(Hat tip Andrew Sullivan.)
Humor
January 22, 2012
January 16, 2012
The Simpsons, "The Liberal Straw Man Song"
On a recent episode of The Simpsons the show took issue with how Fox News characterizes liberals.
If you're not familiar with the straw man fallacy see here. The basic idea of a straw man fallacy is that a position is (mis)characterized so at to make it look absurd or easily refutable, criticize this distorted mischaracterization showing its flaws, then suppose to have shown that the actual position has been defeated. It's attacking a "straw man" of the position rather than the strongest case for the rival view. In "Politically Inept with Homer Simpson," Homer gets a job as a pundit on a conservative infotainment network. The network execs readily acknowledge that they present a straw man of the liberal position by suggesting it's based on envy of the rich and turning kids into homosexuals. Of course, there are reasonable, principled arguments for the liberal positions on taxation and tolerance of homosexuality or even same-sex marriage that have nothing to do with envy or making kids gay.
January 15, 2012
Colbert Super Pac's Romney Attack Ad
December 25, 2011
December 12, 2011
Jon Stewart on Fox News' War on Christmas
Jon Stewart illustrates what's wrong with Fox News' reasoning about their phony "War on Christmas."
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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The conservative religious types that complain about the "war on Christmas" are, of course, the same ones that often complain about political correctness. But, the "war on Christmas" is just their version of it.
July 21, 2011
Michael Sandel on The Colbert Report
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Michael Sandel | ||||
| www.colbertnation.com | ||||
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June 29, 2011
Stewart vs. Fox News
The Stewart vs. Fox News saga continues. Ever since Stewart's last interview on Fox they've been trading barbs over who is more biased.
Here's the key point. Fox News presents itself as a news agency. Even if Jon Stewart is not "just a comedian" and engages in political activism on his show the notion that we should hold Stewart to the same journalistic standards of objectivity and impartiality that we expect news agencies to live up to is laughable. So, please Fox News, stop trying to pretend that The Daily Show is equivalent to your one hour of news programing or your many ours of opinion shows like The O'Reilly Factor.
June 15, 2011
Virtue Ethics in South Park
"The List" episode of South Park draws attention to one of the three most influential approaches to normative ethics in Western philosophy, virtue ethics. All the girls at school make a list that ranks the attractiveness of the boys. Butters is exuberant that he's ranked No. 11. But, suspiciously, is ranked quite low on the list, which is a blow to his self esteem. Abraham Lincoln then appears to teach Kyle that being physically attractive is not all it's cracked up to be. What really matters in life is being a good person and developing virtuous character traits.
This approach to ethics emphasizes the notion that cultivating virtues is required for living the ethical or good life. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle provides us with a classical example of a virtue ethics. Just as a plant requires water, nutrients, soil, and sun light in order to grow or flourish as a plant so too human beings require virtues like justice, patience, courage, truthfulness, etc. in order to live a happy life or flourish as a human being. So, according to this view, Kyle should really work hard not to become an asshole. Assholes are vicious people or people who have not only failed to cultivate virtuous, but that have managed to cultivate negative character traits that impede our pursuit of a human flourishing.
Primary Source Reading
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics.
Secondary Readings
June 14, 2011
June 01, 2011
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Sarah Palin's Bus Tour Media Stunt
Last night Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert ripped Sarah Palin's bus tour stunt a new one.
It does seem as though Fox News has one set of standards for Palin and another set for Santorum and Gingrich.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Sarah Palin's Bus Tour | ||||
| www.colbertnation.com | ||||
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Colbert's line about giving money to Palin's PAC to send her around the country so she can learn about US History for only pennies a day cracked me up. Hilarious.
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