Lisa, spotting the fallacy of his logic, tries to convince him that the presence of the bear patrol is unrelated to the absence of bears:
Lisa: “By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.”
Homer: “Hmm; how does it work?”
Lisa: “It doesn’t work; it’s just a stupid rock!”
Homer: “Uh-huh.”
Lisa: “… but I don’t see any tigers around, do you?”Homer considers her argument for a moment and replies: “Lisa, I want to buy your rock…”
Why am I talking about Homer Simpson? Because Texas Governor Rick Perry did a pretty good impression of him in an interview with the Texas Tribune, published today:
"We’re creating more jobs than any other state in the nation. … Would you rather live in a state like this, or in a state where a man can marry a man?"So in Perry's mind, Marriage Equality --> Horrific Economic Collapse? (This is almost as insane as the Prop 8 proponents' Marriage Equality --> Bad Table Manners' argument (Line 18, page 88 of the ruling, no really, check it out)).
The fancy Latin term for this Lunacy is cum hoc ergo propter hoc ("with this, therefore because of this"), basically "if two things occur together, then one must be caused by the other".
When the Governor of our state can't see the insanity of an argument that your average 12 year old (or inordinately bright (and bright yellow) 8 year old) can, we're in trouble.
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Update: Be sure to check out the Rick Perry Dilemma Generator! All the logic and intellect of the Governor of Texas, with just the click of a button!