Shorter Charles Krauthammer: only liberals are bigotted enough to use ad hominem arguments. Todays' piece is a gold mine of fallacious reasoning. One hardly knows where to begin (or where to end). Now hold on objector, I'm going to prove that charge, just give me a minute. The article begins by, on a very charitable interpretation, weak-manning the "liberal" position: — … Continue reading He’s a decent family man and citizen*
Here is an entertaining item from a Washington Post Editorial: THERE IS, it seems evident, more than enough blame to go around in the botched handling of the botched Christmas bombing. Not for some Republicans. With former vice president Richard B. Cheney in the lead, they have embarked on an ugly course to use the … Continue reading Straw Obama
I began writing this thinking that I was going to accuse Krauthammer of suppressing evidence when he argues for drilling in ANWR and lifting the moratorium on outer continental shelf drilling since at first glance he seems to completely ignore the environmental argument based on global warming. His argument runs like this: Reducing dependence on … Continue reading Krauthammer and Krugman
From Eric Alterman at the Nation: A week before his 2009 inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama chose as his first high-profile social engagement a dinner party at George Will’s house, where he was joined by William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and David Brooks. Obama no doubt intended to demonstrate his desire to reach across the ideological divide and … Continue reading Play their game
Arguments from authority are typically third-person arguments: X says that p, so p is probably true. Â Saying, I say that p, I have qualifications q, so listen up, is less common. Â When you make an argument as an authority, you still cite reasons, they’re just reasons lay people don’t get. Now comes Charles Krauthammer, quondam … Continue reading The argument from ceded authority
Check out Charles Krauthammer’s downplaying analogy over at the NRO for Obama’s ‘Red Line’ ultimatum with Syria using chemical weapons and what the Right thinks is dithering (or “fudging and fumbling”) in the face of the worry they’ve used them. The headline: Pink Line over Damascus Get it? Not red, but pink. You see what … Continue reading Pretty in pink
The election is finally over, save the crying. Speaking of which, please join me for a little bit of schadenfreude at the expense of Charles Krauthammer, Fox News contributor and columnist. A little context, the other night, as the internet went all abuzz with an imminent Obama victory, many turned to Fox News to watch the slow motion … Continue reading Schadenfreude
Time to pay your federal taxes, so it's time for people to complain about how much we're taxed, or, alternatively, how little some people are taxed relative to their income, etc. Now comes Gregg Easterbrook, whose work I do not know (and now I know why, if this is a measure of his intellect). It … Continue reading Tax quoque
Sometime soon we'll have a post up about the "Hack Thirty" at Salon.com. We were surprised that some made the list (B-list hacks) and that some didn't (Charles Krauthammer? Seriously). For that reason we wondered about the methodology and the meaning, in the end, of the term "hack." One person who didn't make the list … Continue reading The Thirty
If there is a logic to the arguments of politicians, I don’t know what it is. A vote for a politician involves a complex web of commitments whose primary objective is action, not belief. So when politicians violate the rules of argumentative propriety, it’s hard to complain too much. You know their ads are going to … Continue reading I don’t usually practice psychiatry in my blog