In his latest post, Mr. Schweers says I referred to him as a sophist. He says he consulted a dictionary and that the word means that his “thoughts were illogical.” Webster’s defines sophist as “a captious or fallacious reasoner.” Considerably different.

But I did not use the word sophist. I used the word sophism. It’s a different word. The word sophism means “an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; esp: such an argument used to deceive.”

And deception is possibly what is intended.

He says, “Using water boarding as the primary example of ‘torture’…” But, how can something that is not defined be a primary example of what is not defined? Tortured reasoning?

Yes, Mr. Schweers, my water boarding was done as part of training, to demonstrate how to deal with it without panicking.

And I do not approve of torture, Mr. Schweers.

But saying that something is torture just because it may sound scary diverts attention and is therefore a form of deception. And sadly, this deception is the basis for those that blame the ills of the world on the U.S.

And Mr. Schweers, it’s the United Nations that defined torture, not I. So, if you want to note that the UN’s failure to define water boarding as torture is the camel’s nose of a slippery slope, have at it.

I suggest you contact the UN. They have failed to define torture for decades; opting instead for generalities to gain the votes of those that do real torture. They can’t even agree that female genital mutilation and chopping off reporter’s heads are forms of torture.

And you want to reference the UN? That’s clearly mental pain, therefore torture by UN definition.