Stop Gay Marriage; Make the World Safe for Kittens

As Janet has rightly (though perhaps slightly tongue-in-cheek-ishly) pointed out, YouTube is a cultural phenomenon. Ok. I'm a bit addicted.
And laughing various body parts off. Found this linked from Dispatches from the Culture Wars...

Just think of the kittens.

Ok. Now that the me who finds highly inappropriate things funny has stopped tittering, let's take this from the English Prof. stance: how well can humor be used to demonstrate perceived flaws in an argument? This clip works with the common argument that allowing gay marriage will lead to the destruction of society and derives the bulk of its humor from exploiting the tenuous causal link between the legalization of gay marriage nd social chaos. Although I've never thought of purple pseudo-phalluses as rhetorical devices (come to think of it, I've never really thought of purple pseudo-phalluses), this isn't really too far removed from Swift's "Modest Proposal"-- using shock value (eat children? exploding kittens?!), an overblown response to a situation, showing off something, I think, about who we are as a society.
But please, no exploding kittens.

When Pathos Backfires

CTProgressive has put this on YouTube, touting it as the "Worst Made Ad Ever." I have to agree (and it has little to do with my political affiliations). As someone who aims to be an informed voter, I don't like it when political ads try to scare me into voting for someone-- especially when the logic appears to be more that I'd be voting against that politician's opponent than for the politician.



Warning sign: when more than half the ad is taken up with what "the other guy" would do, one has to offer what the political advertiser has to offer. So we have shock tactics-- known terrorists possibly conspiring on telephones. Listen up, folks, your safety is at risk. Chris Murphy is going to let the bad guys get away because he's not going to let the good guys listen in.

Enter logic. What would be decided in one phone call? If someone is under suspicion for any type of illegal activities, it would be assumed that the investigators would bring their evidence before, oh, I don't know, a judge who would approve or deny a search warrant. Granted, this nitpicky evidence-gathering and probably cause stuff is a bit of a pain, but unfortunately, it's part of some document-thingy with all sorts of amendments. Oh yeah, the Constitution. The thing that the US stands for. The philosophy of freedom and democracy that America symbolizes and that which "known terrorists" are ostensibly aiming to destroy.

A person who has chosen to remain anonymous offered a new tagline for this ad...
Nancy Johnson: Wrong on the Constitution. Wrong for America.

Right, Wrong, Justified or Not?

I've ready many comments on this video. What do you think?

So It Begins...

Fall semester begins in fewer than 24 hours!
(Grammatically, "fewer" should be correct, because hours can be counted, but "less" sounds much more natural.)