Mar. 8th, 2012

theoldwolf: (Default)
An article on Newser offers the headline, "Why I Won't Shut Up About Mitt Romney's Poor Dog".

We've all heard the story. The poor dog strapped to the top of a car, messing itself in terror and being cruelly hosed off. The anti-Romney faction has latched on to this story and is milking it for every drop of viciously-spun negativism that they can squeeze out. So here's my take, if only so I can get my feelings out and stop fretting about this massive logical fallacy.

  1. The incident happened in 1983. That's almost 30 years ago, for people who have trouble with the math. Mr. Romney was 36, a young family father on a road trip. They want to take the family dog with them rather than leave it at home alone, or in a kennel. Take the dog in the car with you, and what would it do? Spend most of its time with its head out the window anyway. So if you fix up a carrier for the dog, and even shield it from the airstream, it should be pretty comfortable. At least that was the thinking, and I can easily see how they came to that conclusion. I might have made the same choice myself.
  2. Guess what? Things didn't quite work out. The dog got scared and soiled itself. Or was it really scared? Fear might make a dog evacuate its bowels, but it won't necessarily cause diarrhoea... what if the dog was simply ill? Did the pundits interview the dog to ask it what it was really feeling? At any rate, now you have a soiled dog, a soiled carrier and a soiled car. What's more cruel, continuing on the trip allowing the dog to lie in its filth, or to hose it off? Anyone who's ever watched a dog go bananas trying to bite a Rain-Bird knows that being sprayed by water is not cruelty, it's (under most circumstances) a game.
  3. Where's the story about the return trip? Apparently the dog did fine for the rest of the journey, instead of ejecting everything it had eaten for the last six weeks. I haven't heard anything about that in the news.


What bothers me most about the feeding frenzy is the unconscionable level of unjustifiable conclusions drawn by the opposition.

To quote the Professor of Logic:

Universal affirmatives can only be partially converted... For example, given the premise, "all fish live underwater" and "all mackerel are fish", my wife will conclude, not that "all mackerel live underwater", but that "if she buys kippers it will not rain", or that "trout live in trees", or even that "I do not love her any more." This she calls "using her intuition". (Monty Python)

In the same way, given the premise that "Mitt Romney made a mistake," (assuming it even was a mistake, but allowing this for the sake of argument,) the anti-Romney faction concludes not that "Mitt Romney made a mistake," but rather that:
  1. Mitt Romney is cruel
  2. Mitt Romney hates animals
  3. Mitt Romney will treat everyone in the country the way he treated that poor dog.

This also I call "crap", and it gets me very irritated because it is not logical. Furthermore, from everything I have learned about Mitt Romney, it is absolutely untrue and borders on libel. If I had to choose between the Romney family and Gail Collins for the family next door, I'd take Mitt in a heartbeat, and that has absolutely nothing to do with his faith - it has to do with what kind of a person I understand him to be at his core.

You may not agree with the man's politics: wonderful. That's what the process is about. Vote for someone else. But this kind of unwarranted character assassination is, as far as I am concerned, the abomination of desolation and demonstrates not political savvy but rather unbridled shallowness and the absence of a moral center.

So yeah, Ms. Collins. You need to shut up.

theoldwolf: (Default)

So here's the advert, one of nine I placed this week. Before a day had passed, I had seven inquiries, all basically the same: "Is this item still available?" That's a dead giveaway for a Nigerian scammer.

Solid Hardwood Antique Secretary's Desk - $550 (Payson, UT)



This is a piece to refinish, it's had a long life and needs restorative work, but would be gorgeous with some TLC.

A similar item recently sold on eBay for $750.00.

Principals only. Cash only sale. No checks, money orders, shipping agents, Western Union money transfers, or anything else a Nigerian scammer may be using this week.

Initial inquiry from "Austin Siregar" at austinsiregar@yahoo.com

Would love to buy this from you if its still on offer. Please let me know asap.
Austin



I respond, "Still available. Read the ad for further details."

Next email comes back from "peters moore" at petersmoore03@gmail.com. The moron is already using a new name and email address.

Thanks for the prompt response to my mail.I will surely buy it from you so please kindly withdraw the advert . Please get informed that i will pay you with a certified bank check and once you have the check cashed at your bank then i will arrange for the pick up at your
place..I will need the following details to mail the payment as soon as possible.

Name to be on the check____
Home address(Not P.O.BOX)____
City___________________
State____
Zip Code_____
Cell phone #______

Please get back to me asap.
Thanks.


My response to him:

First: "Peters" is not a name.

Second: You didn't even read the advert, or you would have seen this:

Principals only. Cash only sale. No checks, money orders, shipping agents, Western Union money transfers, or anything else a Nigerian scammer may be using this week.

Third: Please "get informed" that your English sucks. You are a mugu, and a thief. I send you the very finest black powder by way of Olumba Olumba Obu.

Dem no born you reach, onioburu. U no fit comot face, just skip along.

If you're selling on Craigslist, be prepared to receive any number of inquiries like this. Blow them off. Craigslist prefaces every email from a respondent with this caveat:

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams


It's much harder to get taken if you deal with people face to face and accept cash only. Be smart, and be careful. The number of scumbags out there who want your money is breathtaking.

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