Things that Robert is thinking about that keep him from accomplishing anything.

 
The Real Problem
Flipping through USAToday online and saw this report on a Title IX case from Birmingham: a women's high school sports coach complained about unequal access to athletic facilities and was fired; he sued under Title IX; at issue is whether he, as somebody who's not part of the protected class (in this case women), can sue to recover damages.

An interesting case on its own, but it's the passage towards the end of the article that got me to post:

"Litigation against school boards represents a diversion of scarce resources and a distraction from their mission of academic achievement that the nation's schools can ill afford," the National School Boards Association writes in its friend-of-the-court filing.

Ok, it's the fault of people who bring lawsuits to remedy discrimination that the school board can't devote resources to academic resources. If you were devoting the resources in the first place, you wouldn't be getting sued. Let's play the game:

• "Lawsuits against the county government accusing it of voting fraud divert necessary funds from the county's mission of ensuring a fair election."
• "Lawsuits against the city alleging discrimination on the basis of age in hiring divert city funds from being used to hire the elderly."
• "Lawsuits against the doctor for malpractice divert funds from her practice that she would use to treat other patients."
• "Lawsuits by women accusing men of rape are diverting the man's resources from supporting himself and his family."

It's a very clever piece of rhetoric. It looks like a cross between the:

• false dilemma
• irrelevant conclusion.

I just love these kinds of word games. The art of the sophists still lives in law and political campaigns!

posted by RSaunders at 2:41 PM ⇒