AD HOMINEM. Attacking a person instead of making an argument. Barack Obama is an “Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug.” —Tea Party spokesman Mark Williams, discussing the President.

AD MISERICORDIAM. Seeking pity instead of providing evidence. “Twenty years from now, if there is some obscure Trivial Pursuits question, I am confident I will be the answer.” —Ted Cruz.

AD POPULUM. Relying upon base opinion or prejudice. “Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?” —Rush Limbaugh.

APPEAL TO POVERTY. Allusion to the virtues of the poor. “When I was in college we used to take a popcorn popper—because that was the only thing they would let us have in the dorms—and we would fry squirrels in the popcorn popper.” —Mike Huckabee.

APPEAL TO THE PURSE. Allusion to the virtues of the wealthy. “The reason we worry about raising taxes on anyone—even raising taxes on the rich—it’s not that we’re looking out for the rich,” it’s that it “will hit the poorest among us the hardest.” —Senator Mike Lee.

ARGUMENTUM EX CULO. An invented position that is pulled right out of one’s imagination. “American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains.” —Christine O’Donnell.

ARGUMENTUM E SILENTIO. Silence intended to dull understanding. “I don’t recall.” —Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, during questioning.

ARGUMENTUM AD NAUSEAM. Repetition intended to dull understanding. “I don’t recall.” —Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, uttering the sentence sixty-four times during questioning.

BAFFLEMENT. Argument by gibberish. “We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.” —Representative Marlin Stutzman, explaining conservative strategy to get beyond the government shutdown.

BEGGING THE QUESTION. Assuming the thing to be proved. “President Obama’s shuck-and-jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end.” —Sarah Palin.

CHERRY-PICKING. Selecting anecdotal evidence that proves one’s case. “I went to the movie this weekend with a gun. And surprise, surprise, I didn’t kill anybody!” —Glenn Beck

DEUS VULT. Asserting God’s will to support an argument. “We are in God’s end-time history … Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. His day is at hand. When we see up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were told this: that these days would be as the days of Noah.” —Michele Bachmann, contesting Obama’s decision to aid Syrian rebels.

FALLACY OF THE UNDISTRIBUTED MIDDLE. A ridiculous conclusion caused by a leap in thinking that misses a critical step. “It’s like a derivative of actual pepper. It’s a food product, essentially.” —Megyn Kelly, analyzing the use of pepper spray on protesting students.

GROUPTHINK. Substituting pride of membership in the group for reasons to support the group’s policy. “Our blacks are so much better than their blacks.” —Ann Coulter.

IGNORATIO ELENCHI. A conclusion that is irrelevant to the premise. “Halloween is a liberal holiday because we’re teaching our children to beg for something for free.” —Sean Hannity.

IPSE DIXIT. A bold, sometimes absurd, statement. “I’m here as the modern-day Harriet Tubman, to kind of lead people on the Underground Railroad, away from that [Democratic] plantation into a sense of sensibility.” —Former Representative Allen West.

KETTLE LOGIC. Confusing listeners with multiple, incoherent stabs at an argument. “I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice. I changed my position. And I get tired of people that are holier than thou because they’ve been pro-life longer than I have. But I’m proud of the fact.” —Mitt Romney, clarifying his view.

LINE-DRAWING FALLACY. Using vagueness to avoid a response. “All of ’em, any of ’em.” —Sarah Palin, on what newspapers she reads.

LIP SERVICE. Asserting a position one doesn’t actually believe. “The House has done its work.” —Speaker John Boehner, explaining the shutdown of the U.S. government.

MISLEADING VIVIDNESS. Distraction with an arresting detail. “It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in child laws which are truly stupid … These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school.” —Newt Gingrich.

NON SEQUITUR. An incoherent inference. “Marriage is not a civil right. You’re not black.” —Ann Coulter, analyzing gay marriage.

PARADE OF HORRIBLES. Opposing a view by listing all the other nefarious positions that could hypothetically result. The hate-crimes bill “means you’d have to strike any laws against bestiality, if you’re oriented toward corpses, toward children, … pedophiles or necrophiliacs or what most would say is perverse sexual orientations.’ —Representative Louie Gohmert.

POISONING THE WELL. Providing adverse information to discredit an opponent. ”The Girl Scouts allow homosexuals and atheists to join their ranks, and they have become a pro-abortion, feminist training corps. If the Girl Scouts of America can’t get back to teaching real character, perhaps it will be time to look for our cookies elsewhere.” —Representative Hans Zeiger.

POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC. Causally connecting one thing with another that happens to have followed it. “Twelve million illegal immigrants later, we are now living in a nation that is beset by people who are suicidal maniacs and want to kill countless innocent men, women, and children around the world.” —Fred Thompson.

PRESTIGIOUS JARGON. Use of ponderous twaddle to obscure thinking. “I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started.” —Donald Rumsfeld.

REDUCTIO AD HITLERUM. Associating a position with one that is universally reviled. “Do you know, where does this phrase ‘separation of church and state’ come from? Actually, that exact phrase was not in Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists. … The exact phrase ‘separation of church and state’ came out of Adolf Hitler’s mouth, that’s where it comes from. So the next time your liberal friends talk about the separation of church and state, ask them why they’re Nazis.” —Former Delaware House candidate Glen Urquhart.

REGRESSION FALLACY. Finding cause where none exists. “A mere forty years ago, beach volleyball was just beginning … No bureaucrat would have invented it, and that’s what freedom is all about.” —Newt Gingrich.

SLIPPERY SLOPE. An argument that change will lead to adverse consequences. “You guys ever watch ‘Sixteen Candles’? You guys remember [the foreign student] Long Duk Dong at the end? That’s going to be us tomorrow, waking up on the grass, crashed automobile. That’s us.” —Representative Devin Nunes, discussing the behavior of his fellow-Republicans that led to the government shutdown.

TAUTOLOGY. Repetition posing as significance. “My job is a decision-making job. And as a result, I make a lot of decisions.” —George W. Bush.

TU QUOQUE. Attacking a position by suggesting that one’s opponents don’t abide by their own argument. “She lectures us on eating right, while she has a large posterior herself.” —Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, discussing Michelle Obama’s healthy-food initiative.

UNDERSTATEMENT. Expressing an idea as less than it is. “Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.” —Donald Rumsfeld.

WISHFUL THINKING. Appealing to what is pleasing to imagine. “We know [Saddam Hussein’s] been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” —Dick Cheney. Or: “My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” —Dick Cheney. Or: “I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” —Dick Cheney. Or: “Well, basically, we were hunting quail late in the day.” —Dick Cheney. Or: “I think Barack Obama is a one-term President.” —Dick Cheney.

Photograph by Evan Vucci/AP.