Friday, September 30, 2005

Morning Edition - 9/30/05

Bust A Cap Now; Ask Questions Later
The state of Florida approved a new gun law in April that basically gives Floridians who own guns the right to shoot first and ask questions later – all without criminal or civil repercussions. The law, which is supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA) was approved by the state legislature. Governor Jeb Bush calls the law “good, commonsense, anti-crime issue.” Before this law took effect gun owners could only fire their weapons if they attempted to withdraw from confrontations and were confronted with a life-threatening emergency or the threat was physically in their home or property. Now, they can fire at will if they “reasonably believe that firing their gun is necessary to prevent a crime or serious injury.” Florida presently enjoys 80 million tourists per year, but now their tourism industry is threatened by notices published in various countries warning that physical injury resulting from arguments or social faux-pas that escalate to a shooting are possible. Pray that New Yorkers don’t ever adopt such a ridiculous piece of legislation.

Y’all Ain’t Comin’ Back Here
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Alphonso R. Jackson told the Houston Chronicle that New Orleans’ pre-Katrina population of 500,000 would not re-establish itself for a long while and when it does, “it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." This prompted some black leaders to respond to the comment, including Maryland’s Elijah E. Cummings who said, “I would beg and hope that the secretary, if that is what he is saying, would re-evaluate the situation.”

Go Topless For Safety
Francois Venter told health officials in Cape Town, South Africa that one of the best available ways to prevent the spread of HIV is circumcision. Venter said his study proved that men who are circumcized were 65% less likely to contract the virus. South Africa has an estimated 6 million folks infected with HIV.

On Blast
You are on a ill-fated plane trip. The captain has informed you that the plane will be crashing down in less than two minutes. The telephones on the seat-backs have been activated to allow you ONE telephone call. Who will you call? What will you say? Please keep the timeframe in mind.

Keep passin’ the open windows…

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I have an on Blast question. What should be done about the very recent comments of William Bennett. If you don't know what I am talking about please read this article (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Politics/story?id=1171385&page=1)

Unknown said...

Donya, I couldn't access the story, want to give us the gist of what the comments were?

Anonymous said...

ACTUALLY HE SAID "IF YOU WANT TO REDUCE CRIME IN AMERICA, AND THAT WERE YOUR SOLE PURPOSE, THEN ABORT EVERY BLACK BABY BORN IN AMERICA". THEN HE WENT ON TO SAY THAT "IT WOULD BE IMMORAL, BUT IT IS TRUE". HE SAID THAT THE REASON CRIME WAS DECLINING WAS THAT ABORTIONS WERE INCREASING. WILLIAM BENNET WAS THE FORMER SECRETARY IF EDUCATION. I HAVE NO COMMENT

Anonymous said...

Although for me this is very touching & something I would hate to ever have to do my answer is as follows:

I am calling my daughter Vio
"I love you, remember what mommy taught you, belive in yourself & remember the Lion King movie I am with you always & so is mama.

I love you always".

Krissy

Unknown said...

I'd call you.
I'd tell you that I love you.
I'd tell you that I'll always be there - in the rising of the sun, in the chirping of the birds, in the smile of a baby...
I'd tell you to remember me.
I'd tell you that you mattered.

In response to the comments made by Bennett...sometimes it's best to let some folks speak and be heard because their comments speak for themselves. In 2005 Bennett doesn't warrant a response. His comments call for reflection. Ignorance and hatred don't always need to be analyzed, they sometimes stand alone as a marker of cruel intolerance. All should be forced to look at Bennett's comments and reflect on what they make us feel, think of and act on. Now we should all be able to move forward with more respect for humanity as a whole - any else, as Bennett has proven, is moronic.

Anonymous said...

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down."


Bennett's remark was apparently inspired by the claim that legalized abortion has reduced crime rates, which was posited in the book Freakonomics (William Morrow, May 2005) by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. But Levitt and Dubner argued that aborted fetuses would have been more likely to grow up poor and in single-parent or teenage-parent households and therefore more likely to commit crimes; they did not put forth Bennett's race-based argument.

From the September 28 broadcast of Salem Radio Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America:

CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't -- never touches this at all.

BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?

CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.

BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as -- abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.

CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.

BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well --

CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

Bill Bennett's Morning in America airs on approximately 115 radio stations with an estimated weekly audience of 1.25 million listeners.