Begging Questions

Almost daily I hear hosts on TV incorrectly using at term from philosophy: "begs the question." I'm not sure I have mastered the correct usage, but I will try to explain.

Suppose I make the following argument. "Water seeks its own level. The Pacific and Atlantic oceans are well connected, so sea level must be the same in both places." 

As it happens, sea level is frequently measured by scientists working in the Pacific and Atlantic, and the level in the Pacific is unmistakably higher by four to eight inches. 

Water does seek its own level, but other factors matter. Gravity isn't uniform.  Some water is saltier and denser.  Currents and winds push water into piles. The Earth's rotation swings oceans around.

In my argument, I asked you to accept a flawed premise.  I begged the question. 

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Award

A few weeks ago, my wife and I tried to watch the movie that won the Academy Award for best picture. After about 15 minutes we turned it off in order to watch anything else. So I can't critique the film, except to say that I thought the opening reeked of falsity on every level.  So why did it win  awards? 

I would like to know. I must have missed something.

How to Lose

When I was in high school 75 years ago, I was taught that Robert E. Lee had been a brilliant general, while U. S. Grant had been a bumbler who prevailed only because he had a large army. 

Today historians are apt to say that Robert E.  Lee enjoyed two or three brilliant if rash tactical victories early in the Civil War. Then he invaded the North twice (really bad strategy) and got clobbered, and then he spent the rest of the war skillfully retreating from Grant while the Army of Northern Virginia dwindled to nothing.  

With Lincoln, Sherman snd Sheridan, Grant planned to reduce his opponent to nothing at all. 

Grant used his assets: the railroads, the telegraph, a constant stream of new recruits, his ability to write clear, definite orders, etc.  

In short, Grant started with a winning strategy, employing five Union armies at once.  Something like Eisenhower in World War Two. Not like Trump's Iran war.  Trump has no strategy. 

Imagine starting a war without a strategy.  Trump is an idiot. 

1, 2, 3,

 Be the first one in your block

To come home in a box

--Country Joe

Schroedinger's War

I heard Catherine Rampell use the term "Schroedinger's War". She was talking about the way MAGAs refer to our savaging of Iran.  MAGAs call what is happening there a war and (at the same time) insist that it is not a war. 

The purpose of insisting that we are at war and we are not at war (at the same time) is to illustrate a point in quantum mechanics and, no, it isn't. 

Watching Trump stagger from one diction error to another demonstrates how much his brain has turned into fried noodles.

("Shroedinger's cat" is a famous physics word problem about a cat that is alive and dead at the same time.)

Tree Pollen

I'm allergic to tree pollen. Right now I am coughing like Hank Williams in the Tower of Song.  

Modern War

 A modern war is one in which you hope that both sides lose.

What?

El Supremo has, at last, found his calling: making Netanyahu's dreams come true. 

Also, destroying Iran distracts from El Supremo's history of pedophilia. 

But the media ignore the fact that the Saudis, Iran's hated rival for power in West Asia, gave whispering Jared Kushner two billion dollars to do what?

Improv War

In a war El Supremo improvises and does whatever comes to mind. Soon he loses interest. He makes up an imaginary outcome. In his rotting mind the inhabitants of the country he is crushing love him so much that they overthrow themselves. They erect a giant marble bust of his head. They rename their country for him.  They beg him to have sex with their children.