Unbending

Fallacy Watch

For quite awhile now I have avoided writing about political matters here, mostly because of
the sickening prospect of what will happen on November 8, 2016.

As a conservative, I have been opposed to asshat Donald Trump since the day he announced his intent to hijack the Republican party. That was long before there was any sort of recognized movement in opposition to him.



Now that his crushing defeat is just a couple of weeks away, a lot of the pundits who think black-eyed skank Hillary Clinton becoming President is the worst thing that could possibly happen have taking to attacking those of us who refuse to bend the knee to Cheeto Jesus.

I can dismiss a lot of that sort of thing as childish, content-free hand-waving, but when someone like William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal starts in on me, that's a whole 'nother ballgame.

I don't disagree with much of anything conservative stalwart Jonah Goldberg said in
his dismissal of McGurn's column, but I would say that McGurn's analysis, taken as a whole, isn't so much a bunch of category errors as it is an example of one of the oldest logical fallacies: the composition fallacy. It is a category error, for instance, to suggest that Never Trump is some sort of discrete entity, but McGurn's errors are of a rather different sort.

McGurn is unable to resist the temptation to impute to every member of the Never Trump movement what McGurn sees as the defective arguments of a cherry-picked handful of its members. He does this, of course, because his own argument, born as it is out of a desperate need to blame someone for Trump's impending defeat (and thus President Hillary), is so weak.

I didn't buy McGurn's argument when Jon Snow made it to Mance Rayder on Game of Thrones, and I don't buy it now...

"One advantage of being a quadruped is that I don't have a knee to bend."

And even if you did, old friend, I think you would decline to do so...

Feast Day

Saint Luke, by Guido Reni

Today is the feast day of St. Luke, one of the Four Evangelists who authored the canonical Gospels of the New Testament.

Luke was a close associate of
St. Paul, and in addition to the gospel ascribed to him he is also credited with writing the book known as Acts of the Apostles.
That means he authored more
of the New Testament than any other single writer, including
St. Paul himself.

Luke is the patron of artists and physicians.

New Gadget Update

Part of the fun of acquiring a new tech gadget is customizing it to make it uniquely my own, and that is certainly proving to be the case with my new Motorola Moto X Pure Edition.

Among other things, I have chosen for now to eschew the live wallpapers I used to use on my previous Moto X, replacing them with a cool picture of the headstock from a 1955 Fender Telecaster.

I'm not sure how long this will last (I tend to change phone wallpapers fairly often), but for now I'll be fishing for compliments on this one.

"You know nobody gives a damn about the wallpaper on your phone, right?"

I disagree, but time will tell...

One Step Closer

The ALCS resumed last night at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, but home cooking didn't help the Blue Jays, who lost 4-2 to the Indians, who now lead the best-of-seven series three games to none.

Much of the game's early drama was provided by Indians starter Trevor Bauer, who was attempting to pitch with an injured hand. He wasn't able to,
and the bleeding caused his removal from the game before he had even completed the 1st inning.

That began a parade of Indians relievers: Dan Otero, Jeff Manship, Zach McAllister, Bryan Shaw, Cody Allen, and Andrew Miller held the potent Blue Jays offense to just two runs on seven hits.





Toronto has now scored a total of three runs in three games during this ALCS, which has them on the brink of elimination this afternoon in Game Four.

"Wait a second! Is that optimism I'm hearing?"

I want the Indians to win, and it looks pretty good for them now, but Yogi was right...

Hillary ♥️ Catholics

From the pen of Henry Payne, whose editorial cartoons you should read often, as I do.

Until Next Time...

On October 18, 1926 Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born in St. Louis, Missouri
to a middle-class family. By the time he reached high school Chuck Berry's interest in a career in music was already apparent. A trip to Chicago in 1955, at which electric blues legend Muddy Waters sent Berry to see record company executive Leonard Chess, set Berry on a course that made him the King of Rock and Roll.

Much of Berry's career unfolded during a time when singles, not albums, were the dominant musical format among young people. Thus, it is no surprise that only four of Berry's studio albums ever cracked the Billboard 200 Albums chart, even though he had 28 charting singles in his career, including seven Top 10 hits.

His only Top 10 album was the October 1972 release The London Chuck Berry Sessions, a hybrid featuring studio tracks on one side and live concert cuts on the other.

That album peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, by far the best showing of any Berry album. Sales were driven in large measure by
the novelty hit "My Ding-a-Ling," included among the album's live tracks. A radio edit of the song went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart on October 21, 1972, just three days after Chuck turned 46 years old. It was his lone No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart.

Nevertheless, Berry's career as a songwriter and performer got him included in the inaugural class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Among other distinctions, Chuck was the only rock and roll performer whose music was included on the Voyager Golden Record in 1977.

Today's send-off is Chuck's final charting single (it peaked at No. 27), a live performance of "Reelin' and Rockin'" from the London Sessions album. Enjoy...