A note to the exorcists

[Ken Hanly]

Sorry I thought that Hakki not Chip made the remark about proving a
negative. Anyway there is no logical difficulty with doing so that I see. Of
the examples Chip gives are not that problematic. Surely there is lots of
positive evidence that Hakki posts from where he posts--and I assume it is
not Hackensack N.J. If that positive can proved then the same form I used
earlier gives you:

     If Hakki posted from Hackensack NJ....then he did not post from
x--where x is the place he did post from. But he did post from x therefore
he did not post from Hackensack.

If you want to be stubborn enough you can reject all the evidence for
positive proposition such as the earth is round by making enough special
assumptions.

Cheers, Ken Hanly
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 10:42 AM
Subject: RE: A note to the exorcists


> Hakki,
>
> Thanks for being so gracious.
>
> As for you comments below, it is the first rule of logical fallacies that
> you cannot prove a negative.
>
> Go ahead and try:
>
> Prove that you do not work for the U.S. government as an agent tasked to
> disrupt the left by spreading conspiracist theories.
>
> Prove that you are not really posting these messages from Hackensack, New
> Jersey.
>
> Prove that the Libyan spy agency does not secretly own the Fox News
Channel.
>
> Sigh...
>
> -Chip
>
>
> > I suggest you contribute to the list by showing us your
> > research. What have
> > you got to offer that disproves the Interfor report? How can
> > you prove that
> > the holes in the case against the Libyans aren't there?
> > Without evidence,
> > your opinions are uninteresting.
> >
> > Hakki
> >
>