I don’t seem to have many blog visitors today (where did everybody go?), so permit me to vent about something that’s not as uncommon as it may at first appear.

I was reading a rather long and technical theological article today, almost nodding off, when a chance phrase caught my eye: something about “the tyrannical American republic” getting flogged by hurricanes because we’re, y’know, just so bad. By this logic, little islands like Barbuda and Anguilla must be even badder.

This had very little to do with the subject under discussion. It was just slipped under the door, as if the reader might not notice. Nor was it embellished by anything like a reason for it. The author didn’t mention whatever made him conclude that our republic is “tyrannical.” No, no elaboration. It was just slipped into this long and convoluted article as if it were an established fact that no one could dispute.

If the letter slid under the door is not an analogy that appeals to you, let me liken it to introducing a chocolate-covered ball of cat hair into a one-pound bag of M&Ms.

I’m sure there’s a formal name for this technique, in the study of logic, but I don’t happen to know it. All I know is, it stinks and I don’t like it. It tells me that the author of the article has no respect for his audience. I resent him taking my agreement as a given.

Just had to vent. I hope you didn’t mind too much.