[Vision2020] Barack Obama's Muslim Childhood

[No Weatherman]

Chas:

A loaded question is always premised on an unproven supposition.

For example, "How long have you been beating your wife?"

The question assumes something — you beat your wife regularly — that
has not been proven.

It's wise not to answer loaded questions because any answer
automatically concedes the assumption.

Possibly, loaded questions are designed to "elicit a response
favorable to a specific outcome" but most usually they're meant to
poison the well and pin the respondent.

The loaded element of your first question was that I have "faith"
which is an assumption I refuse to answer for this exercise.

To your reframed queries.

If it makes you feel better, generally speaking, I am the best judge
of my internal experience. Unfortunately, this general rule doesn't
mean a thing to me when I try to answer the question of Obama's
childhood religion.

For me it is a question of credibility. The question we must answer
is, "who's answer is more credible — Barack Obama or his half-sister?"

I maintain that Barack Obama scrubbed his past of Islam because of
political expediency.

This answer is consistent with what his half-sister said, among many
others. This answer is consistent with what you said last week when
you said that Obama threw many of his associates under the bus for
political expediency's sake. IOW, I believe that Barack Obama has
proven himself to be a disingenuous politician who wants distance from
his religious background.

He demonstrated this fact with his treatment of Farrakhan with whom he
helped organize the Million Man March and with Wright whom he called a
"father-like figure" and his "mentor."

You, however, argue that Obama is the only man qualified to answer
questions about Barack Obama's religion and that his half-sister and
the other people who made statements on the subject are not relevant
to the conversation. You're argument is predicated on Obama's honesty,
my argument is predicated on his dishonesty.

My position has lots of momentum behind it, including statements
you've made about Obama's cowardice in matters of political
expedience. Your position has lots of emotion behind it, including
your personal experiences which vary.

I think I'm right and you're wrong. You think you're right and I'm wrong.

That's the best I can do.


On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 11:07 AM, Chasuk <chasuk at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 06:40, No Weatherman <no.weatherman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Loaded question aside, you're missing the point.
>
> A "loaded question" is one especially -- even deviously -- crafted to
> elicit a response favorable to a specific outcome.  You know, like the
> questions you ask all of the time.  My question was objective, but
> your confabulated response was constructed to accommodate the
> cowardice which inhibits you from answering honestly or directly.
>
> You admit that your argument relies on eyewitness testimony, which
> can't be employed in questions of internal experience, with or without
> cross-examination.
>
> So I ask again (rephrased and abstracted to make things easier):
>
> Are you a better judge of your own internal experience, or are your
> kin?  Do you have a better idea of whether you hate broccoli, or do
> others?
>
> I'll simplify this for you.
>
> If you are the better judge of your own internal experience, type, "Me."
>
> If others are the better judge of your own internal experience, type, "Them."
>
> Chas
>