I saw a billboard with the picture of a middle-aged man on a motorcycle, emblazoned with the argument: "Millions of Harley owners can't be wrong." Being a misanthrope by nature, I can't help but reject that claim. After all, don't millions of people drive Chryslers? Don't millions of people walk about in public with those earbud thingies stuck in the sides of their heads, under the illusion that they look like captains of industry, or playas, or both? Didn't millions of people watch "Golden Girls" every week, for crying out loud?

Only recently did I learn that this logical fallacy has its own official Latin name: argumentum ad populum. So we know it's a problem, because those Romans didn't mess around when it came to argumentation.

This puts me in mind of my favorite such argument, shared with me recently by my friend Brett Hinkey: reductio ad Hitlerum — the belief that if you can establish that your opponent's view was once held by Hitler, you've won the argument.

And come to think of it, didn't millions of people support Hitler? And thus, ceterus paribus, ipso facto, e pluribus unum, I think I've proven my point.