Warm Day

Relatively, at least. Today hit a high of 67, which is pretty decent for the end of November. Although it isn't from today, here's a weekend pic of Micah enjoying some sunshine.


Not a bad shot considering it came from my cellphone.

Occasional Logic - Ad Hominem

I'm going to be posting tidbits of logic now and then under the title of Occasional Logic. I was going to call it Daily Logic, but then I'd have to commit to doing it every day, which I don't know if I'll be able to do. Plus, I'd probably run out of logic if I did it every day. (Pun intended.)

I'll be focusing on the common fallacies, at least for now. I'll be getting most of my info from wikipedia and adding some things here and there. Here's today's bit:

Ad Hominem

An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally "argument to the man") or attacking the messenger, is a logical fallacy that involves replying to an argument or assertion by attacking the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself.

A (fallacious) ad hominem argument has the basic form:

A makes claim B;
there is something objectionable about A,
therefore claim B is false.


Here's my own example:

Joe: "...and therefore I believe the tires on your car are faulty."
Bill: "Well of course you'd think that, you work for a different tire company!"
Joe: "What does that matter? What about the reasons I gave you?"
Bill: "Your reasons don't count, you work for the competitor so you have to say my tires are faulty."

The fact that Joe works for another tire company shouldn't really come into play. If his arguments are sound then they should be able to stand on their own. In this case, Bill is automatically disregarding any possible argument made by Joe simply because of his employment. Argumentum Ad Hominem.

Feeling Safer Yet?

I think I'm going to start driving whenever I travel:

Nearly all of the cargo in the nation's aviation system goes unchecked for explosives, and policies aimed at thwarting cargo bombs on passenger planes are flawed, according to a government report due out Wednesday.

Terrorists could foil the government's strategy for keeping bombs out of cargo holds by meeting a few basic requirements that would allow them to put an explosives-laden package on a jet, the Government Accountability Office said.

I can understand how many people think going to Iraq was a good idea. I don't agree -- but I can understand their point of view. What I can't understand how anyone can feel that it makes us safer in contrast to focusing on issues like the above.

Hypothetically, say we found piles and piles of WMDs in Iraq and the whole world was overjoyed with our insistence of going there (which, by the way, I think we're all aware didn't happen. What do you do first? Prod the very enemy that you feel threatened by -- or put up a proper defense against their most threatened activities?

I always hear the weak argument "well you're never going to be able to totally protect yourself from terrorists, so you need to go after them". To me, that gets nullified by the opposite weak argument "well you're never going to be able to go out and catch all the terrorists, so you need to protect yourself at home".

Chicken or the egg. And all the while everyone else gets turned into an omelet.

Umm... We'll get back to you on that one...

Via statements made earlier this month in Panama, the prez made it very clear: "We Do Not Torture". I guess he didn't get the memo:

The US Senate voted 90-9 early last month to attach an amendment authored by Republican Senator John McCain to a defense spending bill that would prohibit "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of detainees in US custody. But the White House has threatened to veto the measure and has lobbied senators to have the language removed or modified to allow an exemption for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Not only is torture inhumane, but it generally doesn't work. Ask McCain himself, he knows firsthand.

Why do they have to attach things like this to other bills? Can't they vote separately for a spending bill and a no-torture bill? It should be "one issue, one vote".

SleepyCatBlogging

Micah is sleepy while I build the new blog. (It's pronounced "Mee'-kah" -- I'm aware that it isn't exactly phonetically correct, but what can you do.)

Succumbing to Temptation

Never liked the word blog. It was just too lame from the get-go. Geeky too. (But I'm pretty much self-professed in that department.) Nevertheless, I can't stop reading them so I figured I'd try my hand at my own. I really just want to get in on all the fantastic catblogging that goes on out there. I'll be sharing my views as well as portions of my life (mostly those that involve the cat).

Enjoy!

(Jeez. The spell checker for this thing doesn't recognize the word "blog".)