Frivolous literary note

[Joe Varo]

On Thu, 15 May 1997 doktor at primenet.com wrote:

> Maybe the slippery slope is taught differently in law schools than in
> rhetoric classes.  I still think it is best described in Joe's and my
> position, namely, that the slippery slope is not an argument which projects
> statistical trends into the future, but is rather one that deals with
> deviation from rules.  Underpinning the slippery slope argument is the
> notion that consistency (or stare decisis) is a good thing, so that if you
> make one exception to a rule, you must make a number of others to be
> logically consistent.
[...]

Thanks for the back-up on this, Jimmy.  My interpretation of the "slippery
slope" is that once you do or allow something to be done once then you set
a precedent for other like actions to be done.  Sort of like the current
late-term abortion arguments going on in congress, i.e. if you ban one
method then next they'll want to ban another method, and another, etc.

I think that Dennis's description is more along the lines of a hasty
generalization.

Joe