Cedar Fever and Ad Hominem

Well, it's cedar season in South Central Texas. Ordinarily, I would be absurdly pleased with that alliteration; however, at the moment, there's a little guy with his back wedged against my optic nerve and his itty bitty hobnailed boots pushing against the back of my left retina, while his evil little buddies run back and forth under my scalp and yank on my hair follicles. So, while I'm waiting for the allergy medicine to kick in, let's talk about the phrase, "ad hominem".

The latin "ad hominem", translated literally, means, "to the man". It is used in two ways: to appeal to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason, and, as we've seen ad nauseum (yeah, yeah) in the last two years, attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument.

Generally, people in positions of authority don't feel it necessary to engage in ad hominem, it being perceived as unbecoming and an abuse of that authority. So when somebody in authority - say, a President - does personally attack somebody solely for that person's expressed opinions, we have to wonder why. When President Obama told Congressional Republicans last week that, "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he was beneath the office of President of the United States. Now, Rush certainly doesn't need for me to come to his defense: he's possessed of intellect and skills of erudition that will run rings around both me and Mr. Obama. My point is that the President should be justifying his initiatives on their own merit, not by taking swipes at a private citizen - one of the citizens to whom he is accountable. Methinks he took Saul Alinsky's advice too much to heart: to paraphrase Mr. Alinsky, "Destroy everybody who doesn't agree with you." Is this the conduct and mindset we need in a chief executive?

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Now that the festivities are over...

Okay, I'll give O and M props for sticking it out to the - literally - bitter end on the inauguration parade. I have to believe they were praying for the moon buggy to come around the corner.

I'm really ready to stop hearing pundits dissect the new president's speech and try to figure out on whom to pin the blame for the slightly awkward swearing-in. Does it really matter whether Mr. Obama blew the lyrics, or whether his speech was "pedestrian" or "inspiring"? Do these people really have nothing better to do than pick apart the actions and words of people living through a set of circumstances they, as mere critics, will never experience? As a tiny little parallel, I occasionally sing the National Anthem at San Antonio Spurs home games, and I always have a little cheat sheet with the lyrics on it, because being the only person making any noise in an arena that seats 16,000 people who are looking at you and waiting for the real entertainment to start is really unnerving and you can forget the words in a heartbeat.

I've said before, the new prez is not my guy. However, he is now my president. I am confident there will be many issues of substance on which I will have the opportunity to kvetch in the next four years. Why strain at gnats?