Sunday, April 29, 2018

Presidency is strangled by too much actionable information combined with the hubris of the office that something good and effective can be done about it.

Michael Hayden's "The End of Intelligence" op ed revealed that the President's daily intelligence briefing before Trump was up to sixty pages long. What is a President to do with daily briefing that tells you what? What Putin had for breakfast? That combined with the Atlantic's The Hardest Job in the World make the case that the Presidency is strangled by too much actionable information combined with the hubris of the office that something good and effective can be done about it.    

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Political debate suffers from argument that is valid but not sound

An argument form is valid if and only if whenever the premises are all true, then conclusion is true. An argument is valid if its argument form is valid. For a sound argument, An argument is sound if and only if it is valid and all its premises are true

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Mixing religion and politics makes for poor religion and poor politics

       If utilitarian calculations are to be applied, they need to be fully applied. For a package of political benefits, these evangelical leaders have associated the Christian faith with racism and nativism. They have associated the Christian faith with misogyny and the mocking of the disabled. They have associated the Christian faith with lawlessness, corruption, and routine deception. They have associated the Christian faith with moral confusion about the surpassing evils of white supremacy and neo-Nazism. The world is full of tragic choices and compromises. But for this man? For this cause? 
        It is difficult to see something you so deeply value discredited so comprehensively. Evangelical faith has shaped my life, as it has the lives of millions. Evangelical history has provided me with models of conscience. Evangelical institutions have given me gifts of learning and purpose. Evangelical friends have shared my joys and sorrows. And now the very word is brought into needless disrepute.