Saturday, October 31, 2015

Saturday morning on Sunday afternoon.

Three

On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon said, after watching Thursday evening’s Republican debate, that she could totally imagine President Marco Rubio behind a microphone lying to the American people. I agree. But after the Benghazi hearings, I imagined the same thing about Hillary Clinton. All the praise of her performance, keeping calm through eleven hours of Gowdy grilling: I'm not saying that only what my mother used to call ”a natural born liar could do that, but . . .

Sessions (R-Al.)
Definition of a fiscal conservative: Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who is on record as saying that it is unacceptable that every dollar of increased defense spending should be matched with a dollar of increased non-defense spending.” After all, the people’s congress has to be about wiping out the rest of the world, for God’s sake! not poverty at home.

According to the Washington Post online, “the 100 largest chief executive retirement” accounts “are worth $4.9 billion . . . . On average, these CEOs have enough assets salted away to each generate a monthly retirement check of over $277,000.” (What does that look like?) This is more than $165,000 more than the typical worker between the ages of 55 and 64 has in retirement savings.


en garde!


Thursday, October 29, 2015

Nailed it!

I’ve been hearing and reading all morning how “Marco Rubio nailed it,” especially in his response to Jeb Bush, when Bush suggested if he weren’t going to do a United States Senator’s work, he resign. Rubio made two arguments:

(1) The only reason Bush was making the argument now was because he and Rubio were “running for the same position, and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.”

(2) And did he (Bush) know how many votes his campaign’s model, John McCain, missed when he was running for the nomination?

Nailed it!
     NOT. At least no one that took and passed Philo 101* could say so. Pay attention again, students of logic: both arguments are fallacies, ad hominem and, let’s call it, innocence by association. “You’re only saying this because . . .” doesn’t make what “you” says wrong any more than “Well, John did it” makes what “I” is doing right.
     (Nailed it.)

_______________
* apparently not required of journalism students

Friday, October 16, 2015

C is for climate change.

C
climate change 'CHärl-stən 'fləd-əd
     terminus politicus footballensis
     1. the Apocalypse
     2. a hoax

(formally global warming)