Oh, one more thing. If one side "loses" a line of argumentation in an atmosphere of mutual respect, then the onus is on that person to acknowledge that he/she was wrong or may need to rethink things. There is no shame is losing a debate or being shown that you are wrong. The only shame I can think of is failing to acknowledge it or pretending it didn't happen.
If you agree, say you agree. If you are wrong, say you are wrong. I cannot get over how people invest so much pride in something that they cannot easily control. If you are wrong, you either didn't have all of the information, which is entirely forgiveable in a world where there is so much information, or you didn't see it from both sides, which is also forgiveable and the purpose of this forum as I read it.
To JumpinJesus: We all are guilty of these transgressions from time to time. As long as we don't intentionally dip from the well of rhetoric in place of debate and have no fear of our rhetoric being pointed out to us as fallacy, then everything is hunky-dorey.
Then again, all of this is simply my opinion..I am never short of those and I fully-admit that I can be a bit preachy (and I post a lot on days when I am home sick
)