As I understand it an ad hominem is more than just name calling, it is an appeal to
personal considerations rather than to logic or reason; thus calling a person a
jackass is an ad hominem, but calling said person a jackass and then marshaling
logical arguments showing the individual in question really is a member of the
species Equus Asinus would not be. This doesn't appear to be the intent of the list,
it's be polite no matter what, thus I recommend striking "ad hominem" from list rules
and substituting the more accurate if pedestrian sounding phrase "name calling".
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
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