I'm starting this in hopes of stimulating some critical thinking.  I'm a former Goldwater republican who would now be called a RINO (republican in name only).  So, okay, now I'm an independent.  Why?  'Cause I don't believe everything I read or hear from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly or any of the other conservative sources available.  What about progressive sources?  I check them out too.  Anyway, the title of the blog is the result of a Republican congressman shouting out in an Obama address to a joint session of congress.  More later.

So, how do I check them out?  I begin with sources.  Unfortunately, even in this day and age there's not always a counter source to the source you're questioning that'll give you an unbiased view.  Some of those that I try are Snopes,  Factcheck.org,  The Washington Post fact check blog, Politifact, Media Matters (this one is progressive leaning) and some others that'll come up later.  Not the least of which is Wikipedia.  If none of those (or a few others) has a formal refutation, then I simply have to use deductive logic in the form of known logical fallacies in conjunction with belief preservation, it's cousin confirmation bias, cognitive dissonance, and the Dunning-Kruger effect.  These compose most of the tools, but by no means is the above a comprehensive list.  None of this comes easy.  It takes time and patience to begin to use these tools well.  But with some determination a person can figure out for him or herself what the hell is going on.

Many, if not most of us rely more on what's called a narrative.  That's a story told by a politician or other interested party that involves facts, but only those that support the story teller's position.  And quite often, as in the case of some Islamists, complete fabrications are asserted without any hint of facts or evidence supporting their claims.  It behooves us - all of us - to question narratives and dig deeper into the claims of people who clearly do not have our best interests at heart.  More later.