard with a stick held in his mouth. And he did it all with jovial good humor.
Sadly, I learned of his condition from Tero's obituary. He died at the young age of 31 due to complications from a respiratory infection (paralyzed people who can't cough or control their breathing are at great risk for this).
"What's your excuse?" indeed.
I'm especially impatient with able-bodied people who write shorthand when communicating online (e.g. "Thx 4 ur info, bro"), or who fail to take two minutes to double-check something before they post it, because "it's easier". It would have been a lot easier for Tero Sand to shorthand his writings, but he took the time to write properly anyway, and document all of his assertions as well.