A reasonable and useful logical test is to stand an argument upon its head and then consider what is being asserted. This is not to use the logical fallacy of reductio ad absurdam, rather it is to try and examine the logical linkage between the parts of the argument. It can devolve into that other logical fallacy, tu quoque, but then all logical examination is prey to one or another of the possible logical fallacies.…
See MoreTag: abortion
Canadians Not Quite Getting The Point Of Free Speech
The basic idea of free speech should be simple enough for people to grasp. Peeps get to say what they want to say. We do indeed then bring in a couple of restrictions. No, by lying, trashing the reputation of another – that’s libel. And no inciting immediate violence because we do agree that it’s possible to whip up the mob through demagoguery. And after that, well, peeps get to say what they want to say.…
See MoreThe 23 Week, 8.6 Ounces, Baby and Late Abortion
The basic moral question at the heart of the abortion debate is what is a human being? This is one of those things where Peter Singer is analytically correct – we face a Sorites problem here. That insight being some thousands of years old. Here’s a “pile” of sand. Moving one grain over to there doesn’t create two piles. We’ve not stopped our pile being a pile by removing one grain, one grain is not a pile either.…
See MoreA Plurality Of Americans Are Anti-Abortion – Shouldn’t It Be Illegal Then?
We’ve all long known that American attitudes to abortion are rather different than they are over here in Europe. We do indeed have people who are vociferously against the practice – I am one of them but this isn’t about me or my prejudices – but there’re many fewer. We really don’t have anything like the very large American pro-life movement and most certainly not the power they have in politics.
Well, OK. And it’s also pretty easy to work out why too.…
See MoreAnother Question In A Guardian Headline We Can Answer – No
Betteridge’s Law states that questions in headlines can usually be answered with a no. The more sophisticated version being an injunction to headline writers to not write headlines that can be answered with a no. This being something the subeditors at The Guardian have forgotten:
Could abortion become illegal in America? All signs point to yes
The correct answer is of course no.
To understand this it is necessary to grasp the current situation. Through the 1960s and into the early 70s various states changed their laws upon abortion.…
See MoreAlyssa Milano’s #Sex Strike Would Reduce The Abortion Rate
Assuming we’ve all got right what it is that causes pregnancy maybe Alyssa Milano has got things right here.
After all, less sex is going to lead to fewer abortions, isn’t it?
See MoreLysistrata Won’t Work Today – Alyssa Milano’s Call For Sex Strike Over Abortion Laws #SexStrike
Well, perhaps we should retreat a little bit from outright refusal to believe that it could possibly work. Shuffle back to it shouldn’t work given everything that we’ve been told about female sexuality these recent years. You know, that idea that the gals are gaggin’ for it just as much as the boys? If this is actually so – and a longish life hasn’t produced any empirical evidence that it isn’t – then we’re left with a tool that is as painful to use as any effect it will have upon the target.…
See More[CORRECTED] Kevin D Williamson Is Gay? Ain’t That A Victory For Classical Liberalism?
On the 7th April 2018 we wrote an article stating that Kevin D. Williamson was gay. this turned out to be factually untrue and based on an entire misconception of another artice – Kevin Williamson is not gay.
So, err, pretty stupid of me really.
Continental Telegraph clearly apologise to Kevin for that error.
Tim.
It comes to my attention that Kevin D Williamson, fired from the Atlantic over his comments concerning abortion, is gay.…
See MoreThe French Abortion Strike – What Right To Abortion?
This is an interesting cat amongst the pigeons, one of the French gynecologists’ unions is threatening to stop performing abortions in a dispute they’re having with the government. The complaint itself is that the government doesn’t provide sufficient insurance funds to defend – or perhaps pay the damages of those convicted – doctors against medical negligence claims.
The whole idea having three interesting corollaries and it’s the third which is by far the most important.
The first being, well, start from the basic left position.…
See MoreHaving Cake And Eating It: Part I – Sex And Death
A recent article about prostitution in Amsterdam revealed for me the stunning hypocrisy of the modern Left, and the way they are happy to use an argument AND its reverse, when it suits them.
It’s merely the latest in a long line of such hypocrisies, so I have a few pieces planned in the same vein.
Part I is called Sex & Death, because it looks at their views of prostitution and abortion.
So the mayor of Amsterdam is telling us that prostitution is an embarrassment.…
See More