Laura Creighton writes: > Johannes, if you don't know "Yes, Minister" then you most likely do > not know the Politician's Syllogism (which now has its own wikipedia > page :) And I _didn't_ do it! Honest!) > > Something must be done. > This is something. > Therefore we must do it!
Surely that's to be worded as follows? To have a stricter syllogistic form. We need to do something. This is something. Therefore we need to do this. Or, We must do something. This is something. Therefore we must do this. Or, but this feels weaker to me, Something must be done. This is something. Therefore this must be done. ISWIM. In particular, I think the move from the agentless passive (must be done) to the specific expression of agency (we must do) seems to me to be a *different* joke. (I was tempted to call it passive temperature but that would have been yet another, unrelated joke.) :) -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list