July 28, 2013
OK, so I was casting about, desperately looking for something to blog about this weekend. (Not that I don’t have good ideas, just not enough time to develop them.) On a whim, I decided to grab my copy of Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics — an excellent book… that I have yet to read — and […]
Tags: Basic Economics, business ethics, corruption in business and government, function of morality in economic system, honesty and reliability in business, John Stossel, law & order in government function, negative effects of unnecessary regulation and bureaucracy, personal and professional integrity, taking bribes, Thomas Sowell
Posted in Politics |
July 22, 2013
Part 4: Three Ways to Argue Meanwhile, at the clinic… Client (Michael Palin): “Aha! If you’re arguing, I must have paid.” Mr. Barnard (John Cleese): “Not necessarily. I could be arguing in my spare time….” OK, if you aren’t a Monty Python fan (and I am only marginally) and you don’t understand the above quote, […]
Tags: abduction, abductive reasoning, affirming the antecedent, cogent argument, critical thinking, deduction, deductive reasoning, denying the consequent, denying the disjunct, disjunctive syllogism, explanatory power and scope, good arguments, good logic, how to argue better, how to think better, induction, inductive reasoning, inference to the best explanation, informal logic, logical argumentation, logical syllogism, logical thinking, logically sound, logically valid, making an argument, modus ponens, modus tollens, poor logic, premises and conclusions, probability vs certainty, rational thought, reasoning skills, sound reasoning, strong vs weak argument, valid argument
Posted in Politics, Politics / Science / Religion, Religion, Science |
July 14, 2013
Part 3: Logical Suicide and Staying on TRACK “Without good support, not only is it a ‘bad argument’, it’s merely opinion.” — me Welcome back! (Or, just “Welcome!”, if this is the first part you read in this series.) So far, we’ve been learning some fundamental ideas in what is known as “informal logic”. We […]
Tags: critical thinking, good arguments, good logic, how to argue better, how to think better, informal logic, logical argumentation, logical suicide, logical thinking, logically sound, logically valid, making an argument, poor logic, rational thought, reasoning skills, self-referentially absurd statements, self-refuting arguments, sound reasoning, T. Edward Damer's book Attacking Faulty Reasoning, TRACK, valid argument
Posted in Politics, Politics / Science / Religion, Religion, Science |
July 7, 2013
OK, time to resume the discussion. As explained in Part 1, I left a comment in my Facebook status, saying that I approved of the RNC’s reaffirming its support for traditional marriage and against same-sex “marriage”. A libertarian friend then challenged the wisdom of this stance by Republicans, the audacity of evangelical Christians for speaking […]
Tags: America founded on Judeo-Christian principles, America is a Christian nation, anti-gay bigotry, benefits of marriage, Christians in the public square, defining religion and spirituality, evangelicals in politics, family structure, Founding Fathers, founding principles, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, gay marriage, institution of marriage, Islamic fundamentalism, libertarian stance on SSM, one-man-one-woman, power-hungry jerks, problem of divorce, redefining marriage, religious arguments, religious dogma, religious leaders on power trips, Republicans, RNC stance on SSM, same-sex marriage, secular arguments, sharia law, SSM, threat of theocracy?, tolerance, traditional marriage, traditional marriage is a building block of civilization, why gays want state-sanctioned marriage
Posted in Politics, Politics & Religion, Religion |
July 3, 2013
The following Independence Day speech was made by President George W. Bush a decade ago at the United States Air Force Museum, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio, where he honored U.S troops and commemorated the 100th anniversary of flight. I considered editing it down a little, maybe taking out some of the introductory […]
Tags: 4th of July, America fights for freedom, American Independence, American Revolution, Becky Lundy, Bush at Wright-Patterson, Bush honors the military, fight against tyranny, founding generation, Fourth of July, G.W. Bush in Dayton, George W. Bush speech, Independence Day, July 4th, Master Gunnery Sergeant Guadalupe Denogean, ongoing fight for freedom, President George W. Bush, Revolutionary War, taking the fight to the enemy, War of Independence
Posted in Politics |