Horse's ass radio: port commissioner alex fisken, american furies

KIRO's David Goldstein Show (Saturdays Sundays, 7-10p)

7p: Port commissioner Alec Fisken in the studio. He says he'll tell the truth about problems at the port. 8p: Sasha Abramsky will talk about his new book: American Furies:  Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment.

About the book: Surveying this state of affairs-life sentences for nonviolent crimes, appalling conditions, the growth of private prisons, the treatment of juveniles—Abramsky asks: Does the vengeful impulse ennoble our culture or demean it? What can become of people who are quarantined for years in a violent subculture? California [And Washington's] Three Strikes law typifies the politics that exploit the grief of victims' families and our fears of violent crime. Brilliantly researched and compellingly told, American Furies shows that the ethos of "lock 'em up and throw away the key" has enormous social costs.

Comments

[joanie]

I have had parents who have chosen to go full-term even though they knew their's was a Downs baby.

I admire their love and courage but wonder at the life that child will lead not only as a child but once the parents are gone. In some cases, siblings will take over . . . in cases where there are no siblings, I wonder. Our society is less ready and less willing now than it used to be to care for such people.

[sparky]

I hope he can get her on the show..The baby will receive lots of love from her and her husband regardless of his medical condition--but she is on record as opposing programs that help people such as her son. I would like to hear if she thinks her mind might change now that she is faced with the challenges of raising a handicapped child to be a self sufficient citizen. I hope this helps her see the light.

[magyar]

My parents refused to abort what they knew was a Downs child. She was severely disabled and only lived long enough to be the main factor in my mother's being hospitalized for serious depression and the divorce of my parents. I would abort such a child without a second thought if the amnio showed Downs.

[magyar]

My parents refused to abort what they knew was a Downs child. She was severely disabled and only lived long enough to be the main factor in my mother's being hospitalized for serious depression and the divorce of my parents. I would abort such a child without a second thought if the amnio showed Downs.

[sara sue]

My mom lives in Alabama and they tried to outlaw the amniocentesis procedure down there stating that it was like the afterbirth abortion and led to the death of children.

[barack]

It is the killing of children. If you didn't want to kill the bably, why would you get one?

[chucks]

barak
My first wife and I went for amniocentesis before our first child was born. Her brother had MD and we wanted to know. Never crossed our minds to abort. We just needed to know so that we could prepare. It also reduced the stress on the mom during the pregnancy.

[seattlejew]

Anyone who would give life to an anencephalic or a severe Downs is cruel.One reason SeattleJew is an aethesis is that I can not imagine a Deity cruel enough create such pain and I consider myself, in this sense, a better person than such a Deity.

What would you want done for yourself if you faced such a life?

[joanie]

I so agree, Jew. Having such a child is purely for self-gratification at the expense of the child.

[Andrew]

People say "would you want to be aborted if that were you?", but you can't ask a fetus if it apreciates living becuase it doesn't apreciate anything. Our privelege of intelegence isn't transferable to non-thinking objects despite what you might have gathered from cartoons.

Debates over abortion have no end because they're realy just masked religious debates, with pro-choicers saying "it's humane" and pro-downs-syndrome-for-lifers asserting that fetuses have undectable and unmeasurable qualities such as a "soul" and "sanctity of life".

As long as our society treats everyone with an imaginary friend they call "god" as credible then debate will do no good. Your best bet is to slay your oponent, but that would make you look extreme and you might go to jail, so as an alternative, do something realy crazy while guised as your oponent to make them apear extreme and misguided by comparison, such as holding up high-res signs depicting bloody aborted fetuses outside a public grade school during recess.

[GI Joe]

Oh yeah, it will be the David Goldstien "I am a victim" show

[seattlejew]

Andrew ..
If it were only so simple.

There is no absolute rule about what is or is not a human life. The ebst an aetheistic Jew, like myself, can do is:

1. to insist that all religions accept direct revelation, aka "science." In Judaism this strong point has been made over and over again by Maimonides, Spinoza, ans Soleveitchik. If the revealed truth and science appear t disagree, then revelation must be quesitoned for error.

In this spirit I can minutely describe how life comes ot be. I can also pnt out flaws in the provenance of the three major revelations. By what authority7 does the Church claim the right to rewrite scoientific truth? It can not.

2. On the other hand, I must cede the right of others to fundamental beliefs that differ from those underpinning science. Just as quantum mechanics made us rethink the fundamental rules of the universe, so can moral issues require a rethinking of rational law.

Bottom line .. leave me alone, I will leave you alone but lets help each other.

[Dana]

"Bottom line .. leave me alone, I will leave you alone but lets help each other."

That's a good philosophy that I wish were held by more people. I subscribe to it and I'm a devout Christian.

[Andrew]

If you're a Christian and you've become a lawmaker then how can you not outlaw abortion? Wouldn't you be an accessory to murder in the eyes of your 'God'?

The Christian lawmaker might take the view of SeattleJew and act as a pragmatist and build consensus but will that fly with 'God' or will He see that capitulation with the Satan?

The solution is to diminish the amount of respect we pay to faith and belief. People sense that it's harmless and they need to be shown that it's not. The leader of the free world makes wreckless decisions while saying he receives guidance from his faith. How can he ever held accountable for fucking up if 'God' guided him? Look! It's nuts!

[sparky]

hmm Gandi believed in a higher power..methinks your brush is way too big..

[Andrew]

It's retarded to say that on the one hand there is a higher power but on the other that not a single quality can be attributed to it as that would cause religious conflict. What's the point!?

If all that can be said about "higher power" is that it's high and powerful then lets all agree it must be the sun and move on.