« Friday | Main | Trackback Spam Generation 2 »

February 19, 2005

Notes from Ferdy - Common Ground While Standing in a Swamp

by Ferdinand T Cat

You may have seen in the recent past an open letter from the pro-abortion NARAL gang talking about common ground between the pro-life and pro-abortion movements. A copy of the letter with an analysis can be found at Pajama Hadin.

First, the good news: the Left has realized they need our support to do anything.

Second, the bad news: they still think we're stupid.

I have on previous occasions noted the tendency of liberals to appeal to conservatives using emotionally-charged rhetoric (see If I Have Not Tears, Can I Be Progressive? and Somewhere Between a Valentine and an Infomercial). The open letter is no different.

We will never resolve our differences on this basic question. But we should agree on an equally fundamental point: America would be a better country if no woman ever faced the difficult choices posed by an unintended pregnancy. What better way to end the debate over abortion rights than by eliminating the reasons women seek abortion?

The thing is, there is absolutely no reason to trust these people. This letter is intended to drum up support for the Prevention First Act. A large part of the bill deals with "emergency contraception". Emergency contraception includes killing the fertilized egg before it can implant in the uterus.

More important, the entire concept of contraception is based on a lie, namely that people only have sex once. If you have sex only once, then a 95% contraceptive device has only 1 chance in 20 of failing. On the other hand, if you have sex 14 times, then you're facing even odds. Here's the math:

  • The chance of successful contraception after one encounter is 0.95
  • The chance of successful contraception after two encounters is 0.95 * 0.95, which is 0.95^2 or 0.9025.
  • The chance after 14 encounters is 0.95^14, or 0.4877.

So, if the chance of successful contraception is 0.4877, then the chance of pregnancy is 0.5123, which is greater than 50%.

Now of course, the failure is also dependent on the time of month, due to the cyclical nature of human female fertility. Nonetheless, you're playing with fire unless you're not having sex in the first place.

Still, I think this is a good sign. Liberals are reaching out. It's as phony as soy-based cheese, but it's a start. Maybe next time they'll be sincere and we can get some actual work done.

Respectfully submitted,

Ferdinand T. Cat


# At Sat 2:30 AM | Permalink | Trackback URI | Comments (5) | More Notes from Ferdy | Tags:

Trackback Pings

» Common Ground While Standing in a Swamp from PajamaHadin
... You may have seen in the recent past an open letter from the pro-abortion NARAL gang talki [Read More]

Tracked on February 20, 2005 5:07 PM

» The 127th Carnival of the Vanities from PunditGuy
Welcome to the 127th Carnival of the Vanities! First things first. I'd like to thank Silflay Hraka for creating this weekly event. Take some time to look around his site and if you'd like to host a future carnival, be sure to let him know. To join the ... [Read More]

Tracked on February 23, 2005 3:18 AM

» #75 Best of Me Symphony from The Owner's Manual
In Old People Like the Weed, Aggressive Voice Daily asks where all the conservatives are who advocate states' rights. Why is Washington fighting states that want medical marijuana laws? Sometimes I've been to a party where no one spoke [Read More]

Tracked on May 1, 2005 11:03 PM

Comments

I would call the fact that NARAL still thinks we're stupid good news. Tells me that 2006 should be another good year for Republicans. :-)

Thanks,

David


Posted by: David Flanagan [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 19, 2005 9:02 PM

I wonder why it is that many liberals think that if they change their language without changing their actions, that they will automatically sucker their target audience.

Perhaps it is because those liberals are used to equating language with action, and expect others to do the same.

So they think the're being fiendishly clever by saying things they don't really mean, which is hysterical when you think about it.

Hmm... maybe grounds for a post?


Posted by: Mastiff at February 19, 2005 10:37 PM

If they're so amenable to avoiding abortion, let's have a sonagram shown to every client at an abortion clinic and let them listen to a heartbeat. That should cut way down. They will also no doubt agree, just because they want to avoid abortions, to limit abortions to the first trimester. If they promote these two things, then I'll take them seriously. Neither would significantly limit a women's right to choose - several weeks is plenty of time to decide. Last I heard they still supported partial birth abortions though.


Posted by: anselm at February 20, 2005 8:17 AM

Fortunately the adults of America seem to be catching on to the Left's schemes. I just hope none of the liberals decides to lower the voting age. High schoolers are major suckers for this kind of wool pulling.


Posted by: Peg-eye Nate [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 20, 2005 10:18 AM

Mastiff, you bring up a good point, and it's another corollary of what I think is the defining characteristic of liberalism: the belief that they're smarter than everyone else. Given that principle, anything they do to drag the unwashed masses toward the light is justified. A great example is the recent effort by Berkely linguistics professor George Lakoff to help the Democrats recast their opinions in language more likely to sway voters. It was the first thing the DNC did after losing the election.

I touched on this in a Cat's Meow last month (http://www.conservativecat.com/mt/archives/2005/01/010305_intellig.html). Tom Sowell discusses it in detail in his book "Conflict of Visions". Bruce has copies of this book all over the house and he's constantly quoting from it.


Posted by: Ferdy [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 20, 2005 9:57 PM

HTML is not allowed in comments; however, if you put in a raw URL (http://www.somewhere.com/page.html) it will automatically be converted to a link.. Also, it is likely your comment will not appear unless you refresh the page manually after posting it.

Post a comment