Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Asinine Quote of the Day Courtesy of Sen. Harry Reid

Nevada Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, thinks that economics and unemployment lead to domestic violence.
“Men when they're out of work tend to become abusive,” Reid said as he argued in favor of a cloture vote on the jobs bill. “I met with some people while I was home dealing with domestic abuse. It has gotten out of hand. Why? Men don't have jobs. Women don't have jobs either, but women aren’t abusive, most of the time. Men, when they're out of work, tend to become abusive. Our domestic crisis shelters in Nevada are jammed.”

A 2004 report prepared under a National Institute of Justice grant found that domestic violence against women occurred more frequently when their male partners were unemployed.
Most studies and examinations of domestic violence find economic situations to be a risk factor but it is not causative.

The cause of domestic violence is that person A decides to lift their hands to person B in the relationship. Note too that domestic violence can be the man against the woman or the woman against the man. The latter situation is much less likely to receive attention, but it occurs nonetheless.

Reid's statements are yet another stunning sign of his ignorance and failure to identify the responsible parties in domestic violence cases - the individual that lifts their hands and engages in the violence. No matter the economic situation, it is the person that opts to engage in violence to settle their dispute that initiates the domestic violence. It is that person's responsibility - not the economic situation or other external factors.That individual has a choice to not engage in violence, and yet they do. No one else made them do it; economics notwithstanding.

And he's pushing this nonsense to secure passage of a jobs bill that will likely not create any jobs because businesses are looking at the economic climate and don't see a reason to increase their payroll at a time when profits are being squeezed out by increased efficiencies - not improved economic factors. That's just too rich.

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