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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: skinowski who wrote (148570)	11/24/2005 11:58:39 AM
From: briskit	Respond to of 793717

From the Dilbert blog on internet arguing/debating dilbertblog.typepad.com Results of Why I’m Stupid A few days ago I invited the readers of my blog to tell me why I’m stupid. The results are in. If you are new to the Internet, allow me to explain how to debate in this medium. When one person makes any kind of statement, all you need to do is apply one of these methods to make it sound stupid. Then go on the offensive. Turn someone’s generality into an absolute. For example, if someone makes a general statement that Americans celebrate Christmas, point out that some people are Jewish and so anyone who thinks that ALL Americans celebrate Christmas is stupid. (Bonus points for accusing the person of being anti-Semitic.) Turn someone’s factual statements into implied preferences. For example, if someone mentions that not all Catholic priests are pedophiles, accuse the person who said it of siding with pedophiles. Turn factual statements into implied equivalents. For example, if someone says that Ghandi didn’t eat cows, accuse the person of stupidly implying that cows deserve equal billing with Gandhi. Omit key words. For example, if someone says that people can’t eat rocks, accuse the person of being stupid for suggesting that people can’t eat. Bonus points for arguing that some people CAN eat pebbles if they try hard enough. Assume the dumbest interpretation. For example, if someone says that he can run a mile in 12 minutes, assume he means it happens underwater and argue that no one can hold his breath that long. Hallucinate entirely different points. For example, if someone says apples grow on trees, accuse him of saying snakes have arms and then point out how stupid that is. Use the intellectual laziness card. For example, if someone says that ice is cold, recommend that he take graduate courses in chemistry and meteorology before jumping to stupid conclusions that display a complete ignorance of the complexity of ice. Those are the basic tools that come to mind. If you think of some more, feel free to leave them in a comment

To: skinowski who wrote (148570)	11/24/2005 12:00:50 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793717

Fascinating, my original read of you post was quite negative. But then I asked myself why. Then I read it again and again and again and parsed it and parsed it. I believe you are mostly too totally agreeing with me. But I will observe your writing style is as poor as my own. I use those damn run on sentences myself. good grammar is not my best game. You have conveyed very powerful wide band ideas in a very compact space. It is easy to scream about Neocon mischief and War for Oil and favoritism towards Halliburton. The quanity and low quality proves that. It's no brain blather. It is much, much harder to convey the concept about a Vanguard of professional Islamist revolutionaries trying to grab power - and to become dictators and rulers. But that last intercepted letter from #2 of binnie to zar blah blah makes that point an obvious fact. It's trivially obvious. In the second paragraph, Often, Dems and the Media still sound almost as if those guys are not serious. That's the question it took me a while to get. You were talking about the jihadists and how strange it is they are not taken seriously. I have no idea why the simple you expond is not obvious to all. I will observe that many who spout what I see as obvious really dumb ideas do so in superb grammar that make their cluelessness crystal clear. skinowski you flunk that (superb grammar) this 5 minutes. I flunk that on a regular basis. But you pass the great ideas part.

To: skinowski who wrote (148570)	11/24/2005 2:51:23 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793717

I find it strange, actually. International jihadists won a war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and right now it takes over half a million of Iraqi and Coalition troops to keep them under a lid.... and STILL they get no respect. Often, Dems and the Media still sound almost as if those guys are not serious. You hit that nail on the head. But think about it. If the Democrats were to give the Islamists some respect, they would have acknowledge that they have enemies who are ideologically committed to war, and who are not open to compromise. Since the Democrats hold as an article of faith that everybody is open to compromise, much easier not to listen to the Islamists.