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Bill Bennett's Insane Comments on Aborting 'black babies'.

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reprehensor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:29 PM
Original message
Bill Bennett's Insane Comments on Aborting 'black babies'.
Apparently Kanye West could have painted with a broader brush.

Bill Bennett: "...you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509280006

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TallahasseeGrannie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:32 PM
Response to Original message
1. I hope to God
this is taken out of context. I can't believe anyone saying something so awful.
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Fenris Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:35 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Context...
CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't -- never touches this at all.

BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?

CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.

BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as -- abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.

CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.

BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well --

CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.
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TallahasseeGrannie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:41 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. Thanks so much for the context
I am relieved that he at least qualified it and said it would be morally reprehensible.

But just SAYING it was just so wrong.
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Tom Rinaldo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 07:50 PM
Response to Reply #8
15. I'm not relieved at all. OK, maybe 3% relieved, but that's it.
Bennet is saying that Blacks are a direct cause of crime. He did not say that if you aborted every child born to a single parent crime would go down, or that aborting those born into families below the poverty line would reduce crime. He said if you aborted every black child crime would go down. Pure Racism. The fact that Bennet does not believe that the "social good" he envisions such genocide would achieve is sufficient to justify genocide itself I suppose can be taken as a "relief", but had he gone there he would have been in smack dab in Hitler's league. The fact that Bennet is more moderate than Hitler is not a great relief to me. No doubt he is not quite as racist as that comment makes him sound. Not quite. But the fact that his mind allows him to make that leap of logic reflects ingrained underlying racism.
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BootinUp Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 04:16 PM
Response to Reply #15
21. I have to agree, this was worse than
Jimmy the Greek's foot in mouth for example. Much worse.
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Vinnie From Indy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:33 PM
Response to Original message
2. I'll give ya four to one odds Bennett is an asshole
Edited on Wed Sep-28-05 06:34 PM by Vinnie From Indy
These jerkwads can't even shoot straight and still 30% of America loves them.
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Bernardo de La Paz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:37 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. LOL. He's an addicted gambler. Gambled away 8 million dollars.
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Mend Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:54 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. Seems addicted to his food bowl as well...eom
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malaise Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:35 PM
Response to Original message
4. Can't believe he's getting away with
that racist comment. What's more it has no basis in fact.
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Kagemusha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:36 PM
Response to Original message
5. He said abortion might well reduce the crime rate, through genocide
and demonstrated that if you simply wiped out black babies you'd reduce the crime rate by the most amount, to say that all abortion "genocide" is beyond the pale. Just imagine if we were talking about only black babies, he argues. Why is it any different for whites? He implies.

So yes, he said a very horrible thing, to paint abortion itself as a very horrible thing that cannot be justified through abstract issues such as lowering the crime rate.
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Spinzonner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:36 PM
Response to Original message
6. You could abort EVERY baby in this country

and the crime rate would go down also.

Of course, there is a considerable latency with respect to the action and the 'desired' effect.

What it has to do with race is a mystery except perhaps in Bill's hypocritical, twisted mind.

Then, of course, there are also some negative side-effects ...

:sarcasm:
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xchrom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:55 PM
Response to Original message
10. now there's a guy pat robertson should ask people
to assassinate.
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yorkiemommie1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 06:57 PM
Response to Original message
11. these jackasses top themselves every day

they feel no need to control their filth.
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Humor_In_Cuneiform Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 07:10 PM
Response to Original message
12. Katrina uncovered a lot more than Brown's incompetence
It also seems to have freed the tongues of racists.

If I only could, I'd make every bigot experience life from the perspective of those they disdain and disrespect.
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Skip Intro Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 07:22 PM
Response to Original message
13. How would saying "Getting rid of blacks would eliminate crime" be any
Edited on Wed Sep-28-05 07:42 PM by Skip Intro
different?

Context changes nothing.

Flat out racism
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drluch Donating Member (42 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 07:38 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. This is the same guy who said he gambled for years
and "broke even".

Bullshit.
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Erika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 09:40 PM
Response to Reply #13
17. Yep...flat out racism
and he needs to be called on it, as should be his hateful and racist party.

The crime rate would also go down if all white babies were aborted, but he mentioned black babies not white babies. He disgusts me beyond belief.
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flaminbats Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 03:59 PM
Response to Reply #17
20. a classic example of moral relativism..
aborting white babies is murder, but aborting black babies is only law enforcement. Denying basic healthcare and insurance to the working poor is only traditional capitalism, but having an abortion because some men are too good to wear condoms is always murder. Bill Clinton & Gary Hart having affairs is unChristian, but voting for an admitted cokehead and bribing members of Congress is just politics.

ahhh, what a virtuous role model for our children..:crazy:
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Erika Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-28-05 09:37 PM
Response to Original message
16. That was a hateful racist statement & I'm appalled
I hope this statement is screamed from rooftops. This man is morally bankrupt in more ways than one.
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reprehensor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 02:16 PM
Response to Original message
18. Randi's giving it a spin today.
Man, where's my copy of 'Book of Virtues'...
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AspenRose Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 04:42 PM
Response to Reply #18
22. Malloy mentioned it too last night
Edited on Thu Sep-29-05 04:43 PM by DesertedRose
Do Tavis Smiley and Tom Joiner know about this?
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npincus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Sep-29-05 02:38 PM
Response to Original message
19. Oh my. Is this in his "Book of Virtues"?
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