This is an article about a debate on Logical Fallacies.

On one side is me, describing my Analysis of more than two dozen logical fallacies found in a blog article by Michael Eisen favoring Genetically Modified food.

On the other side is an anonymous blogger hiding behind the name “Skeptico” who disputes my Analysis and ends up resorting to name-calling and falsely accusing me of lying. (and No, I don’t suspect Eisen and “Skeptico” are the same person.)

No matter which elements of this debate you end up agreeing with, when you complete this article you should come away with a better understanding of several important, deep and sometimes subtle or confusing logical fallacies. So here we go.

To start, I wrote an introductory article called “New World Record? Six Logical Fallacies with a Single Sentence promoting Genetically Modified Food” to outline an Analysis of the two dozen Logical Fallacies made by Michael Eisen defending Genetically Modified food.

“Skeptico” disputes five of the fallacies I identified. He uses arguments about logical fallacies that superficially appear as though he knows what he is talking about. However, under calm analysis, while he commendably understands some fallacies correctly, Skeptico’s logic is often exposed as mistaken, myopic, tortured, rushed, and sometimes directly self-contradictory. 

Skeptico fundamentally misconstrues, confuses or misunderstands highly important fallacies including Self-Contradiction, Burden of Proof Reversal, and Ambiguity Assertion.

Skeptico claims expertise at logical fallacies, so its a mystery why he employs them so often in his rebuttal and subsequent writings. Those fallacies he commits include Contradiction, Straw man, Distraction, Guilt by Association, and Appeal to Hypocrisy / You Too / Tu Quoque. I wonder if he even realizes he does this ? Or . . .

Further damaging his arguments (and credibility), he unreasonably implies that I (as a reader of Eisen’s article) am responsible for defining words used by Eisen; the original author ! Skeptico enigmatically fights for obscuring language / against agreeing on the meaning of key terms, and he refuses to answer respectful clarifying questions.

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Our world just lost one its finest people, and the highest quality encyclopedia of natural phenomena he put together in his mind and happily shared with all.

Monterey’s Jud Vandevere passed away on Christmas leaving a legacy of dramatically more insightful and inspired people in his wake.

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Drumbeats normally make me smile. They’re an inducement to dance; drumming inspires friendship. There’s a marvelous drum class in my community that inspires thousands when they play in public like last New Years eve. Smiles as far as you can see across the crowd.

There’s another kind of drumbeat that alarms me. It occurs when a country wants to go to war without justification. They “frame” another country for crimes that never happened; they manufacture evidence of crimes by the intended victim.

My own country has done this twice in the recent past. In 2002 George Bush 2nd used false information of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” to get us into a trillion dollar war in Afghanistan and then Iraq. In 1991 George Bush the 1rst used false information from one of the US’s biggest Public Relations firms to get us into Kuwait. (The “Incubator Baby Hoax”).

Now contrary to Obama’s reasoned articulation on why it is a bad idea, it seems the Obama administration is beating the drums to go to war with Iran. Every week you hear another reason why the US should go to war with Iran – or why Israel would be justified in “Pre-emptively” attacking them as the US did to Iraq.

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There’s a new campaign mailing advertising Potter for Supervisor with the text “Our Place, our values, our voice. . . “

The photograph is of a place that doesn’t exist – just like Potter’s “friendship with our environment.”

What’s really going on is the photograph is of Big Sur’s Point Sur, but just like Potter’s distorted political ads, the photograph is reversed – side to side.

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Just 5 minutes before midnight turning into October 21, 2012 an Earthquake on the Eastern edge of the Salinas Valley gave buildings in Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula a good shake.

Did you feel the earth quake shake our Peninsula at midnight? That’s the largest one I’ve felt in years.

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Tree Destruction Effort Led by Kampe and Huitt

Stumps: Pacific Grove’s Newest Industry

Last night, Wednesday October 17, 2012 four City Council members voted to get rid of protection for trees on all residential property that are not Monterey Cypress, Coast live Oak or Monterey Pine. That loss of protection was estimated at 3,000 trees, but could be as high as 5,600 to 6,000 trees (1).

The tree destruction law was eagerly led and pushed by Mayor Candidate Bill Kampe.

Mayor Carmelita Garcia voted against this tree destruction when she was stunned to learn it would mean a death warrant for at least 3,000 trees as soon as next week.

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I attended the very first “informational” community meeting at Chautauqua Hall regarding the Holman Hotel project at which developer Drake Leddy gave an overview of his company, his intentions to build a first class hotel and answered questions from audience members. When I entered the meeting I was neither for or against the project.

The first words out of Mr. Leddy’s mouth were appreciative greetings to “at least 50% of you in the audience with whom I have met before ” with nods to most of those sitting in the first rows. From the type of questions asked by audience members and an unwanted and disturbing NO rant by a person who had to be quieted, it became obvious this was the first time Mr. Leddy had experienced any opposition to the project. By the end of the talk he was visibly upset.

For those who were truly there to find out about the project, the project lost credibility when Mr. Leddy stated he was legally bound not answer any questions about WATER, mentioned discussions of a three story garage being built behind the theater level to Fountain Avenue, did not adequately address issues of increased traffic, what streets would be shut down during building (which might take 2 years), disruption to the Library and neighbors and the possibility of balconies overhanging some sidewalks.

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 David Dilworth’s Take-it or Leave-it

November 2012

 No. NO. NO !

There’s a lot of “Bad” up for a vote this season.

Perhaps the local area with the most to lose is Pacific Grove.

* Choose badly and it will cost the city tens of millions and cost You Personally thousands of dollars.
* Choose badly and our Pacific Grove forest-tree canopy is gone; we’ll lose most of what is left of our few remaining trees.
* Choose badly and Pacific Grove’ll get a gigantic hotel at Holmans and Fast Food – all over town.

Summary of Most Important Issues:

PG: Please Vote — NO on Kampe, No on Huitt and NO on Lucius.

and Yes on Dan Miller, Mary Norton, Robert Pacelli and PG Mayor Carmelita; and in Marina — Mayor Bruce Delgado.

PG: “F – NO !”     Measure F –No on the Holman-Strosity. Its a Bait-and-Switch trick. You gotta give the developer credit for Texas sized arrogance with his mailer. – A Texas Developer telling Pacific Grove residents what we need – when we didn’t even ask for his opinion. (All the while Holman’s controversial property owner Nader Agha is hiding behind the curtains, knowing full well that the whole house of cards collapses when his name is mentioned.)

Both PG Mayor candidates Garcia and Kampe appear to support the hotel but in very different ways. Garcia voted to put it on the ballot so that we residents can choose if we want it or not, Kampe supports the giant hotel so much he voted to keep it off the ballot – but Kampe tries to disguise his secret extra-credit efforts to help the developers Nader Agha and Texas’ Leddy.

Yes on State Prop 37 = Will Require GMO (Genetically Modified) Food to carry Labels The only organized opposition to labeling our food is Monsanto and the other GMO manufacturers.

Details (for “Yes” votes – keep reading to the end)

My goal with this article it to help you avoid the worst voting mistakes by explaining what candidates DO versus what they Say.

Warning: If you don’t have a strong stomach – you might want to stop reading here.

PG: Kampe – NO ! For this voting season, electing Bill Kampe is the worst mistake any community could make. His political career is probably the biggest hoax I’ve seen around here in a long time. What he says contrasted to what he does as an official could not be more upside down to each other.

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Gentlemen . . . Start Your ChainSaws !

Pacific Grove has lost about half of its trees since 1986 – which is just short while ago.

You might think a town with reverence for trees in its very own name would try to stop that crisis. But no, Pacific Grove is now joining Seaside in the race to see which town can remove all trace of trees first.

Half of Pacific Grove’s evaporating forest canopy was chainsawed down since 1986. (The canopy was already down to only 33% in 1986 because the first two-thirds were chopped down in the previous 100 years.) This is because more than 700 trees a year are cut down every year. Few are planted; fewer still survive.

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