Sovereign collegues, I am Logos. I have adopted this pseudonym to conceal my 'true name'. I want the ideas which I shall be espousing to stand or fall on their own merits and not on the basis of biases that my name, sex, ethnicity, etc. might otherwise elicit. I hope my contributions to this list will be seen as positive by most list members. I intend to limit my postings to only two meta-topics: decorum and logic. In other words, the way we speak to each other and the quality of our argumentation. Decorum From time to time, I will 'call' posters on their intemperate use of rude or provocative language. I believe Cypherpunks should be a market place of ideas, not a forum for egos and insults. The two houses of the American congress have adopted rules of decorum. Members may be censored or expelled for personal attacks and verbal abuse of other members. This was mandated for a very practical reason. It was realized that insults, profanity, 'fighting words', etc. could get so out of hand that they could interfer with the legitimate work of the congress. While some might say that in the case of the congress, this would be a good thing, I believe in the case of Cypherpunks, it is a bad thing. I, therefore, call upon each Cypherpunk list members to personally adopt such a code of conduct for themselves. If Democrats can refer to Representative Gingrich as 'my esteemed collegue' and Republicans can talk about the 'honorable' Ted Kennedy, I see no reason that we cannot treat Tim May and Dimitry Vilus with similar respect and courtesy. What is at stake is far more important than egos. Cypherpunks defeated Clipper, but of late they have only defeated themselves. Logic The average reader of this list has sufficient education and intelligent to understand the most informal logical falacies. Yet one sees such falacies committed here with disapointing regularity. I will post definitions of the most common falacies and will use examples found on this list as illustrations. If we are to be persuasive among ourselves and with others, we need to be rigorous in our thought processes. I would be honored to hear your thoughts on this post. Logos out.