If Alter meant it when he said he hoped Giffords would become a “referee” of public discourse–an advocate for reasoned civility–he ought to feel terribly disappointed. She has instead turned out to be a practitioner of incivility and unreason.
That’s a harsh but justified appraisal of her op-ed in today’s New York Times, titled “A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip.” It’s a reaction to yesterday’s failure of President Obama’s gun-control proposals in the Democratic Senate. Giffords’s 900-word jeremiad should be included in every textbook of logic and political rhetoric, so rife is it with examples of fallacious reasoning and demagogic appeals. Let’s go through them:
Read all. Of course what happened to her is terrible, and tragic, but it doesn’t give her moral authority to bully and insult us with illogic. And the president has even less standing to do so.
To be fair, Ms. Giffords is not entirely guilty. It is a miracle she survived, much less can walk and speak. But I think it HIGHLY unlikely that her cognitive functions are complete. She and her husband, no doubt emotionally disabled by the tragic assassination attempt, are being used.
I doubt she wrote that, more likely her appointed handler wrote that screed.
Gabby is transparently being used as a puppet and it is sad.
Has anyone heard about how their family dog mauled a seal on the beach?
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/03/horror-gun-basher-mark-kellys-dog-kills-baby-sael-video/
Taranto, you magnificent bastard, that is one beautiful smackdown! Man, and I thought Baghdad Jim and Admiral Gerrib were the champions of fallacious argument!
I think she’s a reminder that any of us could suffer a tragic and violent loss of gray matter and end up thinking like a liberal.