Sapere Aude!

Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly Debate Common at the White House

Here's John Stewart taking Fox News to task for selective moral outrage regarding Common's White House performance.

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O'Reilly invited Stewart on his show to debate his criticism of Fox and what the fact that Common was invited to the WH implies about the Administration.

To me it's pretty clear Fox News will look for and twist anything they can in order to make the Administration look bad. This is just another "paling around with terrorists" type smear.

Stewart on Releasing Photos of Osama's Corpse

There's been some debate over whether the Obama Administration should release some photos or video of Osama's corpse.  The main point against doing so seems to be concern over how the reaction to releasing the evidence in the Muslim world.  It's an understandable concern, but I don't think we should decide whether or not to do so based on the possible reactions of Muslims.  I think it's important that we all understand the human consequences and costs of our government's actions so that citizens can make informed decisions about what we should do regarding the actions of our government.  I'm of the same view about the death penalty.  If we are going to be a society that does these things then we should understand first hand the things we do in the name of our society.  It's shouldn't be sterilized so that we do not ever have to confront the ugliness that goes along with some of our actions.  Jon Stewart made the same basic case last night.

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This does not have anything to do with trying to convince conspiracy theorists and everything to do with understanding the things we do in the name of national security, foreign policy, etc.  It has to do with making informed decisions about how to govern ourselves.

Killing Terrorists and Innocents

Here's Jamieson/Regan's "terrorist tank" thought experiment from "On the Ethics of the Use of Animals in Science":

"Imagine that a terrorist has possession of a well-armed tank and is systematically slaughtering 45 innocent hostages whom he has fastened to a wall.  Attempts to negotiate a compromise fail.  The man will kill all the hostages if we do nothing.  Under the circumstances, there is only one reasonable alternative: blow up the tank.  But, there is a complication: the terrorist has strapped a young girl to the tank, and any weapon sufficient to blow up the tank will kill the child.  The girl is innocent.  Thus to blow up the tank is the harm an innocent, one who herself stands no chance of benefiting from the attack.  Ought we to blow up the tank?"

Although the details are not exactly the same, killing Osama Bin Ladin also raises the question of whether it is ever permissible to kill someone who is, at least arguably, an innocent.

Osama bin Laden used one of his wives as a human shield during the firefight with U.S. forces at the compound in Pakistan where he was killed, the White House’s counterterrorism chief said Monday.

The woman died along with bin Laden, one of his sons and two other men in a daring U.S. raid that John Brennan described as one of the “gutsiest calls” by a president in recent memory.

Thought experiments matter.

Gitmo Files: A Few Bad Apples?

I recall a lot of people, er, my friends in the GOP, claiming that the problems at Gitmo were just the result of a few bad apples and claiming liberals were making a big deal out of nothing.

Limbaugh Upset with Fox Panel for Praising Obama's Memorial Speech.

Limgaugh hates Obama so much that he cannot stand it when other conservatives give him credit for anything.

The people that take this guy seriously as a political commentator remind me of the people that think soap operas are real.  I mean seriously, Limbaugh complains about Obama sounded educated of all things.  How horrible!  Actually, I see why Limbaugh would hate educated people.  The more educated you are the less likely you are to believe his nonsense.

TDS on Reactions to Obama's Memorial Speech

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The most hilarious comment I read about Obama's speech was a Facebook status update by one of my wife's college friends. It read, "Waiting for Obama to finish his memorial speech so I can hear the GOP rebuttal."

Obama's Remarks at the Memorial Service

Here's video of Obama's remarks at the memorial service tonight.

Now, compare that with this . . . 

Is Julian Assange a Cyber-Terrorist?

Mitch McConnell thinks he is one.  I wonder McConnell will rethink his position now that Julian Assauge is giving Obama an ultimatum?

MADRID — President Barack Obama should resign if it can be shown that he approved spying by US diplomatic figures on UN officials, the founder of WikiLeaks said in an interview published Sunday.

"The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval," Julian Assange told Spanish daily El Pais.

"Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign," he added during an Internet chat interview published online.

SNL's take on WikiLeaks was pretty funny.

The Rally to Restore Sanity: Nonpartisan, but political - Rally to Restore Sanity - Salon.com

Stewart occasionally preaches Broderian false equivalence, and it's easily his most annoying trait, but while the Broders beg for a Serious Grownup to rescue idiot Americans from their own passions, Stewart's message is basically that all Americans have the ability to just not be assholes, and the press has a responsibility to not reward being an asshole.

(The only actual moment where everyone's worst fears about the event came true was the horrible Kid Rock song about how influential millionaires can't do anything to make the world a better place besides care, a bunch, about war and stuff.)

As a piece of politicking, the Rally to Restore Sanity got a couple hundred thousand young liberals excited about sincerity and inspired about their nation on the eve of the midterm elections. I can't really see a downside, unless you think tepid criticisms of MSNBC's tone will convince liberals not to vote this Tuesday.

via www.salon.com

Some people I know went to the rally, but left feeling underwhelmed.  One took the Kid Rock/Sheryl Crowe duet as a cue to leave.  I saw the rally on TV.  I laughed a couple times, and was annoyed by Stewart's false equivalences.  If we're making errors in reasoning to appear non-partisian, objective or fair and balanced, then we're making a mistake.  One of the main things I like about The Daily Show and Stewart as a host is that he often tries to bring a little reason to political discourse.  He often gets his laughs by pointing out blatant contradictions or fallacious reasoning in political discourse.  So, when Stewart commits the very kind of error that he would normally be pointing out to get laughs I guess the joke is on him, this time.  Let's not pretend the evidence in support of the claim that George Bush committed war crimes is not equivalent to the evidence in support of the claim that Obama is a Marxist.  Let's not pretend like the right and left are equally culpable for the recent political violence.  Right now the trouble pretty clearly is coming from the right.

 

 

 

It is precisely for this reason that his false equivalences are so problematic to me.

Colbert on Education, Indoctination, and Obama's School Speech

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