Ms.-stake

Analogy Trainwreck

So, I happened to notice this gem of idiocy online yesterday...

When dealing with something this stupid, nothing less than a complete deconstruction is satisfactory, so let's begin, eh?

Use of the conjunction "While" in this way suggests a comparison is about to ensue. The noxious aroma of moral equivalence ("college administrators are as bad as ISIS," in this case) starts here.

ISIS doesn't "endorse" rape. It commits rape, repeatedly, as a matter of policy. (It also beheads people, but apparently the folks at Ms. couldn't quite find a way to tie college administrators to that, so...)

"Similarly" is a dead giveaway about what is going on here. It is the classic fallacy known as petitio principii (aka "begging the question"). It assumes that the truth of the claim ("college administrators are like ISIS") has already been established. This is the rhetorical equivalent of trying to steal a base.

"Facilitate" is the clearest indication that Ms. has no legitimate argument to make here. To equate monsters who commit rape deliberately, wantonly, and repeatedly with people whom they claim make it easier to rape women on college campuses shows the intellectual bankruptcy of their position. Even if what they claim about college administrations were true, there is no equivalence.

And, of course, it isn't true. The "college rape crisis" narrative of progressive feminists is complete bullshit.

"So, why did they publish something so obviously wrong?"

For some publications these days, it's all about getting attention...nothing else matters...it's a clickbait world...

God Bless America

Just when you think this great country of ours couldn't possibly get any greater...BAM!

"Great! Something that makes it even easier for you to kill yourself."

It's okay...they have bacon in Heaven, too...

It's Like a Secret Handshake

From the delightfully off-kilter webcomic xkcd, by Randall Munroe, which you should read every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as I do.

Until Next Time...

On November 12, 1947 Donald Brian Roeser was born in Long Island, New York. The son of a musical father, Roeser was in high school when the British Invasion began in earnest in 1964, and he began pursuing an interest in music by joining bands, first as a drummer and then as a guitarist.

Roeser with his 1969 Gibson SG Standard

By 1971, Roeser had formed Blue Öyster Cult with a former college classmate and some additional musicians, and had adopted the stage name "Buck Dharma." The group released its eponymous first album in January 1972, just as I was beginning the second semester of my freshman year in college.

I was hooked immediately, and have been a fan ever since. I've seen the group perform live three times, and I have probably spent as much "air guitar" time "playing" Buck Dharma as I have any of my other guitar heroes.

No one has quite the same combination of speed and melodiousness that Buck displays.

Today's send-off is Buck's best-known composition, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." It originally appeared on the band's Agents of Fortune album in 1976. The song became the band's biggest hit, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, and significantly increased the band's popularity on the concert circuit. Since its release, it has been featured in numerous movies and television programs. Stephen King quoted the song's lyrics at the outset of his epic 1978 novel The Stand, and the song itself was used in the opening sequence of the 1994 TV miniseries based on the book.

Happy birthday, Buck!