Some guy told me you guys are a bunch of cowards and the only thing you understand is force

Let’s start with the Islamic terrorists first. These are the guys we are droning the fuck out of, bombing the snot out of them and their friends and relatives and still they keep at it, so I think you can say one thing they don’t understand is force.

Maybe bombing them is a good idea, maybe it is a bad idea, that is not what I am arguing here, I am only arguing against the use of that misleading phrase.

And you know lately there has been some furor over this new Iran treaty. And maybe this is a good idea and maybe it isn’t, but there is a certain crowd of wingnuts (and I don’t know if you are among them or not) who are all pissed off because we are talking to the Iranis at all, so then how can they say we tried diplomacy and it didn’t work when we don’t believe in talking to people we don’t like.

Remember when Bill Maher caused that uproar because he criticized the prez for calling the 9/11 fliers cowards? He said here are guys flying airplanes into buildings knowing they are going to die, and our guys are sitting in bunkers in the southwest pushing buttons and looking at video screens, so who are the cowards here? Certainly he isn’t saying these guys aren't bad guys, he is just saying that they are not cowards.

By the definition of cowards they aren’t, but people know it is an insult and these are the bad guys so every insult should be piled on the enemy and anybody who doesn’t think so must be an enemy themselves.

Language is how we communicate. If we pollute it by using abusive and meaningless (and worst of all illogical) phrases, we are impairing our means of communication. We are violating our sacred trust to provide a reasonable discussion among reasonable people.

And what is this about stoning women to death for trying to get a driver’s license? I don’t know if that particular offense ever happened, but I will agree that they treat their women badly. See how much calmer and more truthful my formulation is than yours, how much more amenable to reasonable discussion?

Here is the thing, we did not go to war with them because they treated their women badly. They treated their women badly all the time the USA has been a nation, and they will do so long after we are gone, and we did not attack them for that reason in the past and we will not in the future.

Hijacking airplanes, bombing marketplaces, and beheading people, these are the reasons we went to war with them, and they are all good reasons. Why toss in that argument about women?

A lot of times when people are making a case they just pick out any argument good or bad, and toss them all against a wall, figuring the more the better. I think it’s more like building a dam, not that I know shit about building a dam, but I think you have to be careful about what you put into it. If you put in crappy material you will just weaken the dam. If you include a weak argument your opponent will attack you on those grounds, and since it’s a weak argument he will tear you to shreds, and there you will be trying to defend yourself by arguing an argument that you, yourself knew was weak, and all your good strong arguments will sit on the side unmentioned. I don’t know why they never let me on the Gage Park debate team? I was ready Jack.

I googled this Joseph P Swallow guy. It was a bit of work. I did find an article in something called the Ironwood Gazette, or something like that, but they wanted me to sign up to get any information, and I thought what the hell, why am I doing this and not Beagles?

I think anecdotal info has it’s place in maybe illustrating a point, or as a springboard for some logical argument, but otherwise I do not like it at all.

I could just as well say some guy at the Ten Cat a few years ago told me that the Russkies infiltrated northern Michigan and put something in the water and now all the inhabitants there spout some kind of commie-inspired gobbledygook that prevents reasonable discussion among reasonable Americans, polluting their language and weakening America so that it will soon fall like a ripe apple into the knapsack of the commissars. Ha ha ha, ha ha ha.

Pretty sure that was what the guy was saying.