June 09, 2004
What is an ad hominem argument?
So I got into a rather nit picky argument about whether an argument I made was ad hominem or not. The debate is here.
Here is a kind of preparatory test for Cartel membership. Which of the following arguments are ad hominem fallacies?
Continue reading "What is an ad hominem argument?"The worst PJ ever made III
(The story starts thus)
The moral of the previous part is
June 08, 2004
The worst PJ ever made II
When I said three consecutive posts, I was apparently not clear about the concept of "consecutive".
Anyway, the moral of the previous story was
Continue reading "The worst PJ ever made II"I just thought of this
I saw the transition of Venus a few minutes back. If there was a guy selling sunglasses to use while viewing, what would you call him?
The Worst PJ ever made
In honour of
Yazad who's started a blog exclusively for PJs, I hereby present the worst PJ ever made. It is actually in three parts, so there will be three consecutive posts.
Yoo hoo!
Defeated can't lord it over - The Economic Times
In what holds ominous signs for rejected members of Vajpayee’s ministerial team, particularly Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha, the BJP leadership is veering round the view that defeated leaders should not be rewarded immediately with Rajya Sabha nominations.I didn't like it when the BJP lost (for reasons that must be clear by now), but some good seems to be coming out of it, viz. they did badly in Gujarat, the Tam Bram RSS lobby were made to look like fools in TamilNadu* and Moron Joshi is being purged!
*Look no offence meant to Tam Brams, but the most hardcore and the most sanctimonious lot among the RSS now seem to be coming from among them. Given that they have made no inroads at all in their home state, they have no business blabbering about how the BJP lost because it abandoned its core principles.
June 04, 2004
India's boundaries, Disunity and Institutions
What started me off on this goose-hunt about India invading other countries? (The answer I was looking for was Ranjit Singh's general Zorawar Singh's invasion of Tibet. Sandeep got the answer correctly.)
Believe it or not, this was occasioned by me thinking about the question of who will lead the BJP after Vajpayee/Advani. Let me explain.
It is an article of faith among us Indians that disunity is the Indian disease. We were attacked and conquered time and again because our kings squabbled among themselves and failed to put up a united front when invaders attacked us.
But it occurs to me that this belief is not only mistaken, it is also counterproductive.
Don't get me wrong. I am not claiming that we weren't disunited, but that we were no more disunited than the others. Also I am claiming that our disunity was not a source of our weakness, instead when we were weak, we were disunited.
I'll explain.
June 03, 2004
On India invading another country...
Long long back I had asked a really badly phrased question on whether India has ever invaded another country. It was really badly phrased because all the words in the question, i.e. "India", "invaded", "another" and "country" are ambiguous, as many of you correctly pointed out. Actually, the problem was that I had a specific answer in mind, so I framed the question in a way I thought would leave only the answer I wanted, but it turns out that it didn't.
Yup Sikkim is a good answer (congrats Yazad and CCG). If I know history correctly, Indira Gandhi's invasion of Sikkim was completely unprovoked. She was playing some kind of geopolitical game with China and Sikkim got caught in the process. Other answers are at least debatable. Remember that I was giving the maximum amount of leeway to a supporter of Akhand Bharat, so I wouldn't consider our Bangladesh adventure to be a good answer (not because it was not an invasion, but because a believer in Akhand Bharat would consider it an internecine battle. Chola kings' incursions into Sri Lanka was already mentioned in the article I linked to - I had asked for other examples. Our actions in modern day Sri Lanka and Maldives cannot really be considered invasions can they? We had gone there at the invitation of recognised governments of those countries.
Look I don't want to argue on this okay? I know that there are ten sides to this issue and you can corner me by asking me to define all my terms. For example, I wouldn't consider an attack on Nepal an "invasion" because Nepal is kind of culturally part of India (The only reason it isn't politically a part of India is that the British left it a semi-independent monarchy rather than make it a dependency.) But I know that I have made a hash of my argument, so I won't press it further.
Rather, I will ask you to guess which incident I am thinking of by narrowing it thus:
1) It took place in the 19th century.
2) The place invaded is outside undivided India.
3) The place has never been ruled by the British.
What am I talking of?
If you want a lateral hint, it is:
Kaizad Gustad's arrest
Whatever your views on Kaizad Gustad's arrest, can we all agree that by stopping his film in its tracks, providence has done us all an unexpected favour?
June 01, 2004
Swaminathan Aiyar takes down the CMP
This deserves to be linked!
Cynics see the Common Minimum Program of the coalition government as the usual bunch of political promises: motherhood, apple pie, sugar and spice for all credulous suckers. The government itself calls the CMP reform with a human face. But what about the cost? Face-lifts are expensive, and may not improve your looks much. The CMP proposes to increase education spending by 2% of GDP, and health spending by another 1-2% of GDP. It promises a National Employment Guarantee, debt relief to the states, and doubled agricultural lending, each of which could soak up another 1% of GDP. Each 1% of GDP is Rs 25,000 crore, so the bill adds up alarmingly fast.How will it be paid? The CMP has no explanation, only a bland declaration that the governments revenue deficit will magically disappear by 2009. But much of the proposed new spending (on education, health, employment) is revenue expenditure. How then will the revenue deficit disappear? Through additional revenue maybe?
Read The Whole Thing
May 31, 2004
A confession
I have a confession to make. I have committed a serious transgression, one that if it goes unpunished will earn me expulsion from the Cartel and the undying hatred of all right-thinking and decent bloggers.
I am finding it extremely difficult to type out this post. Even as I type this, a voice within me says, "Don't! No one will ever know! It's all right!"
But I will know and unless I own up, I shall never be able to sleep again.
I bought a copy of the One Novel That Cannot be Named, written by The Verbal Terrorist.
No! Don't look at me like that! I did not even buy a legal copy. What do you take me for? A Mallu? I bought a pirated copy and that too second hand. I didn't hand her any of my money! I was just strolling along Matunga casually looking at the many roadside bookstalls, thinking "What could be worse than reading an essay by the Verbal Terrorist?" The answer was, "An entire book by the Verbal Terorist" And there I saw The One Novel That Cannot be Named and I don't know what possessed me and... Hey I also bargained! If she ever writes another novel, it will not be because she got secondary encouragement from my purchase! Why are you staring at me? Look I'd throw it into the fire, but I thought I'd need to be able to have an answer the next time someone says "Her views are crap, but she writes really really well." So probably I'll read the thing.
Anyway, I plan to read the book reaally slowly, one page at a time, so that there is less chance that I lose my sanity in one shot, and so that I'll be able to give you guys a fair warning if it happens.
May 29, 2004
The long delayed Sonia post
How could I have committed the elementary fallacy of the slippery slope? That's simple. I committed no such fallacy. An example of the slippery slope fallacy is this: "You start punishing people for murder today and the next thing you know, people will get hanged for killing animals." Now that is a fallacy because you are refusing to make a sound decision today for fear of making a sound distinction tomorrow. (In this case, the elementary distinction between humans and animals)
I did not claim that there is no difference at all between citizens and non-citizens. I just wanted to know what the difference was, so that I could use it in my argument, in ways you are probably not anticipating.
Yazad is right that the reason we let only citizens stand for political posts in our country is to avoid conflicts of interest. But let's be clear on what the conflict of interest amounts to. If the fear were just that a person could hold political office in two countries simultaneously, then we could pass a law prohibiting that specific action. Of course a person could be Defence Minister of India for a period and then move to Pakistan after demiting his post. But that could happen even now.