Sorry Beagles

 I'm sorry for mistaking Beagles for Old Dog, not that there is anything wrong with being Old Dog, just that people don't generally like being mistaken for somebody else.  Also apologize for taking the liberty of erasing about two pages of blank lines just to make scrolling easier.

I am not sure that you understood that all generalizations are invalid is a paradox. The statement itself is a generalization, therefore it must be false, but if it is false that means that all generalizations must be valid, but if they are than the statement is false, but if the statement is false, then all generalizations must be valid, and so on, kind of like the paper that has turn over written on both sides.

I think it was Hume who said just because the sun has risen every morning in recorded history is no reason to be sure that it will rise every morning.  I think it was another philosopher who said that just because every swan you have ever seen was white does not mean there is not a black swan lurking in your garden pond waiting for you to take your morning stroll.

There are two schools in philosophy, empiricism and rationalism.  The empiricists think the only true source of knowledge is your perception of the world around you, and the rationalists think that your senses are deceptive and the only thing you can believe is the stuff in your own mind.  Mathematics, where you can develop all of mathematics sitting alone in a room with pencil and paper, is rationalist.  Science, where you have to go out and make a lot of measurements, is empiricist.

My argument was rationalist.  Anybody who believes in this flying saucer foolishness is perforce bull goose loony.  Anybody who believes people who believe otherwise is not rational.  Therefore all rational people believe that anybody who believes in flying saucers is bull goose looney.

I can make my argument about why anybody who believes in this nonsense is bull goose looney, but not this morning because I just heard my paper thud against the door and it is time to go out onto the balcony and read the news of the day.