Free Republic

It never ceases to confound me, dear readers, how on earth Republicans keep losing America’s propaganda war. How do we know they’re losing in the public’s perception? Easy. Ask yourself: when was the last time you freely discussed any conservative or even moderate political view with friends at work, or on campus, or in public, or at a large social gathering — without hedging your every word? When? Can you identify a single recent instance when you felt your conservative or even moderate views would be tolerated without provoking name-calling or public shaming into the nearest corner of societal oblivion?...

A video, which shows an African-American attacking an old man on a local bus, has caused adverse reaction from Korean netizens. In the video, the young man wearing a blue T-shirt and a blue cap is mocking the old man, provoking an argument. He is saying bad words repeatedly not only in his native language but also in awkward Korean.

In a court of law, there are always clear differences between a political argument and one based on sound legal reasoning. If you need a prime example of the disconnect between the two, you should have been at the public Oxford-style debate held by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. on March 2. The debate centered on the constitutionality of the health care law’s individual mandate—specifically arguing the ruling passed down by two federal judges already that the mandate to purchase insurance is unconstitutional. Arguing the unconstitutionality of the law was the lead outside counsel from the Florida ruling (which...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A man was shot after an apparent argument over fast food in the city’s Northern Liberties section early Monday morning. The two men were in a parked car near the intersection of 2nd and Callowhill Streets, eating fast food when an argument broke out over french fries, according to police. The two men got out of the car, started fighting, and investigators say that’s when one of them pulled a gun and shot the other. The victim was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital in critical condition. Witnesses tell police the shooter drove off in a silver Mercedes....

I am having a "spirited discussion" with an old friend on Facebook. He has gone full blown, liberal, socialist, communist and is insisting that the government step up and take more and more from the rich. I am a Tea Part conservative, but I don't have the facts at hand to make him see the light (not that I am sure he will) and understand the conservative point of view. \ Here is some of our FB conversations: ANDY:Andrew Rennick Tell congress to do the decent thing and extend unemployment benefits now! ANDY:But sending them hungry into the streets won't...

Our story begins... It was a nice day here in Southern California and there wasn't much more to do on my business or my (extremely right wing) website, so I decided to take the dog for a walk. Two of my kids were home from school, my 12 year daughter and 10 year old son became enthused to walk over to a local grassy park near our home where there is a nice dog-walking path. Sometimes we meet other dog owners we know and we let our pets go off leash to run around and tire themselves out. We armed...

An investigation has been launched into the behavior of a member of the city council in Vancouver City, Wash., after she lost her cool at a meeting when people wanted to argue over a light rail plan, ordered one member of the public out of the room, ordered the council chairman to "gavel down" a constituent, and ordered a colleague on the council to "Shut up!" The situation developed as members of the public were in attendance to express concerns about a light rail program. Harris told one speaker not to address individual members of the committee, and when he...

UNION BEACH -- A Pennsylvania woman was charged with animal cruelty and a weapons offense after authorities said she slit a dog’s throat Sunday night during an argument with her fiancé. Amato said Milford and her fiancé, who had both been drinking alcohol, argued during a party at his family’s Prospect Avenue home. During the dispute, she went into a laundry room and slit the throat twice of the family’s dog, a nearly two -year-old Jack Russell Terrier named Penelope, he said. Amato said the wounds went from ear to ear on the dog.

I wanted to address liberal arguments; I will address, specifically, two types of liberal arguments; namely moral relativity and passive tyranny. When liberals feel the need to argue with a conservative view point (and they often do), one common argument is that conservatives shouldn’t push their views onto others, because it infringes on their right to believe the way they believe. They argue this because their view of morality is relative, that is, morals depend on who you are talking to, and in what circumstance. The problem with this argument is, if you don’t believe in this relativistic view of...

This story has gone viral on the Internet and we are being inundated with email in regard to the perceived conversation and break up of the Lamphere / Donofrio team.

I just got called by the Obama campaign. They asked for a donation. I let the woman finish her schpiel (sp?) and asked if she was aware about Obama's association with unrepentant terrorist William Ayers.They then said that it was disinformation and asked for $250.00.I then asked the Obama campaign worker if she was aware that Obama is a socialist.She didn't know how to respond to that, but then asked me if I would like to contribute $100.00 to the Obama campaign.I asked her if she knew that Obama wants to dismantle our military and help our enemies by weakening...

How does one debate with a liberal? Sorry, under current rules, debate is not allowed. Just as our new national conversation on race is limited exclusively to authentic blacks, so is any semblance of debate with those on the left limited to those who accept the rules of debate, as defined by liberals. Just as Boy Clinton redefined the meaning of sex, so have liberals redefined the meaning of debate. If your view doesn't accord with the progressive, politically correct elites, the debate is relabeled an 'argument', your opinion is redefined as a 'judgment' and both are promptly dismissed. By...

Honk if you're married and can't cope with anger BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published July 31, 1994.) Today's topic for married people is: coping with anger. Even so-called ''perfect couples'' experience conflict. Take Canada geese. They mate for life, so people just assume they get along well; when people see a goose couple flying overhead, honking, they say, ''Oh, that's SO romantic.'' What these people don't realize is that honking is how geese argue. (''Are you SURE we're heading north?'' ''YES, dammit.'' ''Well, I think we should ask somebody.'' ) The only reason they...

Climate change sceptics lose vital argument 29 November 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. Zeeya Merali The "hockey stick" graph, which shows a rapid rise in world temperatures over recent decades, has been both poster child for the dangers of human- induced global warming and prime target for climate change sceptics. They cite an anomaly in the graph - it does not record a dip in temperature between 1200 and 1850 - as reason to ditch the whole thing. Now new data may help explain why the graph does not record the "little ice age". Ocean currents in the North...

Venezuelan official detained at JFK By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer 19 minutes ago Venezuela's foreign minister said he was illegally detained for 90 minutes by officials at a New York airport and accused them of treating him abusively by trying to frisk and handcuff him. U.S. officials called Saturday's incident regrettable and said they had apologized to Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Maduro called that insufficient and said Venezuela would seek a legal challenge through the U.N. to what he called a "flagrant violation of international law" and his diplomatic immunity. "We were detained for an hour and a half,...

/begin my summary Taiwan FTV: Slugfest on Live Broadcast On Aug. 24, at a political talk show 'Sovereign's Talk' aired on Taiwan's FTV, Lin Zheng-jie, a former legislator(left), is punching Jin Heng-wei, the General Editor of 'Dang-dai.' Two were panelists at the show. They were having heated arguments over whether President Chen Sui-bian should step down. Suddenly, Lin started to punch Jin, and both exchanged punches and kicks. It got bloody and went on for a minute. Since the broadcast was live, it was aired uncensored. TV viewers were shocked. As for the result, it was the rout by Lin, who goes...

Court Denies Felons Voting Rights ArgumentBy LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer Last update: May 05, 2006 – 2:23 AM NEW YORK (AP) - A landmark civil rights law cannot be used to argue that barring felons from voting discriminates against minorities because they are imprisoned at a higher rate, a federal court ruled Thursday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which removed barriers to black voters, was not an avenue of relief for 21 plaintiffs, which include six current prisoners. The plaintiffs sued the state in November 2000. Judge Jose A. Cabranes, who...

"Don't waste time talking to anti-choice people." That is the straightforward instruction provided by NARAL Pro-Choice America in its "Campus Kit for Pro-Choice Organizers." The director of the Pro-Choice Action Network answered a question about why his group does not engage in conversation with pro-life advocates with this statement: "Along with most other pro-choice groups, we do not engage in debates with the anti-choice." In other words, they are scared to death of a genuine argument. This point is made abundantly clear in a recent article by Jon A. Shields of the Center on Religion and Democracy at the University...

Density Is Destiny: On Politics and the Paperboy By Patrick Cox Why are things the way they are, politically speaking? Why are the Republicans' most effective ads straightforward clips of Democrats contradicting themselves? Why are conservative pundits so frequently flanking their liberal counterparts? Why is the left-of-center blogosphere moving their party away from the Democrats’ historic base while the right-of-center is co-opting libertarians and moderates? Realizing that this is a question of the same magnitude as Douglas Adams' "Life, the Universe and Everything?" I nevertheless propose that the answer is "population density" in general and "the cost of newspaper delivery"...

SYDNEY, Australia - A movie fan had his nose bitten off outside an Australian cinema in an argument over the quality of the violent new Bruce Willis movie "Sin City," police said. The 19-year-old victim underwent surgery to reattach the tip of his nose following the brawl Sunday night outside a movie theater in Bathurst, 125 miles west of Sydney. Bathurst police Inspector Cameron Lindsay said the victim and his attacker got into a fight over the merits of the film, an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about a wicked metropolis filled with tough guys and gorgeous dames. The...

April 19, 2005 Chirac Cabinet tears itself apart over EU constitutionFrom Charles Bremner in Paris THE prospect of France rejecting the European constitution ignited a blazing Cabinet row yesterday after President Chirac signalled that he aims to sack Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime Minister, whether the country votes “yes” or “no”. M Raffarin, whose unpopularity is deemed to be a big factor in the troubles of the “yes” campaign for the May 29 referendum, rounded on Dominique de Villepin, the Interior Minister and close ally of the President, over damning remarks that he made against his own Government. After a...

For every day Terri Shiavo suffers, liberals continue to deny their role in the conspiracy to commit murder. In an attempt to muddy the water and wash their hands of any responsibility for her death, those who support Terri’s starvation have adopted a new catch phrase: “This is a very difficult and complex matter.” Whether it is Michael Shiavo’s lawyer, Judge Greer, Jeb Bush, the Florida legislature, or everyone in the partisan media, these modern day equivalents of Pontius Pilate have decided that the best way to wash their hands of Terri’s blood is to constantly mumble some generic form...

Abortion Quotes from Pro-Choice Sources From "Abortion at Work: Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic" by Wendy Simonds. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996 included a chapter on how to repel abortion protestors or "antis"): Quotes from clinic employees: "You're going from dealing with people to dealing with what most people here at the Center consider a real hurdle, to do sterile room, because you have to deal with the actual abortion tissue. And for some people, that's really hard. They can be abstractly in favor of abortion rights, but they sure don't want to see what an eighteen-week...

Archaeological argument breaks out over Indonesian sunken treasure Thu Nov 18,10:36 PM ET Science - AFP JAKARTA (AFP) - In the blue waters of the Java Sea, a drama is unfolding around an ancient cargo of sunken treasure, but with corruption and bureaucracy never far from the surface in Indonesia, the tale owes more to Franz Kafka than Indiana Jones. A team of divers, including two Australians, two Britons, two French, a Belgian and a German, has been working for months to excavate a vessel laden with rare ceramics which sank more than 1,000 years ago off Indonesia's shores. Their...

What is the issue the Palm Beach Post calls "almost the only topic" and the one that is "playing a pivotal" role in Florida's battle for the American Senate? It's not health care, taxes, education, the economy, or even Iraq. Rather, the two principal candidates are engaged in a ferocious argument over Sami Al-Arian, an accused Islamist terrorist. Their battle teaches lessons for the future.Mr. Al-Arian, a Palestinian immigrant, was a professor of engineering at the University of South Florida when in 1994, investigative journalist Steven Emerson aired a documentary establishing that, as president of the Islamic Committee for Palestine,...

As Democratic hopeful John Kerry whines about the Swift Boat Veterans questioning his Vietnam “war service,” more revelations have surfaced which challenge the legitimacy of his first Purple Heart. The Senator claims that that medal was received because of enemy fire he took, but his own personal diary contradicts that assertion. While the Senator’s supporters tried unsuccessfully to portray President Bush as being “AWOL” during the Vietnam War, they won’t address the fact that Kerry tried to defer his military service at that time for 12 months. And what would Kerry and his friends say about the fact that his...

... let's put the argument where it belongs: in Chat and not in the body of a most excellent article post from the master himself. Here is what I posted in the latest quidnunc excerpted Steyn article post: Oh dear Lord ... another fascinating Steyn article sullied by lots of kvetching about quid posting an excerpt. Some of the complainers even note that quid is notorious for posting excerpts. HELLO quit your griping and post your own full copy if you wish. Get a free email account on Yahoo! or even the new Google, use it for your signups, turn...

How To Win Minimum Wage Argument March 3, 2004 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Fifteen years of service to humanity behind the Golden EIB Microphone, and yet these issues keep coming up. They keep needing to be explained, because there are people that keep tuning in, not just on this program, but getting interested in these issues, who instinctively, because they're very compassionate, think instinctively, raising the minimum wage, why, who's opposed to that? Why would anybody be opposed to raising the minimum wage? Why, you can't even live on it, why not raise it? And that's why it's an easy sell,...

Referring to the fallacy discussions previously posted (and linked below) may be helpful before beginning. Among the following passages, identify those in which there is a fallacy; if there is a fallacy, analyze it, give its kind (whether relevance, or presumption, or ambiguity) and its specific name. Which is more useful, the Sun or the Moon? The Moon is more useful since it gives us light during the night, when it is dark, whereas the Sun shines only in the daytime, when it is light anyway. — GEORGE GAMOW (inscribed in the entry hall of the Hayden Planetarium, New York...

Composition The term "fallacy of composition" is applied to both of two closely related types of invalid argument. The first may be described as reasoning fallaciously from the attributes of the parts of a whole to the attributes of the whole itself. A particularly flagrant example would be to argue that, since every part of a certain machine is light in weight, the machine "as a whole" is light in weight. The error here is manifest when we recognize that a very heavy machine may consist of a very large number of lightweight parts. Not all examples of this kind...

Amphiboly The fallacy of amphiboly occurs when one is arguing from premisses whose formulations are ambiguous because of their grammatical construction. The word "amphiboly" is derived from the Greek, its meaning in essence being "two in a lump," or the "doubleness" of a lump. A statement is amphibolous when its meaning, is indeterminate because of the loose or awkward way in which its words are combined. An amphibolous statement may be true in one interpretation and false in another. When it is stated as premiss with the interpretation that makes it true, and a conclusion is drawn from it on...

FALLACIES OF AMBIGUITY The meaning of words or phrases may shift as a result of inattention, or may be deliberately manipulated within the course of an argument. A term may have one sense in a premiss, quite a different sense in the conclusion. When the inference drawn depends upon such changes it is, of course, fallacious. Mistakes of this kind are called "fallacies of ambiguity" or sometimes "sophisms." The deliberate use of such devices is usually crude and readily detected — but at times the ambiguity may be obscure, the error accidental, the fallacy subtle. Five varieties are distinguished in...

Accident and Converse Accident The fallacies of accident and converse accident arise as a result of the careless, or deliberately deceptive, use of generalizations. In most important affairs, and especially inpolitical or moral argument, we rely on statements of how things generally are, how people generally behave, and the like. But even where general claims are entirely plausible, we must be careful not to apply them to particular cases mechanically or rigidly. Circumstances alter cases; a generalization that is true by and large may not apply in a given case, for good reasons having to do with the special (or...

False Cause It is obvious that any reasoning that relies on treating as the cause of some thing or event what is not really its cause must be seriously mistaken. But often we are tempted to suppose, or led to suppose, that we understand some specific cause-and-effect relation when in fact we do not. The nature of the connection between cause and effect, and how we determine whether such a connection is present or absent, are central problems of inductive logic and scientific method. These problems are discussed in detail in Part Four of this book. Presuming the reality of...

FALLACIES OF PRESUMPTION Some mistakes in everyday reasoning are the consequence of an unjustified assumption, often suggested by the formulation of the argument. The reader, or listener, or even the author of the passage may be caused — through oversight or by deliberate design — to assume the truth of some unproved and unwarranted proposition. When such dubious assumptions buried in the argument are crucial for the support of the conclusion, the argument is bad and can be very misleading. Unwarranted leaps of this kind are called fallacies of presumption. In fallacious arguments of this kind the premisses are, again,...

Irrelevant Conclusion: Ignoratio Elenchi The fallacy of ignoratio elenchi (literally, false refutation) is committed when an argument purporting to establish a particular conclusion is instead directed to proving a different conclusion. The premisses "miss the point"; the reasoning may seem plausible in itself, and yet the argument misfires as a defense of the conclusion in dispute. Arguments in the sphere of social legislation frequently commit this fallacy; a program of a particular kind, designed to achieve some larger objective that is widely shared, is supported by premisses that do provide reasons to share the larger end, but that tell us...

The Appeal to Emotion: Argument Ad Populum This common fallacy and the two that follow it are so evidently fallacious that they require little explanation. In each case, the premisses plainly are not relevant to the conclusion and are deliberately chosen as instruments with which to manipulate the beliefs of the listener or reader. The argument ad populum, the appeal to emotion (literally "to the people," and by implication to the mob's easily aroused emotions) is the device of every propagandist and demagogue. It is fallacious because it replaces the laborious task of presenting evidence and rational argument with expressive...

Argument Ad Hominem The phrase ad hominem translates into "against the person." It names a fallacious attack in which the thrust is directed, not at a conclusion, but at the person who asserts or defends it. This fallacy has two major forms, because there are two major ways in which the attack can be personalized. Argument Ad Hominem, Abusive Participants in strenuous argument sometimes disparage the character of their opponents, deny their intelligence or reasonableness, question their integrity, and so on. But the character of an individual is logically irrelevant to the truth or falsehood of what that person says,...

The Appeal to Inappropriate Authority: Argument Ad Verecundiam In attempting to make up one's mind about some difficult or complicated question, it is entirely reasonable to be guided by the judgment of an acknowledged expert who has studied the matter thoroughly. When we argue that a given conclusion is correct on the ground that an expert authority has come to that judgment, we commit no fallacy. Indeed, such recourse to authority is necessary for most of us on very many matters. Of course, an expert's judgment constitutes no conclusive proof; experts disagree, and even in agreement they may err; but...

FALLACIES . . . arguments, like men, are often pretenders. — Plato It would, be a very good thing if every trick could receive some short and obviously appropriate name, so that when anyone used this or that particular trick, he could at once be reproved for it. — Arthur Schopenhauer WHAT IS A FALLACY? An argument, whatever its subject or sphere, is generally constructed in such a way as to prove that its conclusion is true. But any argument can fail to fulfill this purpose in either of two ways. One way it can fail is by assuming a...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A waitress who had thrown a group of suspected gang members out of her family's Salvadoran restaurant was killed along with a 24-year-old customer when the men returned and one opened fire, authorities said. Waitress Yesenia Rodriguez spotted the gun and tried to block the men when at least four of them returned to the restaurant Saturday afternoon, witnesses told the Los Angeles Times for Sunday's editions. "He opened fire like a madman," said Rodriguez's sister, Marlene Castellon. "It's a miracle he didn't kill more people." Rodriguez, a mother of two, died shortly after the shooting,...

Man says that he killed wife08/02/2003By JENNIFER EMILY and PAUL MEYER / The Dallas Morning News ANNA – An Anna man said Friday from jail that he shot his wife the prior evening because he was tired of arguing. Reece Boyd Dunn, 42, has been charged with killing his wife Debbie, 40, after sheriff's deputies say he shot her in the head. "If you take somebody's life, you have to pay one," Mr. Dunn said Friday in a visitation room at the Collin County Jail in McKinney. "I figure I will get death or life in prison." Residents said they...

Logical Fallacies The following list of logical fallacies is taken from Rise Axelrod and Charles Cooper's The Concise Guide to Writing. Fallacies are errors or flaws in reasoning. Although essentially unsound, fallacious arguments seem superficially plausible and often have great persuasive power. Fallacies are not necessarily deliberate efforts to deceive readers. They may be accidental, resulting from a failure to examine underlying assumptions critically, establish solid ground to support a claim, or choose words that are clear and unambiguous. Here, listed in alphabetical order, are the most common logical fallacies: Begging the question. Arguing that a claim is true by...

Peter Cuthbertson discusses the importance of concepts and semantics to defining a political meta-context If your arguments are irrational and unconvincing, and the consequences of people listening to them harmful and destructive, then you really need to have some other factor on your side to succeed. Sadly, those who advocate socialism, statism, lilly-livered liberalism and an ever-expanding government have just this. For almost every modern political argument is conducted in a lexicon that favours them, every debate being a competition between those who can use leftist language most convincingly - usually the left, unsurprisingly. Daniel Hannan covered this phenomenon 18...

IT WAS supposed to be a show of Muslim unity to convince Western leaders to hold back from a war. Representatives of 54 Islamic countries representing a billion people gathered in the Gulf state of Qatar for a stage-managed plea for peace, but they left last night with their divisions laid bare. A bitter exchange of insults between the Iraqis and Kuwaitis was followed by a frank admission from the host nation that Arab states needed to be more honest with their people about the Gulf crisis — especially those, such as Qatar, that are hosting American forces. The extraordinary...

Argument over afterlife leaves man dead 07/29/2002 By KIMBERLY DURNAN / Dallas Web Staff Alcohol, guns and religion proved a deadly mix in Johnson County Sunday night. One man died and another went to jail after a night of drinking led to a discussion of who would go to heaven and who would go to hell, according to police. Clayton Frank Stoker, 21, of Joshua was arraigned Monday morning in the shooting death of 20-year-old Johnny Joslin of Godley. Four men had returned to Mr. Stoker's residence in a mobile home park after a night of bar-hopping in Fort...