Which Fallacies Do these examples represent? Begging the Question, Hasty General

Question

Which Fallacies Do these examples represent?

Begging the Question, Hasty Generalization. False Analogy, Appeal to Authority, Slippery Slope, False Cause – Post HOC, Ad Hominem, Tu Quoque, Red Herring, or Strawman

B) Capital punishment actually causes murder rates to increase, not decrease. After executions in California, we’ve noticed a small but significant rise in the number of murders committed.

C) Politician X was asked “Do you intend to raise taxes if you are reelected to office?” X replied as follows: “I have a long and distinguished career of writing tax legislation. My opponents have for years talked about reforming the income tax code, but then have done nothing to accomplish this. In my own case, I have a long history of crafting successful polices on taxation, and have demonstrated a willingness to make difficult choices. I don’t govern based on poll data, but based on my constituents’ needs, and what my gut tells me.   My opponents, on the other hand, never tire of consulting polls.”

D) I’m certain that the war in Iraq was a terrible mistake. I head the novelist Tom Clancy say so in an interview on PBS the other night.

E) “If Vietnam becomes communist, then Laos, Cambodia, Burma, India and all of Southeast Asia will become communist. Then all of Asia will be communist and after that Europe and eventually the whole world. So, even it might not seem to matter much whether Vietnam as a single country is or is not communist, in fact we have to stop this thing from progressing by destroying communism in Vietnam.”

F) The reporter asked Secretary Ridge “Mr Ridge, polls show that half of the public think your agency has failed to make them safer. How do you answer your critics?” In response to the reporter’s question, Mr. Ridge said “We’re making progress toward reassuring people, but frankly our efforts are hampered by the press’s tendency to concentrate on the negative side of things.”

G) Wainright pitched another shut-out, and once again he didn’t brush his teeth in the morning of the day he pitched. I rest my case: Wainright needs to continue not to brush his teeth on the days he’s pitching because that’s clearly causing him to pitch some great games.

H) Of course your columnist Michele Slatalla was joking when she wrote about needing to talk with her 58-year-old mother about going into a nursing home. While I admire Slatalla's concern for her parents, and agree that as one approaches 60 it is wise to make some long-term plans, I hardly think that 58 is the right age at which to talk about a retirement home unless there are some serious health concerns. In this era, when people are living to a healthy and ripe old age, Slatalla is jumping the gun. My 85-year-old mother power-walks two miles each day, drives her car (safely), climbs stairs, does crosswords, reads the daily paper and could probably beat Slatalla at almost anything.

Explanation / Answer

B) it is an example of a False Cause.

C) This exemplifies the Red Herring fallacy( as Political X is trying to mislead the questioner by diverting attention to his opponents).

D) this statement shows a fallacy of ‘appealing to authority’.

E) the argument commits a ‘hasty generalisation’ type of fallacy.

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