Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Attacking Ezzie and the Junior Lawyers (all of whom I like, by the way)

Because Ezzie badly misused one of my favorite expressions yesterday I thought I'd direct the olem to a little primer on "false choices." It is here.

Ezzie muddled the phrase with his response to my counter-argument to one of CWY's typically dopey statements: "Republicans work better on the radio than democrats for the same reason people buy japanese cars over americans: they offer a superior product."

I answered: "Potato chips sell better than oranges. Are potato chips superior?" My point: Frequently inferior products sell very well by appealing to the lowest common denominator, or by wrapping their shoddy merchandise in attractive packaging and adverts.

Ezzie's reply? "False choice."

Also, yesterday's post about the swift-boating of the Gore movie provoked lots of heated rhetoric, bad arguments, poor use of facts, and moronic analogies from my friends, the junior lawyers, but not one of them was willing to deal with the substance of the post. Three times I asked if anyone could justify the dirty tricks the post documented, dirty tricks paid for by oil companies seeking to protect their profits at the expense of truth and the enviroment. And three times I was ignored.

As CharlieHall sagely said: "When they realize you got them, they change the subject."

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