Ockham's Razor and the lessons it taught me

A few day’s ago I discussed the several versions of how Obama’s parents got together and, just as importantly, when.

Now I’m a simple soul and I’m left-brained. Thus I have been described as overly simplistic in my thinking.

When it comes to politics, two principles have guided me and they have guided me well. The first is, “Follow the Money” and the second goes back a long way and is called Ockam’s Razor.

This is a somewhat esoteric name for a meta-theoretical principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" and the conclusion thereof, that the simplest solution is usually the correct one.

So, using these tools, I wrote about Obama’s lineage and came to the simple and, to me, inevitable conclusion that he is and was a liar. Now, considering the facts that he’s from Chicago, is a lawyer and is a politician, that conclusion should not be too shocking to almost anybody. But some people objected vehemently to the word, “liar”.

Now I readily agree that the word is neither “parliamentary” nor respectful. But since I’m not a member of Congress, I don’t have to abide by procedural niceties and I admit it, I don’t respect him. There I’ve said it.

But, let’s put aside protocol for a while and look at the word itself and how I came to the conclusion I did.

Last Monday, Obama spoke at a closed door rally of 400 believers somewhere in Philadephia, Pennsylvania and claimed that, with the passage of a healthcare bill, most people’s health insurance premiums would decrease next year.

This very morning, on the floor of the United States Senate, one Dick Durbin, the Democratic senior senator from Obama’s home state of Illinois, said this.

“Anybody who stands up and tells you that, when healthcare passes that premiums will go down, is not telling the truth”.

Now would some "right-brained" person explain to me the difference between being a “liar”and “not telling the truth”. Or would you prefer that I use a phrase first heard in the British House of Commons many years ago when one member accused another of committing "a terminological inexactitude". Your call?

But, as I said, I’m a simple soul and getting simpler it seems.