John Loeffler Steel on Steel; Israel and the Middle East

Israel at the Crossroads – Again

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Can anyone help me find August? I seem to have misplaced it somewhere. Sigh: it’s September already.

Today’s program focuses exclusively on the Middle East, where the geopolitical chessboard is in rapid flux and events move toward new conflicts with unforeseen issues rising to surface.

Our first guest from Jerusalem by Skype is former CBS news correspondent Dave Dolan (www.ddolan.com), who has lived the last few decades in the Middle East.

Then we’ll hear from Barry Rubin in Tel Aviv, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center (www.gloria-center.org) about the undercurrents causing many of today’s headlines.

John’s boralogue does a survey of important dates coming up in September as well as an overall intelligence survey of the Middle East.

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Fallacy of the Week – Appeal to Pity

Appeal to Pity _ coercing someone to accept a position by creating sympathy for those who hold the same position. (argumentum ad misericordiam)

Example:

“These men have devoted their entire lives researching “X”. Some have lost everything they had for it. Their conclusions must not be discarded simply by a lack of evidence.”

The appeal to pity attempts to persuade people to accept a position using emotions like sympathy, rather than making a factual statement.

This type of argument is fallacious because our emotions are not a good means of determining truth; emotions can obscure, rather than clarify, issues. We should base our beliefs upon reasonable evidence, rather than emotion.

Emotions may identify what’s important to us, even if it’s not true. That’s why it’s important to be able to communicate logically.