[The following comprises two pieces that first appeared at the old Palace Of Reason in early 2004. They’re relevant to our current national discourse…such as it is. Sorry, the embedded links no longer work. Something to bear in mind as you read: a judge in Hawaii recently ruled that “the spirit of aloha” …
Category: argument
Jan 06 2024
Dismissal Through Diagnosis
The old rhetorical gambit called argumentum ad hominem is most often deployed by advocates for a shaky proposition. If Smith has a better case for his position, such that the preponderance of the evidence and the logic it supports appear to have won the day, his adversary Jones will be powerfully tempted to “attack …
Sep 15 2023
Bootlickers Disguise Bootlicking as Shoe Shining
Most folks have probably encountered a situation like this. You’re arguing on social media with some Lefty, and he copies and pastes some links he dug up on Google as evidence his point of view is right, and you’re just an idiot who hates fact-based rational thought. After all, how can you ignore the opinion …
Jul 10 2023
The Political Correlation Of Forces, 2023
The little man who works in the lumber-room of my memory will occasionally toss a tidbit to my supposedly conscious forebrain with a muttered “Remember this?” And of course I do; he’s remembered it for me. But such ejecta from the recesses of my mind can have interesting consequences, one of which (of course) …
Apr 29 2023
Breadth Of Vision
He who decides to involve himself in politics, but without personal aspirations to public office, will often have a single motivating issue in mind. This is commonplace today, when so many subjects of public discourse are of intense interest to some but little or none to others. I’ve known several bright and articulate folks …
Mar 03 2023
The Weapon
Eric Frank Russell, one of the most talented writers of his day, left as his legacy to the developing field of science fiction a magnificent novella titled “And Then There Were None.” (Yes, I’ve commended it here before this.) This novella is so powerful, and so memorable, that it was awarded a place in …
Feb 25 2023
An Unsurprising Reaction
The old fable about the emperor’s new wardrobe, which only the honest and competent could see, ends with a small boy shattering the delusion, simply by speaking the truth. What Hans Christian Andersen had in mind in his fable is disputed today. Partly that’s because Andersen’s original ending for the tale was somewhat different. …
Jan 13 2023
Master Demonstration On How To Beat Social Engineering
My opinion of Professor Jordan Brent Peterson keeps rising. His mastery of impromptu speech, of finding the right words to describe what he is attempting convey on the fly, appears to me to be unparalleled in the world of today. His latest contribution to our battle to save civilization, published yesterday, is below. Normally I …
Jun 28 2022
Evidence, Inference, and Faith
What statement is aimed at you more often than any other? For me, it’s “You must be crazy.” or some variation thereof. And more often than not, the stimulus is my religious beliefs. The person casting the aspersions on my sanity deems them “irrational,” the great majority of those who hold them as …
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