To: \u00a0Dave Mindeman
\nFrom: \u00a0Mitch Berg, Non-Physicist
\nRe: \u00a0Elementary Logic<\/p>\n
Mr. Mindeman,<\/p>\n
I had yogurt, oatmeal\u00a0and orange juice for breakfast this morning. \u00a0Then the sun rose.<\/p>\n
Clearly, the yogurt, oatmeal\u00a0and orange juice caused the sun to rise.<\/p>\n
Thus, I owe it to humanity to have yogurt, oatmeal\u00a0and orange juice\u00a0tomorrow, lest the world be plunged into darkness.<\/p>\n
You might respond “but Mitch, your breakfast didn’t cause the sun to rise!”.<\/p>\n
To which I’d reply “No, it is a FACT! \u00a0I had my\u00a0yogurt, oatmeal\u00a0and orange juice. \u00a0And then the sun rose!”<\/p>\n
You might reply “Mitch, that’s just stupid. \u00a0You’re taking a correlation between two factoids and claiming causation. \u00a0You’re ignoring the fact that the earth is rotating on its axis once a day, giving the sun the appearance of rising in the east…”<\/p>\n
“Dave, Dave, Dave. \u00a0Bubbeleh. \u00a0You’re rationalizing. \u00a0And clearly afraid of something. \u00a0Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go play “Moby Dick” on the tabletop with pencils, to prevent the volcano from blowing up under Los Angeles. \u00a0Again”.<\/p>\n
That is all.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Well, no. \u00a0It’s not “all”. \u00a0It’s just the beginning.<\/p>\n
We’ve gone back and forth a couple of times now; you insisted<\/a> that business does better with Democrats in charge; I showed you that there was a metric poo-ton of context<\/a>\u00a0that showed the claim was, let’s just say, overly broad. \u00a0You responded with a “blizzard of facts<\/a>“; I showed you that the “facts” were, in fact, context-free non-sequiturs.<\/p>\n You’ve responded by saying I was “rationalizing”. \u00a0Well, you’re close. \u00a0“Rationalizing” comes from the same Latin root as “reasoning”. \u00a0I’ll give you partial credit.<\/p>\n You’ve shown “facts” on the same level of detail as my yogurt and orange juice claim; I’ve called it out, twice. \u00a0And I could do it a third time…<\/p>\n …but you’ll find out soon enough.<\/p>\n