>> it is logical to me that when weighing data, you are also looking for underlying motivations,
Then you better rewrite the rules of debate, because the rest of us don't have crystal balls with which to clearly know the motivations of our opponents. Your preferred technique is still an ad hominem argument, since you seek to impugn the debater and not argue his points. This is a logical fallacy, and no experienced debater is going to listen to such nonsense.
>>I believe you have recently asserted that:
1. There are no race riots in the South
2. Because Thomas Jefferson owned slaves AND he was an admirable person, that is a defense/justification of slavery.
The first statement is a simple factual statement, and you can disprove it by citing race riots in southern cities. I think there was one in Memphis, but the bulk of them, Harlem, Watts, Detroit, and others, were not. Your second statement is what you think you read instead of what you did read. I never have said what my own view of slavery is. I think Andrew H caught on to this, but you didn't. You need to read more carefully.
I listened to debates on the LA Times piece after it came out. A few weeks before the SIDS study there was a study released that contrasted indoor air quality with outdoor air quality. Indoor pollution was found to be many times as great as outdoor pollution. Houses are often not well ventilated, they have gas ranges and hot water heaters that give off fumes, they have cleaning solvents and hair spray and deodorants and perfumes and cigarette smoke. And pet hair, and mold from foodstuffs, and painted surfaces giving off particles. The list is long, and unless you let that bad old outdoor air in to ventilate your house, the indoor air is many times worse. And infants spend most of their time indoors. This was brought up in critiques of the LA Times SIDS article, which offers no cause and effect for why outdoor air would be the culprit, but gives only a statistical correlation. A statistical correlation exists between NFC winners in the Superbowl and bull markets. So statistical correlations without a plausible cause and effect are no big deal. |
