Jim wrote: > "In the modern definition, a sophism is a > confusing or illogical argument used for > deceiving someone."
Bingo! > But I know that the analogy between a > parent and the president-elect is a false > one. What does Wikipedia say about the word "analogy"? Identity: x = x. Analogy x ~ y. > Especially since Obama has not actually > been in power, I am sure that he's made a > variety of different promises which will > turn out to be in conflict with each other. And, I guess, before politicians get the vote, their incentive to overpromise is so much higher than when they already have the votes. Obama is so lacking political capital that he must prolong his campaign. (Here Jim will think, Oh, but Obama is already pandering to get reelected. He's still in campaign. To which I could reply, Sure, broken promises will get him more votes come November 2012.) > Considering how many things Obama says, > I am sure that many of them will be > forgotten. As with any politician, many of > them are meaningless to begin with. Many or > most people (wisely) believe that any happy > talk politicians produce is just that. Obama's words will be forgotten. The words of politicians are meaningless. Jim's words, on the other hand, are so full of meaning. Many people or most people (wisely) are cynical and believe that politicians are from Mars while Jim is from Venus. Contrary to what George Carlin would have us believe: "Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope.'" _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
