Saturday, September 06, 2008

Morons writing to newspapers II

Arnel was right, this is the gift that just keeps giving. Partida, Inquirer pa lang ito.

So this lady writes about her opposition to condoms and the reproductive health bill.

The use of condoms will not stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Health Undersecretary Mario Villaverde himself said that condoms have a 95 percent protection rate. In other words, the use of condoms does not guarantee that it will prevent, 100 percent, the spread of AIDS from one person to another.

Of course it doesn't. It guarantees 95 percent, which is way better (95% better!) than o%. I don;t know where she got the idea that 95% = 0.

The microscopic holes in condoms are large enough for the AIDS virus to pass through. That’s why there has been no decline in the number of people contracting AIDS in countries promoting the use of condoms. On the contrary, there is a growing number of people with AIDS in those countries.

Wrong. If the microscopic holes are large enough then it will prevent transmission, oh, 0% of the time. The rest she's just making up. As for Lagman's bill:

It will mandate sex education for young people, which means they will be taught how to have “safe sex” by using contraceptives. The youth need education in chastity and true love. If we really want to avoid teenage pregnancies and prevent the spread of STDs, the best and safest way is to teach them self-control, abstinence and the value of keeping sex within marriage.

Again, wrong. the best and safest way would be to ENSURE that they have self-control, abstinence, and keep sex within marriage (both of them). But since it's impossible to do that (I'd give it a less than 95% chance), teaching them safe sex (kahit 95% lang) is way better.

Statistics show an increase in the incidence of teenage pregnancies and STDs in the United States where American youth receive extensive sex education in school.

Again something out of her ass. The Bush administration has received a lot of flak for their "abstinence-only" sex ed classes (the kind the letter-writer is advocating).

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My question is does the editor publish stuff like this to amuse people like me? Or is it a fair representation of the letters they get?

2 comments:

Althea said...

You should check out PhilSTAR's Inbox in the World News section.:D

missingpoints said...

I can imagine.

PhilSTAR's website doesn't have permanent links, which is why I don't comment on their stuff.