All posts by Rand Simberg

Insulting Our Intelligence

One of the classic debating tricks is something called “attacking a strawman.” It consists of putting forth a flawed argument that the opponent has never made, but implying that she has, and then knocking it down. It allows a cheap rhetorical victory while sidestepping the real issues, and unfortunately, it’s often effective.

That’s exactly what the DEA is doing with their series of commercials in an attempt to convince people of the nonsensical notion that drug use equates to support of terrorism.

The commercial template is a hapless fool attempting to defend his drug use, putting forth dumb arguments, which are easily slapped down by his more intelligent (and virtuous) friend. (And of course, one of the subthemes is that because he’s a drug user, he can’t think well, unlike his teetotaling companion.)

The latest one is what Mr. Idiot calls the “might” loophole. He only “might” be supporting terrorism by using drugs, so it’s OK. This is indeed a dumb argument, which is shot down by simply rephrasing it more graphically: “So, you might be helping terrorists murder kids, or you might be helping them do something so horrible that we can’t even conceive of it.”

Of course, if this were a real debate, rather than a mindless strawman exercise in a propaganda campaign, the appropriate response would be, “Yes, just like when you gas up your car, you “might” be funneling money to the Saudis and their madrassas that teach children to go on Jihad against America, and when you purchase clothes made in Pakistan, you “might” be providing profit to a factory owner who funds similar activities there.”

This whole campaign is stupid, for the reason described above: anything that we purchase has the potential to go to funding nefarious activities. Not all drug purchases do so, any more than all gasoline purchases do so, and to the degree that drug purchases do so, it’s largely because our War on (Some) Drugs has put criminals in charge of the enterprise. It would be just as accurate (indeed, perhaps more so) to say that, given that some people are going to purchase drugs regardless of their legal status, it is the DEA and the federal drug policies that are helping the terrorists.

Apparently, judging by this ad campaign, they don’t have any good arguments. And the need to resort to spending taxpayers’ money in such a blatantly dishonest way is just further evidence of the moral and intellectual vacuity and bankruptcy of those policies.

A Two-Front War?

We may be in one very soon, if this article is anything to go on. [Link requires registration]

In what one expert has called ?the Baghdad scenario?, the regime of Kim Jong Il is expected to wreak maximum damage on American policy by timing any move at a critical moment, such as the entry of US soldiers into the Iraqi capital.

?They are choreographing this step by step with the Iraq crisis,? said one diplomat. ?It?s straight from the works of Sun Tzu to strike while your enemy is weak.? Sun Tzu, the classical Chinese military strategist, also advocated deception and guile to win victory without battle.

Which One Doesn’t Fit The Pattern?

In an article about today’s protests, by Dana Hull of the San Jose Mercury News, he describes the Workers World Party, one of the groups behind today’s protests,

Some of the WWP’s more controversial positions are its support for the governments of Iraq and North Korea; its backing of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic; its claims that reports of Serbian atrocities against Muslims and Croats were overblown; and its defense as recently as 2000 of the Chinese government’s deadly crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Looking at the web site, they also support the Palestinians over Israel, and Hugo Chavez. Oh, and of course, they want to Free Mumia!

The mind boggles. What heuristic would one use to predict what or who this group is going to support? You could say they promote socialist causes, but that doesn’t really tell one how to square their positions on Palestinians versus Israel and Milosevic versus the Muslims. After all, Israel tends to be socialist itself, while the Palestinians don’t really have an economic system to speak of.

Is it a White Male European against Islam thing? Hmmmm…that would explain opposition to Israel, but then it’s hard to reconcile with support for Milosevic, who’s also white, and male, and European and was murdering Muslims.

Oh, wait! The light goes on above the head. Now I get it.

It’s a very simple algorithm. If the US government is for it, they’re a’gin it, and vicey versey. Very reliable predictive technique.

And it tells you all you need to know about this group, and their fellow travelers.

Now here’s a question to ponder. Can a group whose basic premise seems to be that the US government under its constitution is the source of all evil in the world, and that all of its initiatives are to be opposed, in a knee-jerk fashion, be said to be in any way patriotic?

Hey, I’m just asking…

Which One Doesn’t Fit The Pattern?

In an article about today’s protests, by Dana Hull of the San Jose Mercury News, he describes the Workers World Party, one of the groups behind today’s protests,

Some of the WWP’s more controversial positions are its support for the governments of Iraq and North Korea; its backing of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic; its claims that reports of Serbian atrocities against Muslims and Croats were overblown; and its defense as recently as 2000 of the Chinese government’s deadly crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Looking at the web site, they also support the Palestinians over Israel, and Hugo Chavez. Oh, and of course, they want to Free Mumia!

The mind boggles. What heuristic would one use to predict what or who this group is going to support? You could say they promote socialist causes, but that doesn’t really tell one how to square their positions on Palestinians versus Israel and Milosevic versus the Muslims. After all, Israel tends to be socialist itself, while the Palestinians don’t really have an economic system to speak of.

Is it a White Male European against Islam thing? Hmmmm…that would explain opposition to Israel, but then it’s hard to reconcile with support for Milosevic, who’s also white, and male, and European and was murdering Muslims.

Oh, wait! The light goes on above the head. Now I get it.

It’s a very simple algorithm. If the US government is for it, they’re a’gin it, and vicey versey. Very reliable predictive technique.

And it tells you all you need to know about this group, and their fellow travelers.

Now here’s a question to ponder. Can a group whose basic premise seems to be that the US government under its constitution is the source of all evil in the world, and that all of its initiatives are to be opposed, in a knee-jerk fashion, be said to be in any way patriotic?

Hey, I’m just asking…

Which One Doesn’t Fit The Pattern?

In an article about today’s protests, by Dana Hull of the San Jose Mercury News, he describes the Workers World Party, one of the groups behind today’s protests,

Some of the WWP’s more controversial positions are its support for the governments of Iraq and North Korea; its backing of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic; its claims that reports of Serbian atrocities against Muslims and Croats were overblown; and its defense as recently as 2000 of the Chinese government’s deadly crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Looking at the web site, they also support the Palestinians over Israel, and Hugo Chavez. Oh, and of course, they want to Free Mumia!

The mind boggles. What heuristic would one use to predict what or who this group is going to support? You could say they promote socialist causes, but that doesn’t really tell one how to square their positions on Palestinians versus Israel and Milosevic versus the Muslims. After all, Israel tends to be socialist itself, while the Palestinians don’t really have an economic system to speak of.

Is it a White Male European against Islam thing? Hmmmm…that would explain opposition to Israel, but then it’s hard to reconcile with support for Milosevic, who’s also white, and male, and European and was murdering Muslims.

Oh, wait! The light goes on above the head. Now I get it.

It’s a very simple algorithm. If the US government is for it, they’re a’gin it, and vicey versey. Very reliable predictive technique.

And it tells you all you need to know about this group, and their fellow travelers.

Now here’s a question to ponder. Can a group whose basic premise seems to be that the US government under its constitution is the source of all evil in the world, and that all of its initiatives are to be opposed, in a knee-jerk fashion, be said to be in any way patriotic?

Hey, I’m just asking…

The New Know-Nothings

Lacking the intestinal fortitude for such things that I had in my younger days, I’ve spared myself the dreary punishment (though possibly combined with inadvertent hilarity) of viewing the lunacy on display in the nation’s capital today. There are threads running on Free Republic for those who want to sample it without being overwhelmed by it in all its CSPANish videofied glory.

As an antidote to the idiocy, here are a couple of articles by leftists who haven’t utterly lost their minds–Christopher Hitchens, and Johann Hari.