William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

I’ve recently posted a page outlining the Top-20 Logical Fallacies, which I nicked off the Web site of excellent podcast, The Skeptics Guide to The Universe. As it’s more or less their charter to get folks to think more critically, I figured they’d be cool with it.

And it is important for Americans to start thinking more critically, because more or less, the entire political discourse in the U.S. is one logical fallacy after another. Let’s take a look at some recent examples.

First of, here’s deposed Speaker of the House Tom DeLay discussing redeploying American troops currently in Iraq with Congressman Joe Sestak, retired vice admiral of the U.S. Navy on Meet the Press:

DeLay: Where are going to deploy to? Answer the question. Where are you…

Sestak: Oman, Bahrain, at home to get our…

DeLay: They haven’t accepted that.

Sestak: Yes, sir, we have bases there.

DeLay: They have not accepted this redeployment.

Here’s another example of a logical fallacy from DeLay during the show:

DeLay: But surrender does not bring security.

Sestak: Tom, it’s a different strategy.

DeLay: No, it’s surrender.

Sestak: That brings about a more–no. Tom, we’ve learned so much in the military that…

DeLay: “This is hard, so I want to surrender.”

Sestak: Absolutely not.

DeLay: That’s exactly what it is.

This one is called “Argumentum Ad Nauseum.” This is where a person just keeps repeating the same thing over and over, hoping that repetition will make it true. Currently it appears the Bush Administration is using this technique in the debate over the occupation of Iraq, as many of them use the word “micromanage” repeatedly, bringing to mind the bleating sheep in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”.

Now, DeLay has used two logical fallacies. First an “argument from ignorance,” followed by “moving the goalposts.” DeLay assumes Bahrain and Oman wouldn’t accept a U.S. redeployment, then when told the U.S. actually has bases there, he tries to correct his misstatement by talking about “this” redeployment, which has even taken place or been negotiated in any form.

In an example from today, U.S. News and World Report columnist Michael Barone writes this:

“In their assessment of what is going on in the world, they seem to start off with a default assumption that we are in the wrong. The “we” can take different forms: the United States government, the vast mass of middle-class Americans, white people, affluent people, churchgoing people or the advanced English-speaking countries. Such people are seen as privileged and selfish, greedy and bigoted, rash and violent. If something bad happens, the default assumption is that it’s their fault. They always blame America — or the parts of America they don’t like — first.”

Notice the firm use of the words “they” and “their” without actually naming anyone specific. This is a classic Straw man argument.

Finally, let’s look at Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year:

“I think I would never, ever, make a change in a United States Attorney position for political reasons or if it would in any way jeopardize an ongoing, serious investigation.”

Now, which logical fallacy is Gonzales committing? If you answered “none” you’d be correct. You see, Gonzales is just lying here. And lying is another large part of U.S. political discourse, though apparently lying has legal ramifications when done under oath, as Gonzales, the nation’s top lawyer, did.

So remember folks, brush up on your logical fallacies, and pay attention when statements are outright lies. First of all, the mainstream media won’t do it for you, and secondly because from the Bush Administration and its admirers like Barone and DeLay, logical fallacies and lies are about all they think U.S. citizens deserve.

–WKW

Duchess

Breed: Australian Shepherd
Age: 4 years, 6 months
Hobbies: Chasing the ball.
Desires: Having someone throw the ball, so she can chase it.
Thing she never wants to do again: Be in an airplane.

–WKW

In the greatest use of herbs and spices since Colonel Sanders, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh announced that he had discovered a cure for the more than 20,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers in his tiny African nation.

Jammeh said the cure was brought to him in a dream by his ancestors, and he’s trotted out “success” stories while booting those who question the cure’s merits out of the nation.

The rational scientific world was horrified, to say the least.

“For a country’s leader to come up with such an outlandish conclusion is not only irresponsible, but also very dangerous, and he should be reprimanded and stopped from proclaiming such nonsense,” Professor Jerry Coovadia of the University of Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa told CNN.

Such reprimands won’t be coming from the United States, however. For in a nation where a concerted effort has been made to blatantly pervert science to match the thinking of religious extremist and political need, receiving a miraculous cure for HIV/AIDS is something the top level of the government is likely kicking itself for not thinking of first.

Because just as the conservative movement has worked to expand racism, wealth inequality and xenophobia, it has also worked to decrease trust in science while encouraging belief in pseudoscience.

Do you think there was actual confusion in the mind of Presidential hopeful John McCain when asked flat out if condoms could reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. If McCain honestly couldn’t answer that - which he refused to, by the way - then he obviously is suffering from a learning disability of the type that requires his immediate expulsion from the U.S. Senate.

Because here is a question asked of McCain on the subject, and his answer:

Question: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

John McCain has shown himself in the past to have an IQ higher than one. His confusion stems from just one thing - he is unsure whether the truth will fly in the conservative movement. Because Jesus says don’t have sex. And that is law to the religious extremists, and with the 2008 U.S. Presidential election still some ways off, McCain has made it abundantly clear that the extremists will rule his beliefs.

Even more than McCain’s attempts to appease the extremists is the simple fact that we have an extremist leading the nation. Or perhaps, it is the extreme fact we have a simplist running the nation.

Take Dr. Eric Keroack, the George W. Bush-appointed chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Keroack oversees $283 million in annual family-planning grants that, according to HHS, are “designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons.”

Keroack teaches children to abstain, using Bugs Bunny, Popeye and Fred Flintstone to tell kids to hold on to their oxytocin.

Basically, Keroack’s insane ramblings come down to this: if you have pre-marital sex, or even masturbate, you are endangering every relationship you’ll ever have.

In no uncertain terms, Keroack is a delusional religious extremist that has been gladly given the keys to a bank vault full of money so that he can travel the nation and misinform - nay, brainwash - American children. In the name of the United States Federal government no less.

So while the Gambian president has drawn the World’s ire and disbelief, let there be no doubt that the extremists that rule the debate on all things moral in the United States are likely suffering from myopia and not able to understand what the fuss is about.

For as the rest of the World shouts in anger and disbelief at Jammekh’s insane dream cure, those at the top levels of U.S. government are likely wondering how they can package such a cheap and ineffective solution on those in the U.S. fighting the scourge of HIV/AIDS, while they advise those without the disease to just not have sex.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is running for President, so spread the word. In fact, if you go to his Web site, they do most the word-spreading work for you:

Have you been to Bill Richardson’s web site? He’s been a governor, U.N. Ambassador, Secretary of Energy, and Congressman … and he’s just getting started.

I think he’d make a great president.

Check out the web site:
http://www.richardsonforpresident.com

It’s pretty exciting stuff, let me tell you, but nowhere near as exciting as Richardson’s latest accomplishments in New Mexico.

First, he finally was the leader able to stand up to the powerful pro-cockfighting lobby, as he signed a measure to ban the demonic “sport” leaving Louisiana as the only state not to ban it. And we’ll guess they’ve had other issues on their plate down Louisiana way.

Not content with putting hundred of sick-minded chicken trainers out of work, Richardson decided to help out the state’s bolo tie industry, as he signed legislation to make the bolo the official neckwear of the state. The legislation also made the bizcochito the state cookie, the roadrunner the state bird, and “Red or Green?” the official state question of the bizarre, nearly totally uninhabited state.

Finally, Richardson was unable to stop lawmakers when they passed a bill specifying that “as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico’s excellent night skies, it be declared a planet,” with the bill noting that Clyde Tombaugh - a New Mexico native - discovered Pluto, currently known as a dwarf planet.

While Richardson can expect opposition from the ultra-powerful International Astronomical Union lobby, one imagines that - as he bleeds New Mexico mauve - he’ll sign that bill should it come to his desk later this week.

Most importantly, however is this: Richardson is preparing to sign a bill making New Mexico the 12th state to legalize medical marijuana, even though he knows it could hurt his Presidential ambitions.

“So what if it’s risky? It’s the right thing to do,” said Richardson. “What we’re talking about is 160 people in deep pain. It only affects them.”

Remember, folks, Bill Richardson. He’s just getting started. Tell a friend.

–WKW

I’ve been banging away at TravelGolf.com and WorldGolf.com for a while now, and have consistently produced three-to-five blogs a week. Which is no easy task, especially when you rarely get the chance to actually golf. Nonetheless, it’s a lot of fun.

So, for those of you unfamiliar with my work over there, here are some snippets from a few of my “greatest hits,” as it were:

“So, if you feel like rolling the dice on a potentially deal-breaking mortal sin, than the Shroud of Turin golf towel is for you. At very least, it should quickly become the single most studied artifact in the history of your golf bag.”

“Think about that. What are you guys shelling out for Michelle Wie? It’s millions, right? Seems like a pretty big gamble to me. And right now, she’s not bringing a ton of glory your way, either. If you wait to make a deal with my child in 18 years, even for one event, it will likely cost you billions and billions of dollars.”

“Much like Limbaugh’s three wives did, we here at the Golfer Supremacy Rankings believe everything the hyper-ethical Limbaugh says and were astounded by the idea that Fox would fake the effects of his nightmarish illness for political purposes. Even if he ceased taking his medications, that would be a huge scandal. You think Rush would stop taking his pills for political gain? We think not.”

“My point is this, as a nation, we have around 400,000 little Brayden Bozaks sitting around in unused embryonic form. Normally, we just flush ‘em all, in keeping with the “Cut off the nose to spite the face” doctrine. But the loss of this many little, itty-bitty humans is an American tragedy, people. So please, let’s take a look at Slide 1, and see if you can follow me.”

“What we’re going to do is teach these little buggers to golf.”

“But while women must trod this earth beardless, many of them do have an affinity for the bearded male. My wife being one, though her interest in facial hair borders on fetishistic. Which means I’m currently in the beginning stages of growing a beard for her, because, as she made clear: It’s not like it costs anything (Translation: “You WILL grow a beard.”)”

President Bill Clinton had his rigid club with its long, hard shaft armed and ready. Porn star Sophia Rossi was nearby, waiting for that 18-inch rocket to fill her sky with explosives. Then two sexy, armed men in sunglasses showed up.

“We cannot have you shooting rockets at President Clinton,” a Secret Service agent told the party of Rossi, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.”

–WKW

At the end of a slow news week, it’s obvious that news services will struggle to find stories to highlight.

Luckily, Fox News has no such worry. The lead story:

School Bus Terror Alert

‘Extremists could be driving your kids to school’

The first two paragraphs of the AP story detail the threat your children are under:

Members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said “parents and children have nothing to fear.”

Asked about the alert notice, the FBI’s Rich Kolko said “there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern,” although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids’ safety.

Fox News managed to fill out it’s front page with two other vital stories:

Slow news days. They are a bitch, aren’t they?

Ignore the man behind the curtain, just be afraid. And to imagine, some people think Fox News is a GOP mouthpiece.

–WKW

I’m no anthropologist, but once the rich start painting their cats, it’s likely a sign of an impending apocalypse.

The cats are painted with non-toxic paint, that lasts up to three months. Apparently it’s all the rage in high society. From the BBC:

Update: Have I been spoofed? It appears so. Of course, so was the BBC. Decide for yourself. Nonetheless, enjoy the images, and I stand by point that a lot of rich people would paint their pets if they could. So there.

H/T Fritz

–WKW

My wife, after exercising in a swimming pool:

“That was hard. Maybe it’s because the pool is so big, it makes it harder to get through the water,” says she.

“It must be really hard to move at all in the ocean,” says I.

–WKW

When General Peter Pace came out of the closet and shyly admitted that, yes, in fact he does think homosexuals are immoral, a good number of blogs came forward asking for his resignation. While your opinion may vary, a couple responses from conservatives showed off just how fractured the GOP has become.

Is the conservative position that Pace is a good Christian and a vast homospiracy is out to destroy him:

Cliff Kincaid: Media Homosexuals Target General Peter Pace

Is it any surprise that the media have made the Pace comments on homosexuality into a national controversy, even scandal? The national media and the homosexual rights movement seem to be one and the same. But that’s a story that news consumers aren’t being told.

Leading the charge, the Post found Pace guilty of making “public expressions of intolerance.” The subheadline of the editorial was, “Gen. Peter Pace denounces gays and lesbians who are busy defending their country.” But he said nothing of the kind, and the paper knows it. The deceitful editorial is another attempt to intimidate people into not expressing opinions that contradict the politically correct views of the radical left.

Or is the conservative opinion that Pace just insulted troops, should keep his opinions to himself and quit:

Intellectual Conservative: Peter Pace Should Resign as Chair of the Joint Chief of Staffs Over Anti-Gay Remarks

I believe U.S. Joint Chief of Staffs Peter Pace should resign his chairmanship over comments he made to the Chicago Tribune concerning homosexuals and then refusing to apologize for them. He declared homosexuality immoral and likened it to adultery (as if they were mutually exclusive). Although he did express support for the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy established by Bill Clinton in 1994 he said, “I do not believe the U.S. is well served by a policy that says it is O.K. to be immoral in any way.” I believe Pace should resign because he is demeaning our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere who happen to be gay or lesbian and are doing nothing more than their duty. Unless Pace can specifically demonstrate an instance where the U.S. has not been well served by the policy or that it has somehow compromised national security he ought to have simply said he supported the policy and left it at that. His job is to advise the President and the Secretary of Defense, not to state his opinion on public policy. Since he will not apologize for this transgression, he ought to do the honorable thing and resign.

It’s truly a mystery what a good, honest conservative really believes these days. At very least, they can all rally around the one truly shared platform of the conservative movement - that black people are inferior.

–WKW

(Note: I’d long meant to tackle John Dean’s recounting of Watergate, “Blind Ambition” and have recently started reading it. I will be giving short recaps of the book over the following weeks.)

Blind Ambition

Chapter Three: The Tickler

Synopsis: Nixon, feeling vulnerable in his re-election bid, decides the best thing to do is to find out information on DNC chairman Lawrence O’Brien, and his relationship with Howard Hughes. It’s immediately clear that Nixon means that information should be found by any means necessary. The job goes to Dean at first, but he’s a big ethical pussy about it. Jack Caulfield comes up with “Operation Sandwedge” but everyone thinks he’s an idiot, so G. Gordon Liddy is given the reins as the “dirty tricks” go-to guy.

Liddy is terrifying even to the criminals running the White House, as his plans to sabotage the Democratic Party consists of wholesale spying, and the use of high-paid prostitutes, as he looks to make the White House a bunch of pimps, literally. Everyone thinks Liddy is psycho, but they love having him and eventually, with some modifications, they encourage his plans. Now, where to find a million bucks?

A Tickler: The name of the chapter is derived from Bob Haldeman’s minions, who would harangue White House staff to get assignments done, earning the name “Ticklers” from Dean. “Even Mitchell and Kissinger were subject to it,” writes Dean.

Money quote 1: “Well, in my business, John, it’s important that those I work with understand I’m a man of strength. Macho, as they say. So to prove myself to them I held my hand over a candle until the flesh burned, which I did without flinching, I wanted them to know I could stand any amount of physical pain.” — Liddy to Dean, explaining why his hand was injured.

Money quote 2: “I had stopped short of a hazy line that kept me off the first team, where men like Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Kissinger, Colson, and even Bud Krogh, trampled the rules, believing that their power kept them from danger.” - Dean, who will soon cross that line himself.

Fun Fact: O’Brien was NBA commissioner from 1975 to 1984, and the trophy for the NBA Champion is called the “Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy.”

Previous:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2

–WKW