universal healthcare

[--Pete]

Hi,

Regardless, as with all such quote claims, the burden is to demonstrate its source, not to definitively prove that there isn't one, which is a nearly impossible task.

Difficult, yes, but not quite impossible. For instance, if Spiro Agnew were to attribute anything to anyone, then it is most probably false. :w00t:

Actually, it is a problem not unlike etymology. One searches through the literature for occurrences of the quotation, or of similar statements. If the first occurrence is from a source long after the person supposedly quoted has died, then the probability is extremely large that the attribution is spurious. If there are occurrences prior to . . . but you get the idea. It's just simple academic research -- tedious and boring, but not impossible.

And usually not worth the effort unless someone calls a quotation into question. :whistling:

--Pete