Jerry Springer is a Moron

To those of you who do not know, Jerry Springer has moved from the world of "bitter feud[s] Between the KKK and that gay Jewish black dude", where "some loser's wife said she's still dating twenty guys" and "he interviewed A bunch of psychic porn star midgets who were all nude" to the serious* world of Air America Radio.

As a serious** talk show host he tackles issues like abortion.

His new thing is pointing out that people who are anti-abortion are not really pro-life, they are liars and hypocrites. See, if they were honest, he says, they would want to punish women who have an abortion the same as a woman who "slits the throat of her 3-year-old child". Since they aren't calling for the death penalty or life in prison in the case of an abortion, they agree that is a difference between a child and a fetus, that that difference is a philosophical question and therefore should be completely left up to the woman.

In the first place, Jerry, don't go giving the hardliners any ideas. People have bombed abortion clinics and murdered doctors precisely because they do believe that killing a fetus is murder and want to punish the ones responsible.

Secondly, acknowledging a difference between a child and a fetus does not mean that, since killing one is a crime, the other must not be. It just means that we judge one as less bad. When we have different penalties for beating your dog and beating your child, it doesn't mean that we are hypocrites nor does it mean that we are lying about saying we think it is an evil, immoral thing to beat your dog. We just judge it less bad than beating your child.

And in the third place, the law makes philosophical decisions all of the time. Some people believe that to spare the rod is to spoil the child, others believe that any kind of physical punishment is immoral. It's a philosophical question. The law takes the position that spanking and other mild physical punishment is okay (depending on the circumstances), but anything harsher is abuse. But even that is not clear. Making your child stand in the corner for a time out is okay, unless it is for unreasonably long periods of time and then it is physical abuse. And the line between acceptable yelling at a child and verbal abuse is also something that the law faces.

Does Jerry recommend we get rid of all abuse laws because they come down to philosophical differences on how best to raise children?




*At least, I'm told it is serious. I usually listen for some laughs.
**He's certainly more serious than Randi Rhodes or Al Franken who each spends considerable time talking about their time slot competitors, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.