>>>Even the one that he makes sound the most ludicrous ("IRB required pens, be we were only allowed to use pencils") can be rephrased as:

It looked like you were giving an alternate phrasing of the IRB's actual argument, not a separate one that also argues in favor of disallowing pencils (as well as the pens they had no problem with).

Ah, I see how I worded it confusingly.