Yay, Abortion!

This is the must-Tivo event of the summer: On Thursday, Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics, will appear on The 700 Club.

In one of the early chapters of Freakonomics, the most interesting read of the year, Levitt and co-author Stephen Dubner of the NY Times attempt to prove that the plummet in violent crime in the US during the 1990s had nothing to do with community-oriented policing, longer prison sentences, the stabilization of the "crack wars," or Giulianism. Rather, the reason that fewer violent crimes were commited was because Roe v. Wade had made abortion more available and culturally acceptable. Fewer unwanted babies = fewer unloved teenage boys = less crime.

How do you think Pat Robertson will address this theory? Tivo will tell us.

Update: Tivo told us, and here's the tale of the tape. Robertson dumped scads of praise upon Freakonomics, although he seemed genuinely bothered by the "crazy" title, the strange bizarre weirdness upon which he remarked several times. He basically reviewed some of the chapters and major findings with Levitt, who unfortunately appeared via remote feed from Chicago.

It wasn't until the end that Robertson got to the abortion rights = less crime chapter, and he basically took it at face value, calling it "controversial," but not really casting any aspersion upon Levitt's theory. While Levitt is careful in the book not to advocate a position on abortion rights, on The 700 Club he seemed to hedge even more than he did compared to his other television appearances I've seen, so Robertson had little to get upset about.

Anyway, the most fascinating moment was the supreme cognitive dissonance Robertson displayed after Levitt's interview, when he commented on a Kansas public opinion poll that showed that a slim majority (55%) want "alternatives to evolution" (you know, stuff that isn't science) taught in public school science classes. Robertson went into his usual bashing of all the "holes" in the theory of evolution and how "these people" accept evolution as a "religion." (No, Pat, they accept it as science.) It was an extra-special mindfuck after he heaped so much praise on Freakonomics as a "tremendous read," a book that essentially uses data and research to reach conclusions about how reality works.

No word from Pat on whether that meteor is ever going to hit Orlando.

Comments

[dalton]

I loved Freakonomics. It's one of the smartest, most interesting books I've read in a long time. The authors have a blog that they update regularly with new info and transcripts from television appearances, so if you happen to miss the broadcast, check out the blog for the recap.

I wonder if it will be as good as his visit to the O'Reilly Factor?

[seamus]

Dalton, I can't wait to get home and fire up the Tivo tonight. Gotta remember to give the programs some thumbs-down so it doesn't fill the recording schedule 700 Club-style programming.