A Few Oddities

A Few Oddities
By Ben Stein on 2.8.11 @ 6:08AM

I am endlessly amazed at how backwards we humans get things in our lives. Just let me give you two very basic examples, one of which is a crime against humanity.

I keep reading in the New York Times that Mayor Bloomberg, a billionaire health nut, is on a campaign against having too much salt in foods in New York City restaurants. His belief is that New Yorkers and visitors shorten their life spans by eating too much salt and therefore raising their blood pressure in a dangerous way. If he took control over the salt content in New York restaurants, he could save a few dozen lives per year, he believes.

But, wait a moment. I also read in the New York Times that New York City is one of the abortion capitals of the nation, with a much higher rate of abortion than most other parts of the nation. And Mayor Bloomberg is a great fan of "…a woman's right to choose…" to abort her baby.

As I calculate it in a rough way, New York City has about 8 million persons living there, or about (very roughly) 3 per cent of the nation's population. And New York has a much higher abortion rate than the rest of the nation. So it is possible that New Yorkers have about 50,000 abortions per year, or maybe a lot more.

That is 50,000 killings of totally innocent children every year. Does Mayor Bloomberg think that his anti-salt campaign means much compared with that number? If he wants to save lives, why doesn't he throw his tiny weight and his huge purse behind right to life? That's a truly life-saving act.

This whole subject endlessly fascinates and horrifies me. We campaign against obesity -- and we should -- because it shortens life. But nothing else makes life as short as abortion. We campaign for more exercise -- and I heartily agree -- because it lengthens life. But, again, no amount of exercise would offset the over 1,000,000 excess American deaths each year caused by abortion of the totally innocent. We want safer cars. We want cleaner air. We want cleaner water. All to save life. But there is nothing we could do that would save more lives than to truly stop abortion in all but the most extreme cases of need.

Why? Why are we so blind to the mass murder of the innocent?

Second interesting issue. Our President, Mr. Obama, and other high pooh-bahs, want us to use more nuclear power to offset the harmful effects of burning coal, oil, and natural gas. These carbon products pollute the air and (supposedly, although no one is buying this any longer except for a few fanatics) are dangerous to human health because they create ''global warming." Therefore, so the reasoning runs, we should use nuclear power.

But, wait. Nuclear waste is toxic for ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS! Yes, it is toxic for far longer than civilization has existed. And our President thinks it's a good idea to generate this lethal waste in mass quantities ? A better idea than to burn oil and coal ? Is he kidding? What the heck is going on here? Toxic for 100,000 YEARS!!! And we choose to create it? Are we insane?