At 2:10 PM -0800 on 1/11/02, "Eric Cordian" makes an actual appeal to ignorance...:
I see not a single denial.
Ah. Prove to you that he didn't say it? <http://gncurtis.home.texas.net/ignorant.html> :-). Not that I care either way, though I expect Peter's probably right on this one. By way of *another* informal fallacy, :-), post hoc, ergo, propter hoc, <http://gncurtis.home.texas.net/begquest.html>, with a nod to Bill Walton's old stomping grounds, "if we lived here we'd be home now", and all that: If Sharon said it, there are enough people who hate his guts in the mainstream press that we'd have heard all about it by now.
I certainly don't wish to adopt the position that nothing is credible that doesn't get mainstream media coverage. But you are right that it's a bit suspicious.
There ya go. *That* makes a whole lot more sense, now, doesn't it? "Never attribute to conspiracy that which can easily be explained by stupidity", or whatever Pournelle said. But then, a good thing never lasts, does it?, viz,
I see no denials of this even more widely reported story, and I find that suspicious too.
Whoops. There you go again, Britney -- or "Eric", or whatever your name is... (Just to help Mr. Choate in his subsequent mailbombs on informal logic, I offer the following link farm. Knock yourself out, Jim...: <http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Philosophy/Philosophy_of_Logic/Informal_Logic/> ) Cheers, RAH -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'