I get to teach a section of Speech 100 at Spring Arbor University this Fall, which I’m enjoying quite a bit. The students are great and the teacher is finding his way. Today we did persuasive speeches, where we learned about topics like exercise, DC comics, God’s will, zombies, dance, knowing scripture, and trading a pebble for candy. Very delightful.

Part of my lecture in Speech class on Monday was about the right and wrong approach to persuasive speeches. To help illustrate the wrong way, I showed a recent home.fm docusode I want to thank Broadcastman Ben Barnes for his assistance in presenting an argument that we would classify as ad hominem, also known as a personal attack. You can’t dismiss an idea just because someone has turned you against the person presenting the idea. His crude but effective personal attacks are presented here: