“It's Only a Flesh Wound!”

Thank Cthulhu It's Friday!

You're welcome...

Knowing When to Resign... 

One of the more irksome aspects of engaging in rhetorical combat on a regular basis is what to do with the opponent who simply finds it impossible to acknowledge that her/his argument has been defeated. It is quite similar to the problem I encounter occasionally when playing in chess tournaments: the opponent who stubbornly plays on, in a hopelessly lost position, just to be a jerk...

"Your position has been a shambles for the last 10 moves, мудак..."

(If you want to know what "мудак" means, you can cut and paste it into Google Translate. Hint: The player in the photo is Vasily Smyslov, a favorite of mine, and the language is Russian. Have fun!)

In chess, the sporting thing to do in such situations is to resign, which is how the vast majority of players handle things. Every once in awhile, though, you get a real мудак...

You get them FAR more often in the rhetorical arenas, especially online. Just a couple of days ago, for instance, I engaged someone on the subject of public school finance and school quality. In the course of putting forward his argument, he relied on a "fact" that was, actually, false. Took me far too long to get this person to admit he had made a mistake (he conceded that I was "technically correct," which is what people often say when trying to avoid the implications of their error). And when it came to his actual argument, which depended upon the erroneous "fact," he tried for quite some time to find a way to revive it, before finally "resigning" (which he did in this instance by simply disappearing).

I fail to see the point of behaving this way. If you put forward an argument and someone is able to defeat it, I believe it actually adds credibility to politely acknowledge that fact. And, if you have a lick of sense, such experiences should also teach you to build better arguments in the first place. If you refuse to acknowledge the obvious, you eventually wind up sounding like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail...

More (much more) on the sorry state of debating skills these days in our fair Republic in the days to come...

Things That Make Me Happy: Sports Edition

This is a rather special weekend. My beloved Kansas City Royals are playing host to the loathsome St. Louis Cardinals at Kauffman Stadium...

...the most beautiful park in all of Major League Baseball.

This series is of more than passing interest in part because both the Royals and the Cardinals are not only leading their divisions as of today, but are doing so with the best records in their respective leagues. Even more than a possible World Series preview, though, this is obviously a clash between the forces of Good and Evil. It's really that simple...

This man was born to be a hero...

Behold the face of pure evil...

All kidding aside, this ought to be a corker of a series between the two best teams in baseball. How often do we get to see that during the regular season?

Housekeeping

Just a couple of quick notes about the blog itself. These things are probably of scant interest to readers, but since the whole point of this thing is to provide a window into my thoughts and feelings...

• I'm still fiddling around with some of the settings in Blogger, so from time to time when you check in it is possible that things might look a little...weird. Please bear with me as I try to find the most appealing look for this place...
• I haven't been able to manage it just yet, but the plan is to have a new post up each morning, so that whatever I'm banging on about on any given day will be visible pretty much whenever you visit. Not everyone is a night owl like I am...

Until Next Time...

In honor of tonight's game, here's one of my favorite songs from 1985, the year the Royals and Cardinals actually did meet in the World Series. The song's title is even a sly reference for baseball afficianados...

 

Got MY Wayfarers on, baby...