End Post

It seems like time has flown by this semester. And the look through everything we have gone over is mid boggling. I am glad we were not trying to use the full book rather than the scaled down version we have been using. It seems like that would be a graduate course. But I think this only because logic seems difficult for me. I like it, but I also like guitar and that is not a walk unless you have the "toolbox" of skills needed to flawlessly play anything.

p - Some guitar strings are strings made of nylon
p - some electric guitar strings are strings made of metal
c - some electric guitar strings are strings made of nylon (Does it follow? Boole? Arist?)

Guns on Campus

I have thought about the guns on campus question a lot. And have even looked up online some of the pros and cons of having guns on campus. One person who gives some great insight into this is Wayne Lo, the student who killed a student and a teacher on Simon Rock's campus in Great Barrington. Having grown up in south county I was able to experience the aftermath of that event in a local sense. But I recently found an interview where Lo states that guns are too easy for regular people to acquire, and that if anyone had a need for a gun they can simply call on the police who have guns. Which leads me to my point. If campus police do not have even 1 officer who is equipped with a gun, then in the event of a school shooting, we would be helpless until the NAPD arrived with a gun.

P - all persons without guns are helpless to school shootings
P - all campus police are persons without guns
C - all campus police are helpless to school shootings

All of the premises and the conclusion are "A" types. I can't seem to figure
out how to use 5.1 tools on this and figure out if its a Figure 1,2,3 or 4

Rules of inference

I wish some of you guys came to that morning study session. There were some new things added to the toolkit that we have not been using yet. Maybe they are in the book somewhere but we have not used them in quizzes or tests. But enough about that.
How about that quiz. That took almost everyone the whole class to complete it. I rechecked mine for errors because it had such a small area to write in, and I had no place to work problems out. Did anyone think they did bad on it or had trouble with any part? I thought it was fun actually, and thought I did well, which is a great sign that I did horrible (seems like the trend for me in this class)
But I hope I did well.

The Spiritual World is void of Logic & Reasoning

I found this story online. There was a guy who died and came back to life but remembered things which occurred while he was dead. But he explains that when you are dead you are in a place which is "based on eternity", while the world we live in is "based on time". The most interesting thing he said was that "Logic and reasoning doesn't happen here". I tried to find more about this belief he has, but this seems to be the only instance of him mentioning it. A very weird story and person.
http://www.mickeyrobinson.com/video.php (Christian religious website)

p-Mickey Robinson died and came back to life with memories during his death
p-Mickey states that there is a spiritual world outside of our world
p-Mickey states that logic & reasoning does not exist in the spiritual world
c-Logic and reasoning does not exist in the spiritual world

Inductive, weak, not cogent

Bad for addicts, and for Pittsfield

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_19376147
Sunday November 20, 2011
BETH CAPITANIO - Pittsfield

p-This would be a horrible injustice to our city.
p-Methadone is not a cure but a long-term replacement.
c-I urge the citizens of Pittsfield not to let a methadone clinic conduct business in any of our neighborhoods.

It is funny that she contradicts herself by stating that her son was an addict and got clean with the help of a methadone clinic in Springfield. So I guess her true conclusion is to urge people to prevent a clinic from coming to Pittsfield because they can always travel to Springfield if they need to.

The Straw Men Blues

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_19325584

Exposing writer's straw-men case
Sunday November 13, 2011
JOHN KITTREDGE - Windsor

P - Arguments which use a Straw-Men method are not arguments at all
P - Mr. Kittle used a Straw-Men method for his argument
C - Mr. Kittle does not have an argument at all

Let me know if I set this argument up like the author has portrayed it. It seems logical that a straw man argument would have a non valid part to it, which could be seen as something that would void the whole thing entirely. But let's see what other people think in this huge blogging class.

What MCLA Needs

http://www.theonlinebeacon.com/2011/11/03/bring-disc-golf-to-mcla/

P - Disc Golf is a wonderful sport
P - Other Colleges have courses for Disc Golf
P - MCLA should jump on board
C - MCLA should have a Disc Golf course on campus

I thought his line about jumping on board is like a bandwagon approach, and is supported by his claim that other colleges have courses. His reference to it being so wonderful I think is just him expressing his thoughts but there could be a fallacy there.

The Turkey Baster Story Continues

Source
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/07/same-sex-marriage-legal-troubles-in-massachusetts/

Source site quoted by author
http://lezgetreal.com/2009/03/woman-attacks-her-wife-with-turkey-baster-full-of-sperm/

P - According to Lez Get Real, there were no rape charges per Jennifer’s request, just a domestic assault and battery charge.
P - [If there had been rape involved it would provide grounds for separation]
C - these lovebirds were able to put the turkey baster incident behind them.

I am thinking this is sort of a Hasty generalization. That because they stayed together and because there was no rape involved that they were able to move on despite what had happened. But, I smell a weak analogy too. Anyone?

Logical Form of Being Dead

http://www.thetranscript.com/letters/ci_19193746

Reports of death ‘greatly exaggerated’

p-All people listed as dead in the newspaper are dead
p-This woman was listed as dead in the newspaper
c-This woman must be dead.

All PL are D
W is PL
W must be D

Unruly teens are a blight at mall

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_19160792

p-[teens] run wild through the halls, with no respect for those around them. Their behavior and language are deplorable.

p- I feel it would be in the best interest of the mall to propose a curfew for them. Let’s get the mall busy again with shoppers and store volumes up, even some new stores to bring revenue to the area.

c- [Restricting kids from being within the mall will help draw shoppers to the mall]


Not sure if I did this correct. But I love this argument, its been around since 1987 when they built that mall. Looks like kids still have not changed, and are still hanging out together.

Change Needed In North Adams

Letter to the Editor
Posted: 10/14/2011 12:05:13 AM EDT

P - We need a new mayor: The present one is a hard-nosed "Republican,"
P - [The current Mayor] seems to care little about the homeowners and workers who do live in the city
P - [Ron Boucher is not republican and cares about homeowners and workers]
C - I will vote for Ron Boucher for mayor. [And so should you]


http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_19109876

Wondering if I did this correctly. Had to supply some parts of my own to make it clear what the argument is because of the source.

Mosquito viruses a threat to birds

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_18983908

p-Crows have seen an 85 percent mortality in some areas [due to west nile]
p-No studies have been done in Berkshire County [for west nile]
c-Mosquito testing in Berkshire County will start the process of fixing the problem with dying bird populations.

Text on the hoof 2

 Downtown's future in real jeopardy

Wednesday September 21, 2011  

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_18941241 (link will expire soon) 

NANCY RUMBOLT-TRZCINSKI

North Adams

 

P- Skateboarders create dangerous sidewalks on north st

P-Dangerous sidewalks with skateboarders will have detrimental effect on the downtown areas success

C-Law enforcement should remove the skateboarders to save the downtown area from failure

 

"Downtown's future in real jeopardy." Letter to the editor. The Berkshire Eagle. 21 Sept. 2011: Print. http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_18941241 (Limited time only link) 

 

Does anyone really care?

20% of Americans do something that 40% of the those people feel is wrong, and 20% of those frequently lie about their answers. Of that percent there are 15 people who feel that 60% is a more realistic number of Americans who feel that everyone should really just get a life and do something that really matters to the universe and our species. Those people are only a fragile fraction within a fractal.

Got some Text on the Hoof here

Be realistic about Keystone pipeline
Tuesday September 13, 2011

In George Bissell's letter of Sept. 5, he congratulated both Robert Hyde and The Eagle for Mr. Hyde's letter opposing the proposed Keystone XL pipeline which would transport crude oil recovered from the Alberta oil sands in Canada to our Gulf of Mexico refineries for processing. His point being that burning this oil would result in greater carbon dioxide and other pollutant emissions than those derived from other sources.

Let me stipulate that although progress has been made and is ongoing at present to lower the amount of carbon present in this oil, Mr. Bissell is correct and the burning of petroleum obtained from the oil sands would indeed have a greater adverse environmental impact than oil from other sources (read here from our "friends" in the politically unstable Middle East, Venezuela, and Nigeria). Although environmental concerns must be considered, they should be balanced by other factors when arriving at a decision as to whether to construct a pipeline.

Firstly, Canada is going to sell the oil from its oil sands. If it is not sold to the U.S. it will be to the Pacific rim nations (read here, China). Have no doubt about it, energy starved China will buy and burn this oil in which case just as much carbon dioxide will have been liberated into the atmosphere as if we had burned it here. So not building the pipeline will not protect the planet from this negative impact. In fact more energy will be consumed to get the oil
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by tanker to China. The pipeline will however provide the U.S .with a source of oil from Canada, a stable, friendly ally rather than from these more labile foreign sources -- a fact which has not gone unnoticed by our State Dept.

Secondly, the pipeline will be a boon to our own oil fields as it will not only have the capacity to carry the excess amount of crude presently sitting unused in Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf refineries but will also be able to transport all of the oil presently being pumped from the Bakken formation in South Dakota with capacity to spare to accommodate Bakken's expected rise in production.

Additionally, the last time I looked we had a 9.1 percent unemployment rate with zero new job creation in August. The pipeline is projected to create an estimated 138,000 jobs with its building and maintenance and could inject some $20 billion into our economy. Sure I wish we had a clean, renewable source of energy but the reality is as of yet we don't and until we do we cannot be so cavalier in energy policy decision making as to be unwilling to weigh all the variables.

BARBARA JOSEPH, Williamstown



"Be realistic about Keystone pipeline." Letter to the editor. The Berkshire Eagle. 13 Sept. 2011: Print.
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/letters/ci_18881593 (Limited time only link)

Call me crazy

You heard it before, we are killing the planet. I know it sounds crazy but we should not being doing that. I feel in my honest opinion that we should not kill the Earth. I know it sounds crazy, call me a loner or even an outcast. Maybe one day I will convert to normal-ism and I will start thinking that killing the Earth is cool, maybe even appropriate. For now, I will stand alone, helplessly consuming the earth killing riches.