However much in earnest he might be, he had nothing of the single-mindedness that belongs to a fanatic.  When he spoke of murder, suicide, venereal disease, amputated limbs, and altered faces, it was with a faint air of persiflage. “This is unavoidable,” his voice seemed to say; “this is what we have got to do, unflinchingly.  But this is not what we shall be doing when life is worth living again.”

-Orwell, 1984

Ad hominem, as in “arguments made ad hominem”, or literally “arguing to the man” (rather than the issue itself).

The classic example:

Person A makes claim X
There is something objectionable about Person A
Therefore claim X is false

Or it can also involve arguments of “guilt by association”, wherein:

Source A makes claim P.
Group B also make claim P.
Therefore, source A is a member of group B.

An example of common modern-day usage:

The President supports ‘universal healthcare’, healthcare was nationalized in 1940’s Germany. Therefore, nationalized healthcare is bad (and the President is a Nazi).

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go”

- Shakespeare

(photo via audreyhepburncomplex)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, taken by his secretary Frances Kroll Ring. (via nedhepburn)

BOOKSEER gives you reliable and interesting reading recommendations.  Enter a book you’ve read, and it will recommend another author and title you should check out.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Also, “pettifogger”, “pettifoggery”.

As famously stated by President William Jeffferson Clinton:

“…it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.”