Re: Not always joking, it seems

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:45:25 GMT, throopw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Wayne Throop)
wrote:

>: mike weber <fair****tfan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>: Any factor which, if absent, prevents the event from happening is a
>: cause - or, if you want to be pedantic, a pre-condition.
>
>In my dialect, not all preconditions are counted as "causes".
>People may say that they climb Everest because it's there, but
>they don't really mean it literally.  But sure enough, Everest
>must exist for anybody to climb it.
>
However, the original post was in a discussion of gun laws, and said
that the killing wouldn't have happened if etc.

Whether or not the OP wants to admit it, he is blaming the tool,
rather than the user.