Critical Thinking

Don’t criticize me for not getting my report in on time; you don’t always get your reports in on time.

Since Mayor Garrison took office three months ago, there have been no instances of corruption in city government. The city is clearly indebted to the mayor for reinstating honesty in city government.

There's nothing wrong with getting drunk once in a while. Everyone I know is partial to a few beers now and again.

Whenever the cherry trees blossom, the weather begins to get warmer. So cherry blossoms cause the weather to get warmer.

My doctor says that wearing high heels is bad for your knees, but she wears high heels, so I don't think they really are.

There is a tough choice facing the Government and the nation: either we cut taxes and increase everyone's spending power, thereby providing much needed stimulation to the economy, or we increase spending on health and education. It is impossible to do both, and without a tax cut the economy will remain weak. So increased spending on health and education will have to wait.

How can anyone claim that the monarchy should be abolished? The monarchy as we know it has been central to British life for nearly a thousand years, arguably longer.

There is no point in implementing harsh penalties for drunk drivers because there will always be some people who are going to drive drunk no matter what penalties are put in place.

A few minutes after the minister made his speech to the City of London, a devastating explosion occurred. For the safety of the people who live and work in the city, it is imperative that the minister makes no more speeches here.

We have a simple choice between developing genetically manipulated crops or continuing to stand by while thousands of people in the developing world die of starvation and malnutrition.

Teachers say that their job is becoming harder and harder and that they deserve more pay. But the Government should ignore them, they're just a bunch of grumpy liberals.

Ever since we have entered our age of technology, especially with our emphasis upon computers, we have noticed a move away from religion. The attendance at church services is markedly less than it was before computers entered the scene, and many denominations have decried their falling membership. Clearly, people have felt such a sense of mastery and confidence because of the computer that they have less of a need for religion. Technology has become the new god.

Mr. Brown’s business is failing and he is trying to secure a bank loan. “If you don’t give me the loan,” he exclaims to the bank official, “I will have to declare bankruptcy. I’ll be wiped out.”

It’s all your fault. If it hadn’t been for you, this never would have happened. If you hadn’t spent everything in our checking account, I wouldn’t have been so upset. If I hadn’t been so upset, we wouldn’t have fought. If we hadn’t fought, I wouldn’t have gotten so mad that I had to get out of the house. If I hadn’t been so mad, I wouldn’t have gone to the Kelsey’s and had those whiskeys. If I hadn’t had those whiskeys, I wouldn’t have gotten into the accident. It’s all your fault.

An advertisement for L’Oréal Hair Colouring: “More than 250,000 hairdressers the world over believe in what L’Oréal Hair Colouring can do for you. What more can we say? L’ORÉAL: A quarter-million hairdressers can’t be wrong."

The Government's transport policy is a joke. How can we take them seriously when they tell us to leave the car at home and use public transport when Government ministers go everywhere in chauffeur-driven limousines?

The decriminalisation of cannabis would be just the start. It would lead to a downward spiral into widespread abuse of harder drugs like heroin and cocaine.

From campaign ad put out by the Obama 2008 presidential campaign in September 2008, prior to the election:

Announcer: Three years ago John McCain campaigned for George Bush’s plan to risk your Social Security in the stock market. And voted three times in favor of privatizing Social Security.

So imagine if McCain and Bush had gotten their way, and invested your future retirement benefits at Lehman Brothers? Bankrupt. AIG? Bailed out. Merrill Lynch? Sold.

John McCain—The risk is too great, trying four more years of the same.

Obama: I’m Barack Obama, and I approved this message

Jones is an advocate of the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia; that is Jones believes that terminally ill patients should have the legal right to choose to have their life ended if their suffering has greatly diminished their quality of life, and doctors agree that the patient's mental state is sufficiently sound to make the decision rationally. Smith, Jones' opponent, responds as follows:

How can you support giving doctors the right to end a person's life just because they decide that the person's life is no longer worth living; no one should have that power over another person's life, and doctors should not kill patients.

If we allow City Hall to change the zoning regulations and permit a market on Winter Street, the next thing you know there’ll be a McDonald’s and we’ll have traffic mess and there’ll be kids hanging around all the time making nuisances of them- selves. And then they’ll try to put in some chain store, and then there’ll be a shopping mall, and before you know it none of us will be able to live on Winter Street.

My Dad's always telling me not to talk on my mobile phone while I'm driving, but why should I take any notice of him? He's always taking calls when he's driving.

If the students are honest, then we don’t need an honor code. If the students are dishonest, then the honor code won’t work. Students are either honest or dishonest. Therefore, either we don’t need an honor code or an honor code won’t work. Therefore, it’s a waste of time to institute an honor code.

So many of the stars in Hollywood are blondes. If I want to be a star, I’d better dye my hair blond.

Majority member Joe C. is under fire for using public funds to pay for more than $44,000 in expenses. Minority members accused the majority floor leader of having one standard in opposition and quite another standard in government. In defense of Joe C., the majority floor leader pointed out that a minority member (while in the previous majority) had himself been questioned about his expenses, including out of state travel expenses.

From a student request to a professor to reevaluate a course grade:

I have recently been informed by the Financial Aid Office that my final average of 78.6 is 0.9% below what I need (i.e. 79.5% or greater) to renew my $3500 Aiming for the Top Scholarship. I may not be able to return without this scholarship.

I am sending this e-mail to request you to review my final grade as it would greatly aid me in renewing my scholarship.

Politician A: Why is the government once again moving crime to the top of its agenda when far more pressing issues like childhood poverty and environmental devastation continue to be underaddressed?

Politician B: I am surprised that my honorable friend thinks crime is so unimportant. With the alarming increase in gang violence in our cities we face a breakdown of law and order on a major scale. The members of the opposition would wish on us a society in which people could never feel safe even in their own homes.

Many of your readers seem devastated by the callousness of the annual seal hunt and the culling of seal pups, but their concern is misapplied when they so blithely overlook the real crime being perpetrated every year in this country in the slaughter of thousands of the unborn. Abortion accounts for more deaths of innocents than many wars, but still society does nothing.

The following is from a pamphlet is sued by the Doris Day Animal League, 1992:

Issue #3 in your Animal Protection Poll is “pound seizure” – the practice of selling pound animals to research laboratories. Many of these animals were household pets, like your dog and cat. Some were abandoned. Others simply got lost. The Doris Day Animal League believes that pounds should care for these animals and work for their adoption into loving families – not sell them to laboratories where they will be tortured or killed.

A report in the LA Weekly dealing with the circumstances surrounding a lunch between the film director Oliver Stone and the controversial French novelist Michel Houellebecq (June 24–30, 2005):

You dine with Michel Houellebecq at your peril – just ask Oliver Stone. Shortly after sharing a table with the ultracontroversial French novelist at the White Lotus, a restaurant in Hollywood known for its deafening noise and nubile Asian clientele, the film director was pulled over by the cops on Sunset Boulevard and taken down to the station, charged with driving under the influence and possession of an illegal substance. It took a $15,000 bail to get him out. But then, nobody said hanging with the author of The Elementary Particles and Platform would be easy.

It is not hard to see the impact of religion on society. In the 70s and 80s church attendance fell by as much as 30 percent. During that same period we saw an increase in common-law living, abortion, and inner-city crime, to name but a few. If we want to put society back on the rails we must return to our religious roots.

The following is a draft of a bill (HCR74) considered by the Louisiana State Legislature in 2001:

Whereas, the writings of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, promoted the justification of racism, and his books On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life and The Descent of Man postulate a hierarchy of superior and inferior races. . . .

Therefore, be it resolved that the legislature of Louisiana does hereby deplore all instances and all ideologies of racism, does hereby reject the core concepts of Darwinist ideology that certain races and classes of humans are inherently superior to others, and does hereby condemn the extent to which these philosophies have been used to justify and approve racist practices.

From George W. Bush’s speech to the nation just after the United States had initiated the attack on Afghanistan, October 7, 2001:

More than two weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands: Close terrorist training camps. Hand over leaders of the Al Qaeda network. And return all foreign nationals, including American citizens, unjustly detained in their country. None of these demands was met. And now, the Taliban will pay a price. By destroying camps and disrupting communications, we will make it more difficult for the terror network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans. . . .

Today we focus on Afghanistan, but the battle is broader. Every nation has a choice to make. In this conflict, there is no neutral ground. If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have become outlaws and murderers themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril.

From a letter to jpost.com, July 11, 2004, accessed July 13, 2004, http://www.jpost.com/Letters/52630.html:

Did someone realize that: 1, The president of the International Court in Hague is a judge from China, a country on the forefront of “Human Rights” and “Justice” in the world?

A country well known for its “respect” for the rights of its minorities, and their religious, social, cultural and legal freedoms.

It would be quite interesting for a reporter to do some research about the justice imparted by the same judge, while on the bench in China, especially when dealing with political and religious dissidents.

From a letter to the Globe and Mail, April 20, 2004, p. A16:

Oakville, Ont. – For H. K. to state that Canadians believe seal hunting is acceptable is an incredible generalization. I am a Canadian, a vegan, and an animal activist. I certainly do not condone the savage act of seal hunting.

My family and friends and all those I have encountered are also firmly opposed.

There is no need to let all Canadians know how disgusted the British are, we feel the same way.