A Book Recommendation for All Ages!

The literature on logic and logical fallacies is wide and exhaustive. Some of it aims to help the reader utilize the tools and paradigms that support good reasoning, and hence to lead to more constructive debates. But reading about things that one should not do is also a useful learning experience....This work primarily talks about things that one should not do in arguments.

Ali Almossawi's picture book An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments. Several common fallacious arguments are  quickly explained; the gorgeous illustrations provide a visual object lesson to nail home the point.

It really is a book for all ages. In fact, it should be required reading for all ages.

I'm serious. Use it to read your babies to sleep - they'll learn to avoid logical fallacies as they giggle at the cute pictures (and the pictures are very cute). It should be read in elementary schools, and again in high school, and again in college. (To be fair, supplementary materials would be necessary by college.)

Reading this book should be a requirement for all social media users, and anyone who uses one of these fallacious arguments should have to read it again before they can resume posting.

It's also just a very fun and fast read - easily finished in a couple hours. If you can't find a copy at your local library and don't want to pay for a print version, there's an online flip book you can read for free!

You're welcome; now go read it.

Wait! First you have to read the Links!

• Library Land
• Children’s Author Speaks Out About her Detainment at U.S. Airport  "Called out of the immigration line Mem admits that as she was engrossed in a book ('The Red and the Black') that she was reading she did not at first hear her name and immediately apologised to the officer who allegedly responded with 'What do you want me to do, stand here while you finish it?' And that she says 'was just the beginning of it.'"
• In Missouri: Columbia Public Library to allow concealed weapons indefinitely "The library changed its signs earlier this month after receiving a letter from Columbia attorney Jennifer Bukowsky on behalf of state Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch, R-Hallsville. The letter threatened legal action if the signs were not changed to reflect Missouri’s new concealed carry laws, which took effect Jan. 1.While Missouri residents are no longer required to have a conceal-and-carry permit, the language of the law leaves unclear whether libraries can prohibit concealed weapons."
• Health, Science, & Techology
• The Economics of Environmentalism "For so long, we’ve demanded policies from the government to artificially enact change in businesses. Isn’t it about time we use our power as consumers and start to ask for change from ourselves?" Of course, this argument assumes the consumer can always afford to protest with their wallets, but the writer does have a fair point.
• Randomnesses
• Why You Can't Ever Call an Enslaved Woman a "Mistress" "...it's insulting to identify the relationship between a slave and a slave-owner using the term 'mistress' when that term denotes a relationship predicated on mutual choice, autonomy, and affirmative consent — things slaves do not have."
• International
• Saudi king reported to be taking 506 tons of luggage, including two limos, on trip to Indonesia He's only going to be there nine days! And MP says I pack too much...
• U.S. News
• ‘I can’t take that place.’ An Arizona family struggles with a mother’s deportation. Two children, 14 and 16, are living daily life motherless - and it's our fault, guys. We did that to them. Their lives have been derailed to fit an unjust agenda. 
• Data Brokers, Data Analytics, “Muslim registries” & Human Rights  "If the US President did indeed want to build a register of every Muslim living in the United States — or let’s say he wanted to know which households to target as part of an aggressive new immigration policy focused on deportation of undocumented migrants — just how easy would it be for him to gather that kind of data in 2017, without having to formally register a single person?" Apparently, very easy - data brokers trade that sort of information all the time. 
• So much for privacy: Trump signed off on checking White House staffers' phones "President Donald Trump signed off on press secretary Sean Spicer's decision to check aides' cell phones to make certain they weren't communicating with reporters by text message or through encrypted apps, multiple sources confirmed to CNN on Monday."
• Yemen SEAL Raid Has Yielded No Significant Intelligence  "Multiple senior officials told NBC News they have not seen evidence to support [the claim that significant intelligence was gathered in the raid].  In addition to the death of Ryan Owens, six other U.S. service members were wounded. And at least 25 civilians were killed, including nine children under the age of 13, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. One of them was the 8-year-old daughter of U.S.-born al Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki." 
• Will Trump take responsibility for the raid? Lol, not likely: Trump appears to blame generals for SEAL's death in Yemen raid "...Trump highlighted that the mission had been in the works before he took office and said 'they lost' the SEAL — apparently in reference to the generals who planned the mission."
• Defense Secretary Mattis Should Say “No Thank You” to Increased Defense Spending Financed By Cuts in Diplomacy and Foreign Aid "In 2013, when he was CENTCOM Commander, Mattis said 'If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately. So I think it’s a cost benefit ratio. The more that we put into the State Department’s diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget as we deal with the outcome of an apparent American withdrawal from the international scene.'" We'll see if he still feels the same way now.
• Racist? Ignorant? (Both?) DeVos faces backlash for linking HBCUs to school choice "Her remarks immediately stirred backlash from supporters of [historically black colleges and universities], who pointed out that the institutions were established because African-American students, often, did not have any other choice.... [S]ome...argued that DeVos’s statements could be equated to saying that segregated water fountains simply gave people more beverage choices, or that civil rights icon Rosa Parks was standing up for seat choice." Kellyanne had her feet on the couch; Betsy has her foot in her mouth.
• Wilbur Ross Is Confirmed As Commerce Secretary  "Some left-wing advocacy groups criticized Ross as a 'vulture capitalist' and opposed his nomination. But he received the support of the United Steelworkers union, which credits Ross with saving thousands of U.S. jobs in the steel industry."
• How Trump’s Start-Of-Term Strategy Differs From Past Presidents’ "President Trump has been in office for a little over a month now, and it’s been an eventful term so far. In some ways, Trump’s first few weeks have been as unusual as his candidacy was: executive orders have sparked major protests, a high-level adviser resigned amid scandal, questions abound about the administration’s relationship with Russia, and the press conferences have … strayed a bit from the usual scripts. So it’s safe to say Trump has started his presidency in his own unique way."