Happy Fathers' Day!

It was a little surprising listening to Mr. Boortz on Friday (June 18). I'm not talking about his seemingly endless rants about President Obama, his virulent opposition to labor unions or his crusade against what he calls “government schools.” What surprised me was his reckless misuse and abuse of statistics.

Now, understand that of all the right-wing talk radio hosts, I admire and respect Neal Boortz the most. (How could anyone not like someone whose own web page characterizes him as the “America's most under-rated and overpaid talk show host?”) He doesn't take himself too seriously, and frequently advises listeners not to believe anything he says unless they personally know it to be true, or confirm it from an independent source. He's got no problem laughing at himself, and I've heard him take issue with right-wing callers who go out of bounds. For example, I've heard him on multiple occasions berate callers who've claimed that the President hates America, and yesterday he berated a caller who suggested that the President's involvement in establishing the BP fund of $20 billion was motivated by a desire to line his own pockets with some of the money.

And on the occasions he manages to talk about something other than politics, I find myself agreeing with him more often than not. He's definitely an excellent companion for morning driving.

Anyway, the Friday before Fathers' Day, Mr. Boortz was discussing the importance of fathers in a child's life. First, let me point out that I generally agree with all he had to say; what disappointed me was this very intelligent man so egregiously abusing statistics.

Now, I don't remember the exact figures, so don't hold me to them – you'll get the idea.

Boortz started out by saying that of all prisoners in the US, some large percentage of them – let's say 80% - grew up in households without a father. He then said something along the lines of “that's proof enough of the importance of a father in a child's upbringing,” as if the existence of the stat proved some sort of causative relationship.

Now, if he'd had a stat that showed that a greater percentage of those from fatherless homes wind up in prison than those from two-parent homes, then there's stronger proof of cause.

See, if there were no fatherless households at all – if our world was ideal in that respect – there'd still be people in prison, and 100% of them would be from households with fathers, and what would that prove? Or let's say that only a dozen households in the US were fatherless, and all of the children from those households were in prison – then the stat being through out would be that out of the over 2 million prisoners in the US, less than 50 came from fatherless households – leading to the inevitable conclusion that if you want your kid to stay out of prison, throw his father out of the house!

Of course, that's not the fact – the important statistic isn't the percentage of the prison population that's fatherless, it's the percentage of fatherless people who are in prison.

Who knows? Perhaps he was just cutting corners and using that particular statistic to emphasize something I think most of us take as fact – kids need both parents in the home if they're going to have the best chance at a successful life. Take either parent out of the household and you present the kids involved with an enormous stumbling block which many can't overcome.

It being Father's Day today, it's appropriate to give a few moments thought to this idea. I think too many people of parenting age are enthralled by the idea of enjoying all the privileges of adulthood without concomitantly accepting the responsibilities – that is, not being willing to face up to the consequences of their actions. Birth control is the responsibility of both adults having sex, and abortion is a terrible form of birth control. And if you're adult enough to make a baby, you ought to be adult enough to stick around for the next couple of decades and help that baby become an adult!

So Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there, but I'm here to tell you that it's at best bittersweet if you can't share the day with your kids.