Quote Originally Posted by Parkbandit View Post
Penn pretty much sums up my position on this.
If it takes a half hour to sum up your position, I'd hate to see the full opus.
Oh, really? Awesome.. let's see if I can find some examples of such:
You don't understand what an ad hominem is. Here is how it works:

a person rudely disputes your claims - NOT ad hominem
a person makes rude remarks about you or your claims - NOT ad hominem
a person dismisses your claims on the basis of a character flaw (perceived or actual) - ad hominem

Now we can consider each citation in turn:

You dismiss cwolff's claims as ignorant because he sounded like an alarmist - ad hominem
Cwolff accuses you of being defensive - NOT ad hominem, because he makes no judgment of your claims
Cwolff accuses you of being a knee-jerker - NOT ad hominem, because he makes no judgment of your claims
Cwolff describes the policies of the right in fecal terms - NOT ad hominem, because his judgment of the claims is wholly encapsulated with the claims
Cwolff describes Methais' question as the result of lazy thought processes - NOT ad hominem, but you're getting closer!
If Cwolff had said "I think your question is a bad idea. It shows that you're lazy.", that would be ad hominem.