Tag Archives: iron man

Days of Reason

Posted on 5/5/2013 by John Casey

Two items today. First item, the Mayor of Charlotte, NC, and current Transportation Secretary Nominee, Anthony Foxx declared last Thursday, May 2, a Day of Reason and a Day of Prayer. Now comes the Fox News Crazy, Penny Nance, CEO … Continue reading →

Posted in General discussion | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Don’t try this at home

Posted on 3/26/2013 by John Casey

Hunter, writing at the The Daily Kos makes a salient point about iron manning.  Speaking of Ralph Reed, invited just this Sunday to NBC’s Meet the Press to comment on the subject of gay marriage (he commented on the science!), he … Continue reading →

Posted in General discussion | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Iron Palin

Posted on 3/17/2013 by Scott Aikin

Kyle Peterson at The American Spectator reviews Sarah Palin’s speech at CPAC.  It’s classic euphemism meets iron man (See one of John’s posts on iron manning HERE): Sarah Palin hit all the laugh lines in her speech at the Conservative … Continue reading →

Posted in Iron man | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Conditionalization

Posted on 8/20/2012 by John Casey

Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber has some interesting musings on conditional arguments.  Critical point: Strawser claims that IF drones reduce civilian casualties compared to other means THEN the use of drones is justified (I’m simplifying). Philosophers will typically then say … Continue reading →

Posted in General discussion, Iron man | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Follow up

Posted on 5/8/2012 by John Casey

Last week I commented on the ironically sad critical skills of Naomi Schaeffer Riley, nunc quondam blogger for the Chronicle of Higher Education.  "Quondam" because they canned her.  One should never, or rarely, take pleasure in someone's loss of a job, … Continue reading →

Posted in General discussion | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Iron manning, again

Posted on 4/9/2012 by John Casey

The iron man works like the straw man.  You take an argument (or an arguer), distort his argument, pick an urepresentative feature of his argument, or you invent an argument the person does not make all in order to make the argument the person makes … Continue reading →

Posted in Iron man | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Fish tales

Posted on 3/28/2012 by John Casey

**Updates for clarity thanks to Brandon Stanley Fish is still not worth reading.  He's the guy at the party who iron-mans the holocaust denier by straw manning the holocaust historian.  On another matter–his fondness for false equivalence–he writes: Dawkins and … Continue reading →

Posted in General discussion | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Ein Volk

Posted on 2/26/2012 by John Casey

Seems obvious that racism is not just hatred of another race.  Someone tell Juan Williams and Pat Buchanan.  Note the following puzzling exchange on Fox News (via the Huffington Post): Williams added, "In your case, the charge is one that … Continue reading →

Posted in Pat Buchanan | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Shooting fish in a barrell

Posted on 2/9/2012 by John Casey

David Frum is the new moderate Republican, but he's still a Republican.  I think he's an inveterate straw manner.  That's annoying.  Here's a recent example: In December, Obama traveled to the Kansas town of Osawatomie to deliver one of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Iron man, Straw Man | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Too timid to object

Posted on 2/7/2012 by John Casey

Click here for a nice piece on the problem of iron-manning and the spread of ignorance.  Here is a taste:  Self-deprecating, too liberal for their own good, today's progressives stand back and watch, hands over their mouths, as the social … Continue reading →

Posted in General discussion, Iron man | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments