Logical Fallacies assignment

In the clip that we watched with John Stewart, and the so called expert many fallacies was pointed out to us. It was a funny clip as it was meant to be, and one that points out how fallacies take place in our everyday media and publications. There was more then just three fallacies taking place in this clip. I will focus on the top three that was evident several times during the clip.

First one is hasty generalization fallacy in making several statements about the illegal aliens, Mexicans, and Irish people. The comment of “all illegal aliens have tuberculosis and leprosy” is an example. There is no proff that this is true and is commenting that they all are. Along with the so called expert making hasty generalization so was the other authority figures. Making statements like all are in gangs, here to find trouble, murderers, rapists and on and on they went.

Second fallacy to point out is the appeal to authority one. From the start the so called expert was bringing in figures of authority calling them Dr. or Professors of their trades. Using what they say and stating it must be true because you heard it on television. Even John Stewart was guilty of this showing the clip from 60 minutes and making the statement, so there that was 60 minutes what do you have to say to that. Then at the end making the long list of comments from the experts on the situation and expanding on them with people like Albert Einstein to give more validation to his point.

Third fallacy is the appeal to pity was also brought into the argument. When the expert stated “can’t deny that murderous Irish immigrants were killing our children” he was playing on pity for the children being killed in the video. The video did a great job at pointing out fallacies in the argument they were having.

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Editorial Assignment rough draft

Editorial Paper Rough Draft

The end to NASA space shuttle program is a positive move made by NASA and our nation. In the article posted by The Dallas Morning News editorial: NASA must inspire post-shuttle generations the author is upset over the shuttle program coming to a stop. My take on this is one that it is not all bad with the program ending. What people do not see is how in the long run it was the right  thing to do. There is several points to be made about the positive side of the NASA shuttle program coming to an end, I will point them out to you. It will help to really point out the positive behind the program ending, and pay tribute to what we have done so far from the shuttle program. Like many things it is time for a new era in our space programs within NASA is in that new era.

During the reading of the article stated that was posted in The Dallas Morning News it ends with the quote from President John F. Kennedy spoken at Rice University in the summer of 1962 “The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of the nations can expect to stay behind.” That is so true now that the space exploration is starting to heat up there is plans from China to put something like a hotel called “Heavenly Palace” in outer space. They have a plan and are working on it now with great success so far. The article that covers this is posted in the Houston chronicle on October 7, 2011 article named  Editorial: Here’s a sputnick moment for the U.S. points this out for us.

In the article  Editorial: Here’s a sputnick moment for the U.S.  the author takes the stance of being worried about China showing more power in their space program then the United States. He makes a comment in the article “China’s recent success is a reminder to Americans that this nation shouldn’t be resigned to putting its space program in museums while other nations pursue the future.”. What the author is getting at is he feels that we are falling behind the other nations in space travels. The issue is not in stopping the shuttle program but in not expanding our programs and plans to do more. How more powerful would it be for NASA and this nation to be the first to the moon and mars? Having the private sector take care of the low orbit flights will give NASA more time and resources to put into their other plans.

In the article editorial: NASA must inspire post-shuttle generations the author states “NASA will fail to inspire tomorrow’s engineers, scientists and test pilots.” is not true. The move from NASA shuttle program is only going to heat up the private sector that is full of engineers, scientists and test pilots to be the first to reach the needs of our nation in space. With the companies being able to charge other people and nations for the use of their space vehicles that drives more innovation in this industry. The private sector being driven with incentives is going to inspire the engineers, scientists and test pilots of tomorrow when they see all the changes that will be coming in the near future. Already there is rockets from private sector that are coming out looking very cool that should strike some innovation for the future thinkers to be inspired from.

With the private sector focused on current space needs, NASA can put their resources and energy into more. The move to end the shuttle program and putting the funding into having private sector compete. To handle the space travels in and around the earth, will allow for our nation to focus on bigger projects like getting someone to Mars!! President George W. Bush called for the program to end in order to set attention squarely on deep-space travel. If and when that takes place we will have set another milestone in space travels and the exploration of space!!

NASA does not need to inspire the private sector in space travels. If there was no red tape on the space programs for the private sector there would be no need to inspire. The nature of humans would kick in and with fair competition in the space travel market we would be inspired to push further and faster then the next person or company. What steps we have and are taking is going to pay off let the companies show you in the near future when they deliver on what they have been asked to do and NASA completes their missions of deep space travels the world will be amazed.

So ending the space shuttle program is not all bad. While the progam did bring many good things to our nation as stated in the article from The Dallas Morning News. We are ready to embark on a new era in space travel and I for one am looking forward to what that brings.

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20110707-editorial-nasa-must-inspire-post-shuttle-generations.ece

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8634693/Private-space-race-heats-up-as-US-shuttle-retires.html

http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial-Here-s-a-Sputnik-moment-for-the-U-S-2208468.php

Editorial Blog

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20110707-editorial-nasa-must-inspire-post-shuttle-generations.ece

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8634693/Private-space-race-heats-up-as-US-shuttle-retires.html

The editorials I have decided to write about is the above. They cover the topic of the changes in our nations space program. One side being pro NASA the first article from the Dallas Morning News. The other side is based on private firms being better for our growth in this nations space program over having just NASA running it.

The first article does a good job on pointing out the frustrations over the NASA program losing control of the space program. It points out all the good that has come from having NASA running our space program. The frustration is seen handing over the control to the private sector to fund and operate space travels.

The only evidence to point out for the first article is how there is other countries stepping up like China and sending rockets to outer space. China also is looking for some type of space hotel of sorts at some point. The evidence that the article points out shows how we are losing the battle of control of space that we use to have with NASA. The second article evidence is how there is already space crafts made by the private sector in few short years since funding the private sector. The history of NASA was pointed out on taking longer on their plans to do something from what private sector has already shown us.

So far the second article really stands out as the winner on the argument of space travel being good for private sector to control over NASA. It covers the side of how it is good to have the private sector involved in our space travel going forward. It shows how through competition space travel will go further into space. That is the ultimate goal of the change of the program is in hope to get more private companies into space funding the potential for further space travel to places like Mars and beyond. Sounds a little like wanting a space ship like the Enterprise off Star Wars right. The future will show if the decision to move to private sector was better for our nation or had we left it in control of NASA.

Word Count: 366

Personal Narratives Blog

In every story the reader will have to decide if it is true or not. Especially in books that talk about the war. Reading through the author Tom O’Brien material there is several times that he points out it was the truth. However the truth in war stories are more likely to be stretched some as in the example that he gave about people hearing things in the mountains and bombing it based off what they heard. In story telling we have to be clear on what we may not ever really know if it was true or not. If you have enough supporting facts then you could conclude it to be likely true, but never assume truth in story telling about the war.

Tom O’Brien did a great job in pointing out that things can seem very real to the author and not be. War plays funny mind games like that and people will think something is real and it is not. I liked how he pointed out what was real was how after 20 years waking up in the middle of the night thinking about it and all the details as if it was yesterday.Like truth in story telling it is very difficult to point out the reality of the story.

Something else that Tom O’Brien does a good job informing us about is how a moral of a war story will not always be in plane sight. The reader really has to dig for it. It is something that in war really takes time to develop and usually is not something good. The thing I took away from the reading that we did was that war was something that really impacted the author even after 20 years it still haunts him. I am glad though that he tells the story because it is one way that the war will be remembered and not forgotten.

Word count: 321