November 16, 2014
Robert Steinbach
The Sun Sentinel

Mr. Steinbach,
I am facing a dilemma.
The Great Reagan used to say that it was not so much that Liberals were stupid as it is it that there’s so much that they don’t know.

The obverse is that when I finished one of my Socratic tutorials Amy, my wife of late and happy memory, would say “That’s why people never ask us back”.

#1 – Wikipedia is a jumping off point. It is not a place of critical thinking. It is, however, a place where it can begin. The Congressional Record has similar status. When C-Span shows a member of Congress seeking approval to revise and extend his remarks he is saying that to get a true account of the what he said you ‘ll have to go to the video tape. I mean who knows what all those great Democratic Senators said during the debates in the ‘60s over the voting law?

#2 – If, as you say, I engage in argumentum ad hominen I can answer – shades of tu quoque – that Occupy Wall Street is a classic, straight from central casting, example of argumentum ad invidiam. If History is a guide, the coming – How to say this gracefully? – “unpleasantness” in Ferguson will be argumentum ad captandum to the nth degree. I like to use argumentum ad absurdum to make a point for the simple reason that a pie in the face tends to make a point – you guessed it – absurdly. The point, having been made that way, tends to stay made. Think of Swift’s recipe for boiling Irish babies.

#3 – Logical fallacies are eternal. They are immortal. They are the only thing that will outlive a Congressional committee. E.G. – I heard President Clinton give a press conference in the Rose Garden in August, 1998. I have been to DC in August. There are 2 types of weather there. A – Friggin’ hot and – B - unbelievably friggin’ hot. He then proceeded to tell us that it was hot because of Global Warming. He then told us that swelteringly hot August days give us, honest Injun, Global Warming. What leaps to mind – think of the Jetsons wearing 7 League boots – is what would modern American Liberals do without tautologies? Correlation is not causation. When feelings are conflated into ideas and then into public policy we are on a short route to chaos. I suggest res ipso loquitur would be an acceptable argumentum ad rem for a criticism of public poverty policies, particularly those of the last 50 years.

I look forward to Senator PrincessSummerFallWinterWarrren [D-MA] telling me that POST HOC ERGO PROPTER HOC has replaced “Happy Days Are here Again” as the official theme song of the Democratic Party. I mean, after all, how can anyone be “Happy” when the Koch Brothers are out and about despoiling the common weal?
Is it possible that the horizon can’t be reached because “stones are hard and water is wet”?

Modern American Liberals regularly and routinely dismiss empirical evidence, evidence that is as real as your boot, because it runs contra to their angelic expectations. Just because something doesn’t work doesn’t mean that it won’t work if enough well intentioned people work really, really hard to make it work. In the 1970s I was an expert witness on Federal Housing Authority financing. Can you find someone, anyone, anywhere who would voluntarily move into Section 8 housing? Send up a big flare when you do.

Godot will be arrested twice for loitering and for failure to give a good account of himself before the Summer of Recovery gets here. I guess you haven’t noticed.



KS


PS – You may want to brush up on a priori/a posteriori. Also, if the world is flat will the King’s command make it round? If it is indeed round can he make it flat? I am sure you heard of the unemployed teacher who, when asked his opinion on the subject, said he wasn’t sure, what with the science not being “settled”, but that he was prepared to teach either or both ways, depending on the syllabus.

“And having turned to the Government for bread, on the very first
sign of scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that feeds them.”