Argumentum ad hominem - a typical Zoltie attempt at reasoning (God bless his poor little pinhead):
"Shoot the messenger, not the message"
... by the way, the lobbying numbers you mounted your ad hominem attack on were supplied by the CCIA and compiled from publicly available federal filings... despite whoever made the press release, as was clearly visible from the ZDNet article, and have been widely reported elsewhere (NYT, Wash. Post, Silicon Valley, etc.):
"The evidence came from a review commissioned by the Computer & Communications Industry Association. Roeder said that although the research was commissioned by the CCIA--a known critic of Microsoft--the evidence was based on the "extraordinary public record of Microsoft's political activities during the timeframe of this trial."
By the way... the judge will rule in a few months on one of the claims filed in the case... that MS violated federal reporting provisions when they reported to the court practically no lobbying activity... despite widespread reports (congressional and press) to the contrary.
So hold your conclusions for a while Zoltie... the court will rule on the motion soon enough.
Now for Zoltie's edification (for whatever good it will do):
Attacking the Person
(argumentum ad hominem)
Definition:
The person presenting an argument is attacked instead of the argument itself. This takes many forms. For example, the person's character, nationality or religion may be attacked. Alternatively, it may be pointed out that a person stands to gain from a favourable outcome. Or, finally, a person may be attacked by association, or by the company he keeps.
There are three major forms of Attacking the Person:
1. ad hominem (abusive): instead of attacking an assertion, the argument attacks the person who made the assertion.
2. ad hominem (circumstantial): instead of attacking an assertion the author points to the relationship between the person making the assertion and the person's circumstances.
3. ad hominem (tu quoque): this form of attack on the person notes that a person does not practise what he preaches. |
