David, you are correct that the non-existence of a fact or entity is notoriously difficult to prove. In this case, however, we can also appeal to common sense. Put yourself in the shoes of an illegal immigrant. You've risked your life to escape horrific violence back home, or maybe just to help lift your family out of miserable poverty. …
David, you are correct that the non-existence of a fact or entity is notoriously difficult to prove. In this case, however, we can also appeal to common sense. Put yourself in the shoes of an illegal immigrant. You've risked your life to escape horrific violence back home, or maybe just to help lift your family out of miserable poverty. Why on earth would you risk being caught, arrested and deported, simply to cast a single vote in a presidential election? That would be profoundly foolish, and whatever you think of these folks, they're not foolish. So while we can't prove that no illegal aliens vote, we can certainly say that it's highly, even laughably, implausible.
OK, as long as the "common sense" you are talking about is yours and mine, we can draw that out (although your illegal immigrant would not undergo all that solely to cast the vote that he can). Expecting Speaker J to have any sense at all, common or otherwise, is beyond my ability to imagine. Sorry, just occurred to me that is too broad since he clearly has a sense of self-aggrandizement.
David, you are correct that the non-existence of a fact or entity is notoriously difficult to prove. In this case, however, we can also appeal to common sense. Put yourself in the shoes of an illegal immigrant. You've risked your life to escape horrific violence back home, or maybe just to help lift your family out of miserable poverty. Why on earth would you risk being caught, arrested and deported, simply to cast a single vote in a presidential election? That would be profoundly foolish, and whatever you think of these folks, they're not foolish. So while we can't prove that no illegal aliens vote, we can certainly say that it's highly, even laughably, implausible.
OK, as long as the "common sense" you are talking about is yours and mine, we can draw that out (although your illegal immigrant would not undergo all that solely to cast the vote that he can). Expecting Speaker J to have any sense at all, common or otherwise, is beyond my ability to imagine. Sorry, just occurred to me that is too broad since he clearly has a sense of self-aggrandizement.