Let's do the math, however: in order to balance the books, murder-wise, this would mean that each of those aborted black babies would have to have become — had he or she not been murdered by a leading Republican crusader on moral values — a murderer. Or you're still seeing a bit of an uptick in crime, statistically speaking. Every murdered murderer would constitute a murder. And the murdered non-murderers... well, you see the problem. The aborted murderers would have to do a fair bit of murdering in order to make up for the aborted innocents.
Luckily, the media has accustomed us, in the past couple of weeks, to think of most black Americans — poor ones, anyway — as rapists of babies, so I suppose it's not too hard to make this mental leap: sure, hell, they're all basically serial killers. The thought experiment works! Right? I think... Okay, I'm not so good at thinking this way. Which is why they pay people like Bennett the big bucks — I'd make a lousy secretary of education.
Yes, I defer to the expert. Bill Bennett — with his "multi-million dollar gambling habit" — clearly knows a lot more about morality than I do. I mean, I have opinions, but he's written whole books about this stuff: The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals; and Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism.
Moral clarity. If I had some of that, I suppose I'd be outraged that we weren't taking clothes hangers to black children in the womb.
--------------------------------------------------------------
If you find this kind of reasoning irritating, or even repulsive, please visit Dysblog for whole pages of the same.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dave Nalle
The man made a rhetorical point. There's no indication of even a whif of actual racism here. Give me a break.
Dave
2 - Douglas Anthony Cooper
Dave, is there *nothing* you won't apologize for?
3 - Douglas Anthony Cooper
I mean, how repulsive do these people have to be before you're willing to stand up and say, "These people are repulsive."
The rhetorical point focused, I note, on *black* babies. What precisely was the point, then, rhetorically speaking?
4 - RogerMDillion
"Moral clarity. If I had some of that,"
If you had some of that, you would realize that Bennett was making a larger point, which I notice you didn't disagree with. So that makes you a racist, right?
Your article is written as if Bennett was advocating killing black babies, which is patently false, and you would know that if you read or heard his entire statement.
This is all just politics as usual attacking a man you don't like by taking fragments of what he said. Try and strive for something better.
5 - Douglas Anthony Cooper
Look. The context of his remark was an economic survey demonstrating that crime goes down as abortion goes up. A racially neutral survey. Bill's attempt to put some moral clarity into this fact (which clearly disturbed him) was to specify that -- if you *really* wanted to be, you know, factual -- you'd stress the abortion of *black* babies.
That's the context. That's what he said. He did not say, "let's go out and kill black babies." No, he said that if you were going to cut down on crime, then the way to do it would be to target -- hypothetically, of course -- this particular race for abortion.
Just a little thought experiment.
6 - RogerMDillion
Which he immediately followed up with "That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do,"
But to your point "he said that if you were going to cut down on crime, then the way to do it would be to target -- hypothetically, of course -- this particular race for abortion."
Is that not true? Heaven forbid, that Bennett thinks there are poor black people in this country. Do you not think there are?
I didn't notice anyone getting upset when those on the left stated that the victims from Katrina in New Orleans suffered because they were poor and black.
7 - marc
Douglas Anthony Cooper you twisted, spun and obliterated the original context of Bennett's remarks.
"Thought experiment" my aching ass.
You posted a misleading pile of crap that smells worse than an elephant with the runs.
8 - Rob
The real rub in Bennett's comments is that he said "A L L " black babies...a clear indication of a lack of understanding of African-American contributions to this great country.
9 - Tom
Since the percentage of criminals in jail are disproportionately male, how about aborting all males to reduce the crime rate? Bill Bennett and his defenders are ridiculous.
10 - ann
planned parenthood has been aborting black babies in disporportiante numbers yet not suprisingly the crime rate has not gone down, i felt like a knife went thru my heart when i heard his comment, taken out of context or not it was a sick thing to say about human beings
11 - Les Slater
“I didn't notice anyone getting upset when those on the left stated that the victims from Katrina in New Orleans suffered because they were poor and black.”
I did not get upset but did point out that is was the poor that bore most of the suffering. Well off Blacks fared fairly well. Poor whites were much in the same situation as the rest of the poor, who were predominately Black.
Bennett’s remarks were racist in that he did not distinguish the social strata in which the abortion solution would apply. His hypothetical solution would abort fetuses of all Black people.
Even though he may have been trying to make a moral point, his using race as the criteria is, indeed, racist.
12 - kittygogo
If Bill Bennett didn't want people to talk about what an incredibly insensitive and perverse dickhead that he is, he shouldn't say idiotic racist remarks. Taken out of context my ass. He is a nationally syndicated radio talk show ranter. Don't tell me that he doesn't know that what he says goes out everywher. He should know that if he says ludicrous, destructive and mean-spirited remarks, targetting a racial group, he's obviously going to get called out on it. Apologize for him if you really feel he needs your help, but he said what he said, and it was a stupid, racist remark, no matter what the "context".
All republicans should be aborted if we want less murder because more black people would have money and wouldn't be so desperate to kill. Of course, aborting all repos would be wrong on moral grounds. There I made a completely idiotic and perhaps false comment. But don't you dare criticize me, because I said it would be wrong and you would just be taking my words out of context. What a bunch of bullshit. All of these guys are simply full of evil. (How's that for a gross, general oversimplicfication for you.) The fact is Bennett represents a party that has proven time and again to be racist, xenophobic and out-of-touch with the real citizen of this country. Let's just hope that the next election doesn't once again turn into a homosexual witch hunt ...another group the repos love to hate (along with poor people, blacks, illegal immigrants, europeans and other misc. foreigners, environmentalists, teachers ...)
13 - Dave Nalle
>>The real rub in Bennett's comments is that he said "A L L " black babies...a clear indication of a lack of understanding of African-American contributions to this great country.<<
So they ARE handing out clown shoes with the DNC membership cards. I thought they might be.
Bennet made an extreme rhetorical statement for effect. He made it painstakingly clear that it was entirely hypothetical and that his purpose was to excite thought. Not surprisingly it excited a great deal of dumb thought.
He didn't say "hey, let's kill all the black people" or "I have a plan to exterminate the poor". His statement was essentially saying :we could do a lot of stupid things to combat crime, here's one of them".
The fact that you people are trying to blow this into a manufactured scandal while ignoring the outrageous comments from Ray Nagin and others that there's a conspiracy to keep blacks out of New Orleans and make it a city just for rich white people is so hypocritical that it would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.
Dave
14 - Dave Nalle
>>Dave, is there *nothing* you won't apologize for?<<
Apologize? For what? I despise Bennett and everything he stands for, but this manufactured attack is so bogus and so outrageous that something has to be said. I'm not apologizing for Bennett, I'm wondering why you are so shameless that you'd write this transparently partisan attack piece. I thought you had better sense.
Dave
15 - Dave Nalle
>>planned parenthood has been aborting black babies in disporportiante numbers yet not suprisingly the crime rate has not gone down,<<
The crime rate has steadily declined since Roe v. Wade. It's down more than 50% since 1993, in fact. I'm sure it's just coincidence that the crime rate has done nothing but decline dramatically starting almost the moment abortion was legalized, of course.
This is an undeniable, completely unambiguous fact. And the largest beneficiaries of this decline in crime are African Americans since they are disproportionately the victims of more crime than any other group in Ameirca.
Dave
16 - kittygogo
pathetic?
Who is really the pathetic one Dave? The whole point of this board is to give pathetic people like myself something to do to kill time and express their opinion whatever that be (that's my excuse, what's yours?). People who aren't pathetic would rather not sit and rant on a blog, criticizing everyone's differing opinion just to reassure themselves of their intellectual superiority. You spend hours and hours of your valuable time right here (and doing research to skew your bizarre fantasies of reality for this site). All so that you can rant and rave about how you are right and everyone else is so off the hook for expressing an opinion that you don't agree with.
If you really have such disdain for us pathetic people, than why are you even wasting your time? Sorry Dave, but no matter how "wrong" you may perceive everyone who doesn't agree with you to be, you still come out looking just as pathetic as anyone you attempt to criticize.
17 - Dave Nalle
Having a bit of a self-loathing issue there, Kitty? Take a look in a mirror. Then consider that I think there IS a point to discussion. I find that it helps me clarify my beliefs and hone my writing skills, which I actually use to good purpose, rather than just wallowing in pathos.
Dave
18 - Baronius
Douglas - I think you're supposed to put "Satire" across the top of the page when you write material like this.
19 - Les Slater
> Not surprisingly it excited a great deal of dumb thought.
Isn’t that the point of these right-wing talk shows in the first place? But whom are they trying to excite?
As far as their audience is concerned, the left and liberals howling is just more red meat.
They will not dispute the assertion made that preventing Blacks from having children, however abhorrent, would really help the crime situation.
There are some among this ilk who come up with solutions that not as many see as abhorrent. ‘Well, maybe its not all Black folk that are at fault, after all there are some decent ones. Maybe if we could just make welfare contingent on having a hysterectomy performed. We can always dump them from the rolls anyway.’
These ass-holes perform as a tag-team. It never stops where it might be discussed in polite company. One team member’s germ is carried further. It is a division of labor.
Then there are some know-nothings that support not only their right to say it, but excuse the content as well.
20 - kittygogo
If you really believed in the point of your posts as "discussion" than you would discuss issues constructively and not state that people who disagree with you have no sense or are pathetic. You are mean-spirited and you attack. You call people shameless, you consider it ridiculous that anyone would find objection to what Bennett has said, and you are contemptous towards people who find his remarks insensitive. This isn't constructive conversation, this is once again, you spewing on about your superiority on seeing "the truth" into the issue. There are many layers of truth to every issue, but you never, never ever see that a difference in opinion to you does not make the other person any more right or wrong than you. You are always right and naysayers are fools. Bennett said an incredibly hurtful thing, yet we are the pathetic ones for find offense in it and discussing it? You are the superior one for seeing that it was all just rhetoric. OK, whatever ...
And yeah, I must embrace my self-loathing side when I get on this site, because I always feel like I could be doing something much more constructive with my time. My excuse is my boring weekend job. I am thankful I have a life during the week to keep me off of here.
21 - Dave Nalle
Kitty, just having an opinion doesn't make you special and doesn't cause people to bow down before you. For an opinion to be worthy of consideration it needs to be well reasoned, based on facts, and not just some sort of ideological rant based on an emotional reaction or a vague sense of incoherent outrage.
The reaction I've seen to Bennett's comment is substantially out of proportion to the offensiveness of the comment itself. That disparity is as worthy of discussion than the comment itself. The comment was obviously not intended as anything but an absurd hypothetical. That's indisputable. So why are people acting as if Bennett actually believed and was trying to promote mass abortion for black babies? The story here isn't the comment, it's the completely bogus and manufactured outrage which it has produced.
I find few things more offensive or hypocritical than self-serving partisan smear campaigns, and the way people are characterizing Bennett's remarks are an egregious example of the ongoing attempt by some on the left to paint anyone on the right as a racist, whether they are or not. It's cheap, it's dirty and it's much more offensive than anything Bennett said.
Dave
22 - Les Slater
Kitty,
Don’t take Dave too seriously; he’s full of hot air, he likes getting your goat. It makes him feel important.
Les
23 - peter huizinga
Lets see... If we abort all babies from white trailer trash couples the level of bigotry should come down; of course this is purely hypothetical, and monstrously abhorant, but the level of bigotry should come down.
24 - Douglas Anthony Cooper
Okay, some moral clarity here. Yes, whoever ironically suggested I put the word "satire" at the top, was in fact -- to a small extent -- correct. The post was deliberately hyperbolic. Is Bennett "genocidal"? Of course that's a radical exaggeration. What he *is*, and what the post clearly indicates (I think, even if I like to use Swiftian hyperbole to get people a bit riled up), is utterly racist, in a particularly nasty fashion.
Let's look very closely at what he said. Bill Bennett claimed that *unborn black children* are criminals. Not black people (which is a pretty ugly sentiment in itself), but *unborn* black people -- who, simply because they are black, will grow up to be criminals. Not "might", but *will* grow up to be criminals. Why? Because they are black.
Twist that any way you like: it pretty much *defines* racism.
25 - Dave Nalle
Actually, by the same measure that killing all the black babies would reduce crime, killing all the white babies would enormously reduce our expenses for welfare, since that's the main social vice which white people dominate.
Based on what I've seen here, to get rid of the bigotry we'd need to abort the babies of graduate students, union members and school teachers, especially in the northeast.
Dave