> I think it is a serious mistake, incidentally, to respond to any question
> (other than simple queries of fact) unless the person asking the question
> also gives his/her own answer to the question posed.
Posing questions, as an argumentative gambit, is a little squirrelly anyway, isn't it? No doubt there's a place for it --trying to tease out implications, trying to see whether you're following the interlocutor's logic. But in general it puts the questioner in the position of Mr District Attorney and casts the questionee as Prisoner In The Dock. Answer the question! Yes or no!
Then there's the related question of Bad Questions. Nobody is required to answer any question, but it's downright stupid to answer Bad Questions -- questions packed as full of questionable presuppositions as a haggis is of offal.
The constructive thing to do with a Bad Question is point out why it's bad. But even that may start to seem like too much work for too little reward, particularly with a questioner who seems to specialize in bad questions.
-- --
Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com
"I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President, and I think I will go along with them."
-- Barack Obama
(Okay, okay, it was really Calvin Coolidge.)