Next, they'll attempt to take over all of Jerusalem and then all of Israel" (Briglia 2). There is a slippery slope fallacy in this statement. The writer bolsters his initial exaggeration which was simple by putting forth further exaggerations with the eventual claim that Jerusalem and Israel will be taken over by the Palestinian's. Straw man

In straw man, the opponent's is attacked through attributing the opponent to an implausible position which is weak when actually it's not the opponent's position. The opponent's position is summarized inaccurately and easily dismissed. In response to the question regarding the troops pullout from Iraq President George Bush says, "We've heard some people say, pull them out right now. That's a huge mistake. It'd be a terrible mistake. It sends a bad message to our troops, and it sends a bad message to our enemy, and it sends a bad message to the Iraqis." The opposing view point is exaggerated by the straw man statement that an immediate troop withdrawal is being advocated by unmanned people. An immediate troop withdrawal was not backed by any of the adversaries of Bush. Actually the plan of sending the soldiers over several months was proposed by most of them (Raley and Talisse).

Equivocation

This is when a person utilizes a word several times in an argument capitalizing on its different meaning thereby shifting semantically hence changing the context thus establishing a fallacy. An example is an article that appeared in New York Times whereby the rating of AAA was used although it had different meaning. Floyd Norris writes that the securities from Merril were highly conservative and above AAA credit quality (Norris). The equivocation is although the securities...

Even though they are rated AAA they are not the same quality as the other received by the corporate or the banks.
Appeal to tradition

The author argues that his proposition should be pursued simply because it's the way they have always been done. An argument that appeared in the New York Times exhibits this fallacy where the author was defending the Century Club membership policy which was an all male club started in 1847. When it was proposed that the women be admitted into the club the following was proposed by the Presbyterian minister, "I am totally opposed to a proposal which would radically change the nature of the Century .... A club creates an ethos of its own over the years, and I would deeply deplore a step that would inevitably create an entirely different kind of place. A club like the Century should be unaffected by fashionable whims...." He uses the appeal of tradition to defend his stand on women admission to the club even though the social perceptions have changed since its inception.

Works Cited

Briglia, Joesph. Letter. New York Post 20 September 2005: 2

Norris, Floyd. A Lack of Rigor Costs MBIA. 12 Nov. 2009. 6 April.

2010.

Papson, Betty. Letter. Baltimore Sun 20 September 2005: 1

Raley, Yvonne and Talisse, Robert. Getting Duped: How the Media Messes with Your Mind. 4

Feb. 2008. 6 April. 2010. < http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=getting-duped>.

Ramage, John D., Bean, John C., Johnson, June. Writing Arguments; A Rhetoric with Readings. New York: Longman, 2004.

Taylor, Sunsara. Letter. Village Voice 20 September 2005: 1