CADRE Comments

Imagine two British gentlemen sitting in an English garden engaging in conversation about the Queen's knights. The first makes the assertion, "All of the Queen's knights have been brave." The second, a more circumspect individual, responds, "But what about  Sir Robin ? He wasn't brave at all." "Well," responds the first, "that's because he wasn't a true knight." What, if anything, is wrong with the response of the first British Gentlemen? Anyone familiar with the ongoing debate between Christians and Atheist/Skeptics on the Internet probably believes that the first of these two gentlemen has committed the "No True Scotsman" Fallacy. If you are unfamiliar with the fallacy, it probably means that you have not been engaging in these types of debates because it is almost never used anywhere else. There is a reason for that: it really isn't much of a fallacy. Perhaps I should say that the "No True Scotsman...

At one point in my life, I thought that soap operas were the most mindless thing on afternoon television. That was saying a lot, given that some of the competition for soap operas were afternoon children's programs. (My personal favorite was "Lighthouse Looey," a show so completely obscure that I can't even find mention of it using a Google search, but that's neither here nor there.) But today, a show that is so stunning in its mindlessness has surpassed even the most braindead of soap operas -- The View. Now, The View is an easy target. Five extremely politically-liberal women (actually, four extremely politically-liberal women and usually one conservative for contrast) sitting around a table trying to discuss politics and other items, but very little of what they say is worth the time that it takes to say it. Now, I don't mind them sharing their thoughts between themselves, but what I find most amazing is that they have an audience who watches this drivel....