Tell Me No Lies

Conundrum

We have understood the basics of argumentation and persuasion ever since Aristotle set them out in Rhetoric back in the 4th century BC. One of those basic principles is that the advocate, if she/he is to be successful, must speak accurately about factual matters. The advocate's ethos (a critical element of persuasion) requires the audience to accept that the advocate has sufficient knowledge of the relevant subject matter to speak intelligently about it. An ethical advocate knows this to be so, and acts accordingly. In other words...

"Don't be sayin' shit you can't prove."

Actually, Ari, the maxim I had in mind is semper necessitas probandi incumbit ei qui agit, typically rendered in English as "he who asserts must prove." In order to persuade others to accept your opinions on issues, in other words, you need to be able to demonstrate that the facts upon which those opinions rest are, you know, facts. Your arguments must meet the requirements of logic as well, but that's a subject for another time. My conundrum is what to think about advocates who base their arguments on demonstrable falsehoods. I want to believe that most advocates in the public arena are arguing in good faith, but...

Consider, for instance, an article by Christopher Ingraham that appeared in The Washington Post a few days ago which claims that we have averaged a mass shooting per day in this country so far in 2015. Even for people who don't follow the issue closely, that doesn't sound quite right. Most people would be inclined to suspect that Mr. Ingraham must be doing something a little screwy with the way he's counting things. And, of course, he is.

Now the REAL question, for me, is whether Mr. Ingraham knows that his factual claim is false, or whether he actually believes what he has written is true. If it's the latter, he's obviously too ill-informed to be taken seriously on the issue, and should shut up about it until he has his facts straight. If it's the former...well, if that's the case one hopes that karma is a real thing, and Mr. Ingraham will receive his due for his prevarications.

Another instance of the same sort of thing:

Needless to say, given her recent public statements I am less likely to give serial fabulist Cecile Richards the benefit of the doubt. She knows she's lying, but hopes you won't bother to fact-check her spin. As the old saying goes, every word she utters is a lie, including "a," "an," and "the." I have little confidence that justice will be done in her case in this world. The next, on the other hand, will be a whole 'nother ballgame...

Things That Make Me Happy: Funny Game Edition

One of the great delights of being a baseball fan is that you just never know what is going to happen in any given game. My beloved Kansas City Royals were struggling to score runs over their past three games (just 3 runs over their past 27 innings, an average of 1 run per game), and on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium faced Houston Astros ace Dallas Keuchel, starter for the American League in the recent All-Star Game and the league leader in wins (12) and ERA (2.12). Keuchel had thrown eight scoreless innings against them in Houston less than a month ago. On top of that, two of their best hitters, All-Stars Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer, were held out of the game because they bat left-handed and Keuchel might be the toughest lefthander in the league right now.

So, of course the Royals would score four runs off of Keuchel before he recorded three outs. Of course they would. It didn't look promising after the Royals had the bases loaded with no outs, and had two straight runners thrown out at home on ground balls, but Omar Infante came through with a two-out, two-run single, and rookie Cheslor Cuthbert hit his first major league double to make it 4-0...

"Dallas Who?"

All-Star center fielder Lorenzo Cain added a solo home run in the 2nd, his 11th of the season, and Yordano Ventura showed why he was the Opening Day starter, scattering six hits and allowing only a single run in 7 innings. Ventura had struggled so mightily of late that he was recently demoted to AAA, only to be brought back due to the season-ending injury to Jason Vargas. You'd have never known it to watch him pitch on Sunday: 1 earned run, 0 walks, 5 strikeouts. The bullpen didn't allow a baserunner in the 8th and 9th, and the Royals had a satisfying 5-1 victory.

After finishing their last July homestand at 4-2, the Royals hit the road for games with the Indians, Blue Jays, and Tigers. The team won't see Kauffman Stadium again until August 7...

Mug Shot

I hadn't bought a new Starbucks coffee mug in awhile (the last new one was the "Siren's Tail" mug back in 2014), mostly because there haven't been any releases lately that appealed to me much.

Yesterday, though, I saw this one at the Starbucks outlet in my local Hy-Vee, and next thing you know...

"Admit it. You've lost count of how many Starbucks mugs you own, haven't you?"

I actually have, yes. Is that a bad thing?

The Newest Royal

On Sunday, the Royals announced that they had completed a trade with the Cincinnati Reds to bring Reds ace and All-Star starting pitcher Johnny Cueto (runner-up in last year's National League Cy Young vote) to Kansas City in exchange for young pitching prospects Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb, and Cody Reed.

It is exciting to add a player of this caliber to the team, of course, and I'm sure Johnny will enjoy having the Royals' All-Star bullpen backing him up, as well as having our historically awesome defense behind him. Cueto is also reportedly happy about being reunited with fellow Dominican Edinson Volquez, with whom he was a teammate for four years in Cincinnati when he first came up. I hope that means he'd be interested in staying with the team for awhile. He's eligible to become a free agent at the end of the season, though, and it is unlikely the Royals would be able to match the best offers he will attract. He'd have to really want to stay in KC.

The likeliest scenario is that the Royals traded Finnegan, Lamb, and Reed for two months of Cueto's services, plus postseason play. If he leaves, the team would also get a draft pick as compensation for another team signing him. Right now, both the team and its fan base are focused on this season. Having gone 29 years between postseason appearances, the Royals and their fans understand full well that opportunities must be siezed upon when they come along...

"I looked great in red, but I'll look awesome in Royals blue!"

Say "Hello" to India

As I wrote about here, my first encounter with my hero Joe Bonamassa and his music was watching the video of his 2009 concert at the Royal Albert Hall on a PBS broadcast in December 2010. The whole show was amazing, but he converted me from fan to fanatic with the encore (see today's send-off). The guitar he was playing at that point in the show was an Ernie Ball Music Man 25th Anniversary model, which I had never seen before. I learned what it was by doing a little online research the next day. And I decided I wanted to own one...

"Because of course you did."

 Mind your own business, please...

Anyway, what I didn't realize at first was that those guitars were only made for one year. They were really, really scarce. And so, like Ahab scouring the oceans for Moby Dick, I tried to locate this particular guitar. By the time I had been searching for about a year and a half with no success I was ready to give up the quest. But, as often happens, I managed to find India (named for the song Joe was playing during that encore) in the unlikeliest of places. A session musician in Los Angeles was "thinning the herd," as guitar collectors sometimes do, and had decided to part with her...

2009 Ernie Ball Music Man 25th Anniversary Model

I had found her just in the nick of time, too, because just a few days after FedEx delivered her to me...

...I got to meet Joe in person prior to his concert in Omaha on April 26, 2012. The necktie I'm wearing features him playing his iteration of the guitar at the RAH show. I had it made by Zazzle just for the occasion.

The only difference between India and Joe's guitar is that India has the tremolo bridge.

Meeting Joe and having him "meet" India was, of course, a peak life experience, as was getting to take a student a mine along to meet him as well. My student got his Stratocaster signed by Joe, but I was so nervous I forgot to ask him to sign India. I shared the story about my brain cramp with my friends on Joe's fan forum, and honestly I think I'd rather have the funny story to tell anyway. I did get his autographs on Karla's and Paula's pickguards at a subsequent meeting...

Until Next Time...

Today's send-off is Joe playing that first encore at his dream-come-true 2009 concert at the Royal Albert Hall. It begins with him performing the instrumental composition "India" (from his 2007 album Sloe Gin) and ends with "Mountain Time" (from his 2002 album So It's Like That), perhaps Joe's best-loved song among his fans. India and I both invite you to enjoy...