The Dishonesty of Drive-By Assertions

Posted on July 30, 2012 by jackpelham

What’s a “drive-by assertion”?  It’s my name for an assertion that one makes and thereafter dodges rational debate on the matter.

Here are a few varied scenarios that I believe to be typical of what’s going on in our cavalier hearsay society:

  • Billy hears someone say that the Civil War was about states’ rights, so he immediately chimes in, “The Civil was about slavery.”  But when Billy is asked to prove that assertion, he fails to make a reasonable case that is based on actual evidence.
  • Sally hears a fellow church member criticize the church’s habit of calling the priest Continue reading →
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Character Not Included for Cognitive Misers

Posted on July 4, 2012 by jackpelham

I just finished writing the extremely-abridged version of my book, which I am calling: Character Not Included for Cognitive Misers. The full text is as follows:

America is an awesome idea but the people are messed up. Anybody wanna fix that?

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The Irony of Independence Day

Posted on July 4, 2012 by jackpelham

This is the day upon which we celebrate the heroism and vision of our forefathers who, interestingly, thought, believed, spoke, and acted in ways that we would condemn today in our own contemporaries.

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How Celebrating the 4th is Hypocritical for Many Christians

Posted on July 4, 2012 by jackpelham

On the one hand, many Christians interpret Romans 13 as a command that Christians today are to obey the government.  (See the passage below.)  On the other hand, these very same Christians live in a nation that was founded by people who rebelled against the government of Britain.  And beyond that, America (including these particular Christians) spends about $3Billion each year to celebrate this rebellion-won independence. Continue reading →

Posted in Character, Politics, Religion | 2 Comments

Why “Liberal Hollywood” Creates “Conservative” Shows

Posted on July 2, 2012 by jackpelham

NOTE:  I don’t normally use language like “liberal” and “conservative” because I think there are some substantial problems with it, which I will explain briefly later.  But for the moment, let’s just pretend that I have no beef with the terms as I begin the tongue-in-cheek discussion below.

Everybody knows that Hollywood is a bastion for Liberals.  If you search [“Liberal Hollywood”] in quotation marks at Google, you get 353,000 returns.  (OK, now that I’ve posted this article, it’ll be 353,001, but let’s not get distracted.)  And if you remove the quotation marks, you get 47,200,000 returns!  So, like I said, everybody knows that Hollywood is liberal.  (It makes me cringe to write sentences like that, but remember that this is a tongue-in-cheek article!) Continue reading →

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The (Presumed) Unassailable Rights of Christians

Posted on July 2, 2012 by jackpelham

I observe in life that some Christians behave as if they have certain unassailable rights.  Among them are:

  1. The right to make or to publish any assertion they like, and to never have to prove it.
  2. The right to challenge someone else’s assertion, but not have to prove that challenge.
  3. The right to demand that others prove their assertions, but to be exempt from having to prove one’s own assertions.
  4. The right to claim that “The Bible” says a thing, without ever having to show explicitly where and how it says it. Continue reading →
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If You Haven’t Done the Math, You Don’t Really Know Anything!

Posted on June 29, 2012 by jackpelham

“He’s always late!” complains the boss.  It turns out, however, that he’s late 8% of the time over the last year.  But the boss doesn’t know the numbers; he’s content just to go with his perception.

“Our church really follows the Biblical principle of tithing,” boasts the member.  He has no idea that never once in the Bible is there any record of Jesus or the apostles ever teaching the Christians to tithe.  He has never quantified this “principle” in which he so adamantly believes. Continue reading →

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“Because He’s Black”

Posted on June 29, 2012 by jackpelham

I witness a lot of people defending Obama’s various positions by use of the argument that those who oppose those positions aren’t really bringing meritorious arguments to the table, but are simply arguing against Obama “because he’s black”.

Interestingly, I also see a lot of people SUPPORTING Obama’s various positions, not because they have painstakingly vetted those positions and proven them to be meritorious, but merely Continue reading →

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“Constitutional”?

Posted on June 29, 2012 by jackpelham

“Constitutional”?

America has lost its mind when it opines that what is “constitutional” or “unconstitutional” is defined by the Supreme Court instead of by the Constitution.  And I hear Democrats and Republicans alike spouting this utterly stupid idea.

This is no matter of opinion.  Rather, Continue reading →

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The Stunning Question

Posted on June 22, 2012 by jackpelham

Every once in a while, a simple and straight-forward question comes along that can have profound effects on the people who give it the consideration it deserves.  The question itself seems to separate people into different types, based upon how they respond (or not) to it.  Some may end up changing their paradigms because of it while others adamantly harden their previous positions against any changes.  In this way, the question can even have a dividing effect, especially as its implications become apparent. Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Religion | 1 Comment