False dilemmas

OK, once more with feeling. The reason we spend a little time in your editing class on logical fallacies is so we don't commit 'em in public -- as in the deck hed here, "Job security wins out over homeland security."

"Job security" and "homeland security" are not mutually exclusive. They aren't a zero-sum game. You can have neither. You can have both. When you suggest they're on a seesaw together, you're engaging in a false dilemma. (And while we're at it, let's stop saying"Gitmo," all right?)

Heds don't make people stupid, but they do give intellectual cover to the stupids. Let's not.