How I Learned That "Catholic Hospital" is an Oxymoron and That I Just Need to Shut Up

Or, at least, that's what someone on Twitter would probably prefer be the case.

I like words. I'm not sure if I qualify as a logophile, but I like to think I'm close, so when I see someone - especially someone who claims to be a fellow skeptic - misuse words, I feel compelled to question and/or correct it:

Now, it should be fairly obvious that Catholic hospitals aren't banning healthcare for women, and, even if they did, that doesn't make the term "Catholic hospital" an oxymoron. However, I was willing to give her some leniency and assume that she was referring to the "birth control" issue, of which I'm sure we share the same an opinion. I responded:

Even calling "Catholic women's healthcare" is a stretch, but I didn't think she'd be very receptive to a proper explanation, especially one spread out across 140-character messages. However, even a smiley emoticon could not defuse the situation. Even though her Twitter account is named "Question Everything", this apparently does not apply to her:

Ah, the Internet equivalent of, "Shut up, I'm right." At this point, I'm fairly certain that this won't head anywhere, but, darn it, I'm not going to let that be the last word:

This, unsurprisingly, did not placate her:

Maybe I was being pedantic. However, if you're going to sling around things that are patently false with full knowledge that they're wrong, you're lowering yourself to the level of the same conservatives that you claim to despise - Palin and her "death panels", Jon Kyl and his "90% of funding is abortions", or Santorum and his "5% of all deaths in the Netherlands is from involuntary euthanasia". In that case, at least tag your Twitter posts with "#notafactualstatement".

Now, of course, she may not have known that what she was saying was demonstrably false - caught up in the emotion of the moment, perhaps, or - less likely - acting on misinformation. We all make mistakes; it's bound to happen - we're only human. But if someone politely calls you out on it, have the good grace to at least retract the statement and acknowledge you were wrong. Pride tends to only make you look like an ass.