NPR: a favored soft target hates on humans again

As I cruise around town, running errands with the kids, I listen to NPR. It serves three purposes:

1) I build up a better toleration to simpering, Baby Boomer liberalism

2) Tuck away bits of information that can be turned into small talk at all these social gatherings I've been attending

3) Avoid Top 40 stations

There is plenty to roll my eyes at-- like the recent story "Chinese Experiment Seeks Secret to Happiness" where Chinese psychologists, and the NPR reporters along with them, are baffled about why so many people in China are unhappy. It is confusing why the recent flood of consumerism into the nation wouldn't counterbalance the fact that their lovely, ancient civilization has been smashed to pieces by an oppressive government.

Anyway, what I really want to complain about is this bit on "un-natural selection" as they call it (listen for yourself, it is very short). They rehash the old notion that all this medical science, while keeping people alive and healthier for longer, is also perpetuating "bad genes" which undoes all those glorious eons of survival of the fittest. People who otherwise would not survive long enough to bear children now can thanks to scientific advances.

Joe Palaca says directly "But now, in some cases, we choose to keep these bad mutations around."

And this is followed up by the sound of a crying baby.

Ah yes, the bad mutation baby. I can't help but think there are people out there who really loathe the thought of sharing food, water, and the oxygen we are supposedly running out of with people whose genes are less than "perfect."

"But abortion isn't about eugenics at all!" say the detractors. "It isn't ever about weeding out the people that make some other people uncomfortable, abortion is just about personal choices." Right.