Attention Mainstream Media

The verdict is in. The trial is over. IT DOESN'T F---ING MATTER ANYMORE! Instead of covering unimportant bullshit like that (or the latest WWWA* story), why not devoting more time to this?

Or this?

Or maybe this?

Or perhaps even this?

*WWWA=Where the White Women At?

Robert

Fallacies

This past weekend, partially as a reward for my making Dean's List (woot woot), and partially because they know I have an interest in such things, my parents got me a book called Ideas of the Great Philosophers by William S. and Mabel Lewis Sahakian. (By the way, thank you Dad and Katherine.)It's an introduction to philosophy, and since I know diddly-squat about philosophy, it's a good one for me to start with. It talks about truth, and humankind's search for it.

The first part also deals with logical fallacies, a subject which all inquiring minds should at least glance at. Our government likes to use many of the fallacies mentioned when making their arguments to do whatever the hell it is they want to screw us with next. Argumentum ad hominem, or appeal to personal ridicule, is a favorite of theirs, though to be fair, all politicians use that one. In another blog I read today (sorry, don't remember which), I noticed a mention of an NY Times article which employed a fallacy of equivocation, which assumes that a word with multiple meanings only has one meaning. There are many, many more, a good number of which are mentioned in this article in Wikipedia.

Robert

Almost forgot

Today is the 61st anniversary of the Allied forces' invasion of Normandy during World War II. Here is the Wikipedia entry on the invasion. Not comprehensive by any means, but definitely a good starter.

Robert

Not all North Texans are crazy

Just a large majority of us, apparently. Governor Rick "Goodhair" Perry came to my very own Funkytown (Fort Worth, for the uninitiated) to sign a bill requiring parental consent for a minor to get an abortion and a new hate resolution (registration required), which I mentioned in my previous post. The abortion bill will become law, but the anti-gay resolution was just a symbolic "fuck you", as his signing the resolution has no legal effect whatsoever. It goes to the voters this November as a state constitutional referendum vote.

Perry signed the bill in a Christian private school, Calvary Christian Academy, in front of a crowd of over 1000 haters...I mean, people. Several conservative religious leaders spoke to the crowd as part of the ceremonies. In a minor surprise, at least to me, about 300 protesters picketed the signing, protesting both the legislation and the location of the signing. Unfortunately, I was not among them. Being carless is no good for things like that. However, I like to think that I was there in spirit.

In any case, the proposed amendment is an issue that progressive and moderate Texans must make their voices heard on. We must work to defeat the resolution. It will be insanely difficult; too many Texans are blind to the issue, thanks to many years of progressive Christians being shouted down by the loonies. However, if we can turn out in (relatively) large numbers, we can make a symbolic gesture. And besides, stranger things have happened than Texas actually turning down POS constitutional amendments. Maybe this time we can pull off the impossible. It would be nice to be the only state to kill one of these proposed amendments in the last two years. Not likely, I know, but we absolutely have to work toward that.

Robert