Sophistry (Word of the Day)

A lot of this going around. Beware. Be prepared.

Noun

1.

sophistry - a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone

• Sophistry, Logic, and Philosophy
  "There is in sophistry a similarity to precisely what some praise as the value of symbolic logic: in knowing logic a person in principle knows everything, because there is nothing that can't be argued in it. Plato has the Visitor in the Sophist make the same observation: 'In fact, take expertise in disputation as a whole. Doesn't it seem like a capacity that's sufficient for carrying on controversies about absolutely everything?'
  "The difference between philosophy and sophistry on this point could perhaps be summed up by saying that, while sophistry represents an abstract universality, philosophy's universality is essentially concrete. Sophistry is indifferent to content, and this indifference prevents it from integrating what it knows into a well-ordered and meaningful whole. . . . Sophistry can 'know' this or that, but it cannot see how these things hang together or how they fit into the cosmos, because to do so would require genuine knowledge of the good."
  
  (D. C. Schindler, Plato's Critique of Impure Reason: On Goodness and Truth in the Republic. Catholic Univ. of America Press, 2008)
• • "As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone,
    And hides the ruin that it feeds upon,
    So sophistry cleaves close to and protects
    Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects."
    (William Cowper, "The Progress of Error")

Sophism in the modern definition is a specious argument used for deceiving someone. In ancient Greece, sophists were a category of teachers who specialized in using the tools of philosophy and rhetoric for the purpose of teaching arete—excellence, or virtue—predominantly to young statesmen and nobility. The practice of charging money for education and providing wisdom only to those who could pay led to the condemnations made by Socrates, through Plato in his dialogues, as well as Xenophon's Memorabilia. Through works such as these, Sophists were portrayed as "specious" or "deceptive", hence the modern meaning of the term.

 The term originated from Greek σόφισμα, sophisma, from σοφίζω, sophizo "I am wise"; confer σοφιστής, sophistēs, meaning "wise-ist, one who does wisdom," and σοφός, sophós means "wise man".

ECB Study: Big Government Is Bad for the Economy....(DUH!!)

File this under we know more than has been proven. Finally, the socialists are grudgingly realizing that while socialism, Keynesian economic theory and big government may work in theory, in practice, not so much.

ECB Study: Big Government Is Bad for the Economy | Cris Sheridan | FINANCIAL SENSE:

"The European Central Bank may have just disproved the entire European big-government model in their recent release of an exhaustive study analyzing the relationship between government size and economic growth. After reviewing a massive 108 countries over a 38 year time period, they came to a shocking and definitive conclusion:

Big government is bad for economic growth!

“Our results show a significant negative effect of the size of government on growth.”

“Interestingly, government consumption is consistently detrimental to output growth irrespective of the country sample considered (OECD, emerging and developing countries).”"

Now, for most people who operate based on common sense and formulating their opinions from the natural world they experience every day, this is not a shocking result; but, unfortunately, many economists and others need 44 page research studies and sophisticated differential equation models (see pages 31-33) to conclude what most people have known and said for quite some time.

As a wise man once said, "The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus." (see video below)

CLASSIC!!! MILTON FRIEDMAN SCHOOLING PHIL DONAHUE:
http://www.ecb.int/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp1399.pdf

"All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force." -- George Orwell

I thought sophists abhorred the use of metaphors anyway??

Can we PLEASE STOP with the use of inaccurate metaphors such as this one in an attempt to explain the debt gridlock to those of us with 'lesser' intelligence?

On Michele Bachmann's migraines:

"Me? I am more concerned about Bachmann's promise to vote against any bill that raises the debt ceiling. Congress bought the car years ago, and put some miles on it; now Bachmann argues that it is moral to avoid the car payments - that's what scares me."

or this one....

Kitchen Table Debate: Families Manage to Balance Budgets, Government Fails to Do the Same - FoxNews.com:

"'A family, if they get over-extended and their credit card it too high, they don't just stop paying their bills,' he said."

It hasn't helped us push the car out of the ditch and now we have no clue where the damn keys are because the driver and the passenger are too busy fighting over them.

What the TP and other fiscal conservatives concerned about our fiscal condition seem to be saying instead is more along the following lines. I'm sure we've all had similar experiences with our friendly credit card representative or bank loan officer.

"Before we give you the credit limit increase you're requesting Mr. & Mrs. Congress, we notice that your FICO score is lower than it's been the past few times we've granted you an increase. You are now -- what we refer to as -- a sub-prime client. Not trying to pass judgement and I do see that you have been a quality client in the past. It just seems as if things have taken a change for the worse for you recently. I hope you understand our position in this matter.

Our concern RIGHT NOW is, you may not be quite as good a risk to pay us back as you've been in the past.

Perhaps you may need to take some credit counseling classes or maybe a Dave Ramsey course or two before we grant THIS increase. Nothing personal (or racially motivated, for that matter) about it.

You understand, it's just good business practice.

After that Messrs. Moody and Standard & Poors would like to review your plan before we decide on your new credit limit and (higher) interest rate. Have a nice day."

GET A CLUE, FOLKS. (Catch Phrase Alert) IT'S THE DEBT, STUPID!!!

And BTW, grossly misrepresenting peoples position in such a fashion is not a good way to generate good faith bargaining, the old "reach across the aisle" BS we keep hearing. If someone misrepresented me like that it would demonstrate that they either didn't listen very well or had no intention of working with you in the first place.

And BTW II, credit limit increases or debt limit increases, should only apply to 'future' purchases or expenditures, not past charges. Or am I missing something?

Hell, if you could call your CC company and get an extension for shit you've already charged, there would be no such thing as OVER-LIMIT FEES.

Or maybe I need the 'Fiscally Prudent to Crack-Head Economics' translator.

Why either side wastes valuable time trying to continue to score rhetorical points when anyone with a pulse and an IQ over room temperature know that both parties are at fault for past sins, IDK. Just get it done people.

OBAMANOMICS - From the Sophist in Chief

If the shoe fits, WEAR IT!!!

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soph·ist
noun /ˈsäfist/
sophists, plural

A paid teacher of philosophy and rhetoric in ancient Greece, associated in popular thought with moral skepticism and specious reasoning

A person who reasons with clever but fallacious arguments

sophism - A flawed argument superficially correct in its reasoning, usually designed to deceive. An intentional fallacy
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sophism

sophism - a deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

sophism - A plausible argument that is actually fallacious, especially when someone dishonestly presents it as if it were legitimate reasoning.
www.philosophypages.com/dy/s7.htm

sophists - traveling teachers that taught how to win an argument; didn't believe in gods; refused the idea of an absolute right or wrong
quizlet.com/print/1496703/

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In 2006, Senator Obama argued and voted against raising the debt ceiling. In 2007 and 2008, he didn't even bother to vote.

In 2006...

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. … Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.”

Obama and Warren Buffet don't need tax breaks. 

They both would be willing to "give" more in taxes, but they've never been asked. 

In what Bizarre-o world are taxes paid equated to "voluntary charitable giving" and taxes charged by the government are equated to a "voluntary request" for payment.

Am I missing the part of the tax code that outlines the penalties for non-compliance. 

This is the same mind-set that believes the federal government provides "subsidies" to churches because it does not tax them. It's all the governments property, they just decide to let you keep some of it. 

UNBELIEVABLE.

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Obama will cut deficit in half FEB 2009

http://youtu.be/SaQUU2ZL6D8

"Obama talks about how he will cut the deficit in half during his first term - and why it's so important. Really? The 2008 budget deficit was 458 billion. Obama's proposed new budget for this year has a deficit of 1.1 TRILLION. For God's sake - WTF???"

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Let me see if I get this straight Chief. "You were going to cut the deficit in half, before you decided to double it as far as the eye can see." Is that about right? Or am I not hearing the words that are coming out of your Teleprompter correctly?

PLAN A - fail miserably

PLAN B - hope electorate forgot about PLAN B and proceed to PLAN B

PLAN B - lather, rinse, repeat.

Obamanomics = Bullshit²

What happened in Wisconsin showed that the mind-set of these government idiots and their lackeys is "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine to if I want to take it." 

Our standard of living has been a bit of a charade for decades and now the bill is coming due. GDP has been highly subsidized by government spending for many years, growth has been an illusion.