Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:10:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: dicconf <dicconf at radix.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: David Dance?
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On Fri, 27 Oct 2006, Barry L. Newton wrote:

> Eric Jablow wrote:
>
>> On Oct 26, 2006, at 10:38 PM, Ted White wrote:
>>
>>> encouraging it, albeit that wasn't their intention.  I call people who
>>> take this position "Good Germans."
>>
>> Can we not invoke Godwin's Law?
>>
>> Respectfully,
>> Eric Jablow, Treasurer, CBEMC
>> ejablow at cox.net
>
> From Wikipedia on "Godwin's Law:"
>
> It is considered poor form to arbitrarily raise such a comparison with the
> motive of ending the thread. There is a widely recognized
> <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/codicil>codicil that any such
> ulterior-motive invocation of Godwin's Law (in the above sense) will be
> unsuccessful.

It does not appear that Eric was trying to end the thread.  His objection
seems to be to TeW's not being satisfied to point out that those who
ignore a rather mundane case of bullying actually are encouraging it,
though they don't mean to.  Likening people who dislike hassles to people
who allow the Nazis to have their way was an additional, uncalled-for
slur, quite as if the people who don't read Coulter or Kozar were to be
considered equivalent to those who allegedly knew about the plan to bomb
the World Trade Center and didn't say anything about it.

-- Dick Eney