Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Moonbat Dictionary: Punishment and Consequence

Moonbat Dictionary is a semi-regular feature here at Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels.

There are lots of words in the English language that moonbats have embraced, twisted the arms off of, and crushed beyond recognition. This is because the usual, textbook definitions don't help their causes.

Back at this post, I discussed the difference between lie and mistake. I thought it would be the only time I had to discuss the meaning of words, since, to my knowledge, the people posting on English-speaking websites speak English. But evidently I was wrong.

If there's any word that drives the pro-abortion nuts crazy, it's the word consequence. To the moonbats, consequence is synonymous with punishment. This is because, for them, the idea that certain behaviors lead to certain foreseeable results is punishment.

But let's set the record straight.

A consequence is the effect, result, or outcome of something occurring earlier. A punishment is a penalty inflicted for an offense or fault.

If you drive recklessly and smash your car, the smashed car is a consequence of your behavior. It isn't a punishment. Similarly, if you have sex and one of you becomes pregnant, that's a consequence of sex, not a punishment.

Of course, to the nuts on the left, pointing out that the typical way to become pregnant is by having sex and if one is really serious about avoiding pregnancy one can either abstain or get sterilized is tantamount not liking sex. I'm still trying to connect those dots, but they seem to have that all figured out. Of course, they still haven't got the sex-leads-to-babies thing figured out.

Be that as it may, the term consequence has deeply negative connotations for the pro-abortion people. Instead of admitting that sex has risks and that adults accept the risks when they decide to have sex, they argue that stopping them from aborting the babies is punishment. They also argue that making someone have a baby when they don't want one is punishment.

What they don't consider punishment is having sex without accepting the risks involved. This is a little like the drunk driver who kills a family of four and then proclaims that it must be the car's fault because killing the family wasn't what he/she intended.

Perhaps it would be a good after-New Year's present to give a moonbat a dictionary.