Sorry Dan, but I feel we should dispatch an answer to Cat Wisperer's 'straw man argument' first. From our initial statements you could easily tell that we believed that, with study, and some honest effort, that BP could be safely made, in small batches, by careful and safety-minded adults. Unless this is just a random, innocent thought which popped into Tim's head as his fingers hovered over the keyboard, what he wrote here is what could be called a classic, 'Straw Man Arguement'.
Instead of arguing against our premise directly with logical statements backed by fact, he has created a "Straw man" or grossly oversimplified version of our basic premise which he then easily attacks, and destroys, because the 'straw man argument' is so weak and stupid sounding.
This was the statement he made: "I knew a fellow in H.S. who mixed a bathtub full with a shovel and then screened it with a window screen. Don't like to think what could have happened if it had gone off." Let's take Tim's anecdotal story apart and see where the inherent fallacy lies.
First, this fellow was in High School, and therefore did not have a body of adult experiences upon which to base his judgment in matters large and small.
Second, "he mixed a bathtub full", This is so obviously stupid given the extreme destruction which this amount could cause.
Third, The oversimplification continues by not telling us about what exact chemicals he used or quantities of each, nor specifying the material of the shovel and the window screen is obviously silly, because who wants only ffffG powder?
Finally the attack and destruction of the "Straw Man Arguement" follows. It's very easy in this case, because the argument is so obviously defective, that is folds like a 'house of cards', or, in this case, 'Blows Sky High' as his last statement indicates; "Don't like to think what could happened if it had gone off". He nay not actually have negative feelings toward our contention that BP can be safely made at home, but if he does, he hopes that the total destruction of the 'Straw Man Argument' will cast lots of doubt about our basic contention as well. That's the way these things work. FYI T&M Tim is intelligent enough to know that this is all for the sake of argument and that Mike and I think Tim is a good and likable guy. He is almost always good, but if you let him mass his artillery he can be very, very, very BAD.
Dan, You have taken the shotgun approach. Give us a day or so to go through all that and organize those important points and suggestions into something logical. Thanks very much; lots of good stuff there.
George, O.K. George, it's not the money; it's the thrill of personal victory that we get when we can say, as George Peppard did, many times in those classic, A-Team episodes, "I love it when a plan comes together". You got us on that one. In fact, it will probably cost you more to make BP yourself, if you consider the time you will have in the actual "making" process. However, most of us, I believe, will be doing this as an unpaid hobby activity which creates a product which is very useful in a related area, that of producing data on our chronograph screen by measurement of the external ballistics of projectiles made after work and propelled by BP, a propellant produced by exertions occurring during the pursuit of the first hobby, that of safely making BP at home at less than one-half the cost of commercial BP.
Anybody out there really ever do this stuff??
Mike and Tracy
