Feel better?

Ok, I’m going to have to ask some of you to be honest with yourselves for just a second…wasn’t this really a completely partisan reaction? I mean, I understand not wanting your kids to be indoctrinated by socialists. Seriously, I do.

I just don’t get why you think that isn’t happening in public school every day. The ironic thing to me is that President Obama’s speech was all about personal responsibility, yet his policies are not. But if you are about personal responsibility, why does it hurt for your kids to hear about it from The President, whether he walks the walk or not?

“But it was about the lesson plan, not the speech.”

Really? How much do you know about the lesson plans that are being implemented on a daily basis? Do you approve of all of them? Are you sure they are even being implemented?

Sorry, but from where I sit that’s just grasping at straws.

What a lot of people on the right don’t realize is what actually happened–you guys got distracted by something almost completely benign. You became so worried about what may be said in a 10 minute speech that you forgot to keep your eye on the real issue–possible passage of legislation that will all but enslave your children and grandchildren in the name of “free” health care.

That’s the real shame. You were gaining ground in your fight against a dangerous dragon, but stopped for a whole week to put on a blindfold and chase a mosquito.

Please pick your battles more wisely in the future.

Besides that, this kind of stuff makes you guys look an awful lot like Democrats. Not good.

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Whether you’ve read his speech from Atlas Shrugged or not, it’s worth reading the whole thing (again).

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

…

Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other–and your time is running out.

That last line sounds like it came out of a rap song. I’d love to hear Eminem rap the whole speech.

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And his better half, cathymccaughan says,

What good does it do to close the high school when the teens will be at the mall or movies every day?

Just curious…do they close schools when someone gets the regular flu? It appears to be just as dangerous. What about food poisoning (it could have happened at school)? Or a stomach virus? Or pink eye? Or lice?

Considering all the bad things your kids can pick up from other students while in school–and I’m not talking about illnesses–swine flu shouldn’t worry anyone too much. Then again, maybe it’s better for the kiddies to take a week off from that kind of learning.

UPDATE: Here’s a story on WBIR about a West Valley Middle Schol student who has recovered from a probable case of swine flu. I haven’t seen any updates yet as to whether it’s related to the Bearden High School news.

UPDATE II: djuggler confirms in the comments that it’s the West Valley Middle case, not Bearden High School

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You laugh, but I’d actually like to encourage Congress to spend more time doing stuff like this and less time, you know,  legislating. We can limit their damage by relegating them to doing school cheers, quoting stats, and generally flexing their public speaking muscles about sporting events.

For her efforts to filabuster any spending or attacks on liberty in Congress for almost four whole minutes, I want to gratulate Corrine Brown on sportmanship and one of the best defense plays that I’ve seen in Congress.

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But it’s important to remember that rhetoric and logic, while related, are not the same thing. For example, let’s look at this tweet my buddy Alex wrote the other day:

A former professor once told me, “studies show those who demand less government score lowest on their understanding of how it’s designed.”

That’s a powerful statement, and is even more powerful given the fact that Alex was able to clearly express it in less than 140 characters. But it makes a rhetorical implication, not a logical implication. It’s pretty obvious to me that the intended implication here is that people who favor small government don’t know what they are talking about. But if we break this statement down logically, it’s pretty weak.

Some background first–there are four possibilities in a simple logical implication, which is represented by this table.

Possibility 1: Given the correct information, you come to the proper conclusion. This is an acceptable result (indicated by T). Makes sense right?

Possibility 2: Given the correct information, you come to the wrong conclusion. This is not an acceptable result (indicated by F). This means that the information was processed incorrectly–faulty logic.

Possibility 3: Given false information, you still come up with the correct answer. This is an acceptable result. Imagine blindly guessing on a multiple choice quiz–you still get credit if you fill in the correct bubble, right?

Possibility 4: Given false information, you come up with the wrong answer. This is an acceptable result. It is reasonable to expect you’d get the answer wrong if your information is suspect.

Now, let’s assume Alex’s statement is true. Let’s assume people who favor small government really do score lowest. That would mean they are basing their decision on false or faulty information. Although the rhetoric presented would lead us to believe they can’t possibly be correct in favoring small government because they are ignorant (Possibility 4) , a quick glance at our truth table shows us that it is still possible for them to arrive at the correct conclusion (Possibility 3).

Think of it this way–let’s say you fall off a ladder and break your arm. Your ignorance of the gravitational constant, the tensile strength of your bones, or even basic anatomy doesn’t change the fact that your arm is broken. Even if you are given a completely false explanation that you believe to be true as to how your arm was broken, it’s still broken.

In other words, you can be completely ignorant, yet still be perfectly capable of stating the truth.

Of course, it’s a huge leap to assume Alex’s statement is true to begin with. It brings up all types of questions:

1. What studies, what professor, what test, and who was tested?
2. What is this professor’s area of expertise?
3. When was the study conducted? Where? By whom?
4. Who funded the study?
5. Is there a similar study on those who favor big government?
6. Have you seen this study yourself? Does it even exist?

Although I disagree with his statement, It’s not my intention to pile on Alex here, but to point out how rhetoric is used by every side of an argument to make a point.

Videos are especially effective in using rhetoric to make points. A really popular method is to show clips of complete ignoramuses and make the implication that these fools represent the entirety of the group they are associated with. I see people post them, and I’ve posted them as well. Take a look at these two videos which represent “both” sides, and keep in mind the purpose of the person who produced them. After watching each one, ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do I have true, unbiased information about this group of people?
2. If I can’t say that my information is completely true, how much trust do I put in my conclusion?
3. Does this video reinforce what I already believe to be true/false? Is that why I like/dislike it?

My point–there’s nothing wrong with writing, posting, plagiarizing, enjoying, spreading, dispersing, selling, buying, manufacturing and encouraging rhetoric. Just recognize it for what it is.

And if you don’t have the ability to recognize the difference, you are an ignoramus.

Q.E.D.

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It seems to me it would be awfully tough to indoctrinate adults who have made a decision on their own to attend a course, especially when, according to the original post, most of these adults seem to share a common viewpoint going in.

Now, indoctrination of children who are more or less forced to a attend a course–that I could imagine. But that would never happen in a public school, right?

I’ll continue to wait patiently for someone in the media other than John Stossel to address that one. I guess to most in the media that isn’t nearly as important as what consenting adults do in a free society while harming absolutely no one.

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Now all you have to do is prove that you have an ample level of moral fiscal depravity and the guy on the float will reach into his endless supply of plastic and satisfy your every desire. The problem is, someone else’s moral depravity is at least fun to watch. Their fiscal depravity takes food out of your mouth and threatens your future.

Let me break this down…tell me which of these statements are wrong.

* We cannot continue to throw good money after bad. It’s just stupid.

* We cannot continue to strap future generations with debt. It’s just immoral.

* We cannot continue to reward people who make bad decisions and act irresponsibly by punishing people who make good decisions and act responsibly. Immoral and stupid.

* We cannot (individually or collectively) borrow our way into a strong long-term financial position. Stupid.

* We cannot (individually or collectively) spend our way into a strong long-term financial position. Stupid.

* Propping up companies that someone has deemed “too big to fail” does nothing but keep smaller companies who are agile and innovative out of the market. We need big companies to fail so that we can move forward. For you “progressives” out there, this is called progress–look it up.

* If you truly believe that either the Democrat or Republican party is noble, benevolent, and altruistic, you are truly stupid. I’m talking about under-a-car-sleeping-dog stupid. Not ignorant–stupid. You cannot be helped. Go ahead and get an education. Read lots of books. Put some letters after your name. You may not be ignorant any more, but you’ll still be stupid.

Let’s stop with “the Republicans did (fill in Obama talking point)” and “the Democrats did (fill in Limbaugh talking point)”.  Let’s make a simple change to the way we phrase these sentences. How about, “People in government did (pick your own pet peeve)”? Do you see the problem now?

See, the problem isn’t that “something must be done”. The problem is that something is always being “done”.

Stop trying to fix everything for everyone. In fact stop trying to “fix” anything for anybody. Beyond campaigning, you guys don’t know what the hell you are doing. It’s ok–this is a complicated problem, and no one guy knows how to fix it. But maybe the first step out of the hole is to stop digging. Here’s an idea…

If the shit has to hit the fan at some point (and it does), then by all means, let’s just let the shit hit the fan. The sooner the shit hits the fan, the sooner we can start cleaning up and get rid of that shit smell.

Or we could just let the shit keep piling up, keep slowing down the fan, (which, by the way, is the only thing bringing in fresh air) and hope that the next “stimulus” plan includes a “free” pair of boots and shit-resistant pancho for every man, woman, and child.

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Please, please tell me this guy is not typical. Talk to the President, get a Playstation 3 for Christmas…it’s all really about the same thing, huh?

I think he made a wrong turn on the way to the Iron Maiden concert and ended up at the Obama rally.

Ok, seriously…one thing you won’t hear me do is bag on the guy for working at McDonald’s for four years while he’s going to school…good for him!!! Hat’s off to the guy for doing two things to better himself that lots of people aren’t willing to do. It seems like he hasn’t consciously realized that he’s the answer, not Obama or McCain or Bush or anyone else.

We need more people like this guy, we just need to change the way they vote.

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This is quite serious. I can’t recall a similarly disastrous start in a half-century (far worse than Bill Clinton’s initial slips). Obama immediately must lower the hope-and-change rhetoric, ignore Reid/Pelosi, drop the therapy, and accept the tragic view that the world abroad is not misunderstood but quite dangerous. And he must listen on foreign policy to his National Security Advisor, Billary, and Sec. of Defense. If he doesn’t quit the messianic style and perpetual campaign mode, and begin humbly governing, then he will devolve into Carterism—angry that the once-fawning press betrayed him while we the people, due to our American malaise, are to blame.

If I were Obama, right about now I’d be second guessing my decision to give up a cushy job reading speeches, showing up late for Senate Foreign Relation Committee hearings, and posing for photos with Chicagoans who are visiting D.C.

Still, there’s an easy fix to all this.  We just need to come together and hope. Really hard.

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