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Subject: 
Re: Finally--a use of public funding that I can really get behind!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Tue, 19 Aug 2003 18:21:52 GMT
Viewed: 
436 times
  
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Carl Nelson wrote:

  
   “This intolerance of ambiguity can lead people to cling to the familiar, to arrive at premature conclusions, and to impose simplistic cliches and stereotypes,”

Tolerance of ambiguity can also lead to wishiwashiness, indecisiveness, and debating what the meaning of the word “is” is.

For the last time, can we lay this red herring to rest? The issue is not “what does ‘is’ mean in casual parlance?” but rather “what is the implication of ‘is’ according to the accepted and rigid strictures of legal discourse as established in the relevant proceedings and in those preceedings from which precedent may be drawn?” They are two very different issues, and not nearly as simplistic as they are caricatured to be.

   It also sounds like claptrap, a specious attempt to equate Bush to one of the most evil humans ever alive, which is the agenda of the “professors” making the study.

Demonstrate this, please! Instead of arguing your point, you are repeating it, and you are thereby simply assuming your conclusion. Since the article did not mention the researchers’ agenda, you are only able to infer it, based on your interpretation of their listed conclusions. You are, in effect, forming your hypothesis (ie, that the researchers have an anti-Bush bias) and bending your data to fit that hypothesis (ie, you assume the existence of data that demonstrates the researchers’ bias).

   Out of curiosity, how is Bush both a moron and capable of complex nefarious plots to benefit Enron and undertake a massive campaign of deception to the world community, Congress, and the American people? Make up your mind.

False dilemma. In this example, Bush is considered a simpleton figurehead at the crest of a coordinated and well-organized effort to achieve certain ends, namely pro-oil, pro-industry, and pro-Right. It is entirely possible both that Bush is a moron and that Bush’s administration is capable of complex, nefarious plots. Further, I would submit that both have been ably demonstrated to date.

   That’s my biggest problem with liberalism, right there in a nutshell. Liberals are so much smarter than the average person, they know what’s best. Arrogance, arrogance, arrogance.


Strawman, strawman, strawman. Here’s a quote for you to consider, before you condemn liberals for their education: “As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing” Karl Rove, a senior advisor for George W. Bush, “The Daily Texan”, March 19, 2001

   “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” -- C. S. Lewis

That’s a fine summation of the Dubya administration in general and the Ridge/Ashcroft machine in particular. What’s your point?

   No one expects to change the world by posting to lugnet.off-topic.debate. But having Bush at the helm sure beats being in an office building when homicidal maniacs fly airplanes into it, being a woman in Iraq who is raped because one of Hussein’s evil brats think she’s pretty, or being a Kurd who is gassed simply for existing.

That is witnessing, not debate. If I strapped you to a box-spring and tortured you to death over a period of 96 hours, I’d argue that it would likewise be better than crashing a plane into an office building. Do you therefore advocate the Schuler-96-hour Torture Alternative as a proper course of action? If not, then please explain the relevance of your examples above.

Dave!



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Finally--a use of public funding that I can really get behind!
 
(...) See my other reply to you. (...) Thanks for clearing that up. I really appreciate it. (...) I'm condemning them for their arrogance, not their education! It takes an arrogant person to say that we all must have toilets that flush no more than (...) (21 years ago, 19-Aug-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Finally--a use of public funding that I can really get behind!
 
(...) Never meant to imply that it excluded anyone else. I tend to lean towards libertarianism, and there go I but for a couple of reservations. First, I can't stomach the de-criminalize all drugs argument. Some drugs are too bad (harmful to health) (...) (21 years ago, 19-Aug-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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