Overall, I salute your impeccable manners, which are essential to a civilized society.

But in this case, I agree with “donthe”-etcetera.

James, this reminds me of when Surowiecki disagreed with a point you made a week or so ago, and you wrote that he didn’t like you.

Was that a holdover from your days in management consulting, where you fear that any disagreement might aggrieve a potential client, and thereby you yourself fear anyone’s pointed disagreement with you?

There is a point where you can go overboard with tiptoe-ing, and that risks making a mockery of the actual significance of good manners.

At least Hennessey linked to the information, as many people make assertions that can’t be easily tracked down.

I wish you would have left posted your point about the importance of determining the assumptions and presuppositions that posters base their arguments upon. That’s essential analysis, and I appreciate when posters put them forth themselves.