I’ve never liked the many-splendored labels being put into common use in political discussion these days that end in the term, “-phobia.” Homophobia. Xenophobia (for the illegal “immigration” debate.) Islamophobia. The reason I don’t like them is that they are all pretty much manifestations of a logical/argumentational fallacy called ad hominem. In an ad hominem attack, it is the person making the argument that is attacked rather than the argument itself. In most of the cases I’ve ever seen where these labels are flung about, it is the use of the label that is, itself, the ad hominem attack.
“Phobia” is a word rooted in the Greek word “phobos” and means “fear” or “morbid fear.” In common language, it refers to an irrational fear. While I have an issue with someone considering my dislike of a particular thing a “fear” it’s the “irrational” part that’s the real problem. Look up the definition of “ophidiophobia” – a fear of snakes. Is it irrational for someone coming in contact with a 10-foot long, venom-spitting king cobra to fear that snake? Of course not. It’s irrational not to. In fact, the link I provided to Wikipedia says something about just this thing: “Care must also be taken to differentiate people who do not like snakes or fear them for their venom or the inherent danger involved. An ophidiophobic would not only fear them when in live contact but also dreads to think about them or even see them on TV or in pictures.“
Roger Simon of Pajamas Media addresses the concept in an article on August 27 wherein he challenges the use of the term “Islamophobia.”
With very minor exceptions, I have seen little irrational fear of Islam in our society. What I have seen is a lot of serious and justifiable dislike of the religion for its ideology — notably its heinous treatment of women and homosexuals and its opposition to the separation of church and state, all codified by its all-encompassing Sharia law that seeks to legislate all facets of existence while instituting a global caliphate.
Nevertheless, soi-disant liberals and progressives or whatever they want to call themselves accuse those who dislike Islam for those reasons of irrational fear. That’s like having an irrational fear of totalitarianism.
Indeed. The “-phobia” terms all provide a double-hit: they cast any true concern the target has as irrational on its face and they provide the user with cover to completely dismiss any further conversation, question, or debate. You can’t logically argue with an irrational viewpoint. If the person in question – someone who thinks the building of a mosque near the site of the best-known attack by forces loudly identifying as Islamic against America is a bad idea – is just being irrational, then there’s no point in even addressing his concerns, right? I mean, what a waste of time! It is ad hominem at its finest.
The fact that the majority of these terms have originated with the Left and are utilized largely by so-called “progressives” is just a symptom of a larger problem: they’ve lost the public debate on a variety of issues lately and are looking for any face-saving mechanism they can find.
Well, that’s their problem. I refuse to accept the terms they’ve taken to tossing around. It is they, through their continued usage of ad hominen fallacies in the place of reasoned argument, that have proven themselves irrational.
The article I was interviewed for by the Loudoun Independent made the press last week. You can read the article here. The thrust of the story was the question posed in the headline: Whatever happened to the Loudoun blogosphere?
The article talks about the slowdown in blogging the local blogs have displayed since last year. Of course, we’re talking about the political blogs, here. Blogs on other matters are still alive and well, as are many of the blogs mentioned in this article. By and large, however, the intensity of many of our blogs has declined over the past couple of months. I attributed that to the slow local news cycle going on this year as opposed to last. In this election cycle, Loudoun is looking at a Congressional race that pits incumbent Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA10) against… um… who’s he running against, again? Not much of a story to tell, there, but you’ll see things start to pick up during the August recess.
One of the things left unmentioned in the story – and you’d hardly be shocked by this – was the prime topic of HoodaThunk?’s focus during the 2009 campaign season, that of the shoddily researched and written “news article” regarding Tag Greason. That article was published under the direction of John Geddie, the man who interviewed me for this story. I’m not surprised he chose not to mention it. It certainly wasn’t the Loudoun Independent’s finest hour.
In any case, look for the Loudoun ‘sphere to pick back up ahead of the 2011 cycle when we get to take care of certain badly-performing members of the Board of Supervisors (notably right here in Potomac District), and get our opportunity to take out the last Democratic hold on Loudoun’s representation, our State Senator. Should be fun.
I had a very interesting conversation this morning with a noted member of the local media who’s preparing a story on the blogosphere (I would guess with an eye toward the local Loudoun ‘sphere, particularly). I’ll wait until I see whether the story is actually going to go anywhere before I mention any specifics but it should be an interesting piece. Stay tuned.
Update: I see that noted Too Conservative contributor Loudoun Insider was also contacted. I’m curious to see the scope of this story, now.
Following a link on Hot Air that asked the question about whether Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor had “gone rogue”, I started reading this story on Politico by John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman titled, “Eric Cantor’s ambition raises concerns, debate.” I didn’t even make it out of the 2nd paragraph before I ran into something so jarring to read from allegedly informed professional journalists that I stopped in my tracks.
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor has asked the ethics committee to greenlight a national book tour this August for a new GOP manifesto he’s co-authoring with two younger members of Congress, according to sources familiar with the situation.
This is classic Cantor: a hyperambitious move to publish and push ideas he thinks will help rebrand the GOP, on his terms — and not necessarily those of his boss, Minority Leader John Boehner.
Emphasis mine. Newsflash to Politico: no elected representative from Ohio holds the title “boss” when referring to an elected official from Virginia. The “bosses” of Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor are the residents of Virginia’s 7th District – and don’t you for one minute forget it!
As Republicans we caucus with Republicans from other states because that’s how you get things done in a legislative body and we acknowledge leaders within that caucus who – with the input of our state’s representatives – formulate strategy to achieve those ends. But a “boss” he ain’t and both journalists and Ohio representatives should keep that firmly in mind. Cantor owes his work and allegiance to the people who elected him as their representative, not to the leadership of a party or a caucus. That’s how we get legislators in power who pass laws the vast majority of our citizens don’t want.
ABC News just said the earth passed through the shadow of the sun this morning, proving once again journalists are not science majors.
You can say that again.
Hat tip to Instapundit, who also posts this from one of his readers:
I bet if Sarah Palin said this, they would immediately know how foolish the statement was.
Well, there’s legions of “journalists” scouring everything she says/does/displays. The “layers of editors” in place in our MSM don’t care so much about the accuracy of their own reporters’ statements.
In any operation – military, commercial, governmental – there is a limit to how long personnel can be expected to perform tasks productively. In many businesses, there are actually regulations in place that state exactly how long and how often a person can be on duty in a given period of time. Take commercial pilots as an example. They are limited by law to fly no more than 100 hours a month, 30 hours in any 7-day period, and no more than 8 hours a day. Truckers get similar treatment although there are fewer points of enforcement with them. Combat soldiers are rotated to the rear for R&R and given more extended leave on regular intervals.
The point to all of this is that people cannot sustain working a given task, especially one that involves a lot of stress, indefinitely. They get tired, even if only mentally, and tired people make mistakes. Tired people in stressful jobs make big mistakes. None of us are expected to work day in, day out forever with no break at all – weekends or vacations. I’m sure there are examples where people are held to that standard for a period of time but they’re rare. Most of us get downtime to relax and recharge. How we do that in our downtime varies but that’s generally our business and no one else’s.
With that in mind, I find the outrage over BP CEO Hayward’s attending a yachting race over the weekend to be misplaced. Hayward’s company is working this issue right now and there are people busting hump on getting the leak sealed around the clock. What, precisely, are people expecting Hayward to personally be doing that he can’t so much as take an afternoon to unwind? Where was he supposed to be, on the rigs drilling the relief wells? Shoveling oily sand somewhere, permanently and forever? We have laws against forcing prisoners to do that in the country but people are insisting that Hayward be held to that standard?
And if that’s the case, then where was the outrage over President Obama’s hitting the golf course – again – at the same time?Hayward takes time to spend with his son watching sailboats zipping along and that’s an unforgivable slight but our President, whose response to this entire disaster has been slow and unfocused since day one, can get in 18 holes and that’s perfectly OK? We’re not even talking about his going to a baseball game the night before. Where’s the outcry? And where’s the media on this? They make a big deal out of Hayward so much as getting lunch (yes, that’s a mild exaggeration) but Obama takes 4-5 hours smacking the ball around the links that’s just par for the course? (Pun intended.)
I understand people are angry about this whole situation and I’m right there with them. But even the CEO of BP gets to take a day off in the middle of this. I need him more focused than ever and that means he needs to rest every so often. If he rests watching people race sailboats then that’s his call. Like the President, I prefer golf. That or dozing off with a TV remote in my hand. But people need to get the perspective on this. Not everything Hayward is doing is done as a deliberate slap in the face. And let’s try to be consistent with the standard. If we’re going to call Hayward out then the President is far more guilty of the offense and should be similarly called out.
I certainly don’t begrudge the President a golf game. Frankly it’s one of the few outdoor things he really gets to do and we all need that, especially in high-pressure jobs. But tracking how often he managed to find the hours necessary to get in 18 holes of golf before he so much as got on the phone to ask BP’s Tony Hayward what the hell he was doing down there is instructive. And I’ve mentioned before that I doubt strongly the media or the left in this country would have been so understanding had President Bush been hitting the links so often before getting involved in Katrina. In fact, they weren’t.
Lawmakers are fuming at BP, but Rep. Joseph Cao took that anger to a new level during a congressional hearing when he suggested a top executive commit ritual suicide.
The Louisiana Republican was addressing BP America President Lamar McKay during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday. Following up on a colleague who had asked McKay to resign, Cao escalated the demand.
(Link in the original story.) But in the very next paragraph they quote exactly what Cao said:
“Well, in the Asian culture, we do things differently. During the Samurai days, we’d just give you the knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri,” said Cao, who is Vietnamese-American. “My constituents are still debating on what they want me to ask you to do.”
There is no doubt that Cao is angry, both himself and on behalf of his constituents, and there’s no doubt he used a reference to the ritual suicide demanded of dishonored or failed samurai under bushido. What he just as clearly did not do was suggest that the BP exec perform the act and he most certainly didn’t demand they do. To suggest that he did is just factually wrong and deliberately misleading. That Fox News is engaging in this kind of ridiculous drivel is incredibly disappointing, to say the least.
It’s overheated rhetoric like this kind of so-called reporting that blurs the public’s understanding of what’s going on rather than elucidating it. Shame on Fox and their editors.
I note (courtesy of Instapundit) that Al Gore isn’t happy with the restriction on news reporting going on in the Gulf. Says the Goracle:
This behavior is completely unacceptable. Access by reporters should be as unfettered as possible
As I mentioned myself a few days ago, I think BP and the Obama administration shouldn’t be denying the airspace to reporters, particularly aiming at reporters. In this, I agree with Al Gore. However, as Anthony Watts over at Watts Up With That? points out, Mr. Gore should be careful about what windows he’s throwing rocks toward. When giving a speech at the CTIA Wireless conference in 2009, Mr. Gore refused to allow any members of the press to come in and cover his appearance. Excuse me, Al, but if reporters should be getting unfettered access to cover the news then they should get that access when it’s you they’re covering. I’m glad you’re on the side of media access but you should can the hypocrisy, sir.
Hmmm. So, when some of the media want to cover an emergency situation affecting the nation, this happens:
A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. The response from a BP contractor who answered the phone late last month at the command center was swift and absolute: Permission denied.
“We were questioned extensively. Who was on the aircraft? Who did they work for?” recalled Rhonda Panepinto, who owns Southern Seaplane with her husband, Lyle. “The minute we mentioned media, the answer was: ‘Not allowed.’ ”
Seems to me I remember people loudly condemning a certain oil company and a President for not allowing the kinds of coverage of certain events of national interest that one could term, “open.” Of course, that was Halliburton and President Bush. Interesting that BP and Team Obama is getting pretty much a pass on this. Nice to see that it’s getting some air, of course, but where are those people who took every chance to deride those involved now that it’s their guy, hmmm? Kind of seems like their concern before was nothing but political caterwauling rather than serious concern about the matter.
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