What was he thinking??!!

Maybe by black he meant "black" in the comedic sense. You know... black comedy- dark humor. Maybe he meant that cynicism causes crime... I got nothin'

Oh my god.

Nice tries - but I think it was pretty clear what he meant.

Yeah that even made howard stern shake his head

I read this related ABC news article and I found this sentence especially telling:



I wonder if a sequel, The Book of Vices, is coming out?

What would posess a normal human being to say such things???

Trickle-down economics.

Could it be possible that he just made a blunder, and said something which came out the wrong way?

That's what I thought until I saw the white hood and pitchfork.

Personally, I love how he lists "morally reprehensible" AFTER "impossible" and "ridiculous". Like he got to "ridiculous" and suddenly thought, "Oh yeah...I should say that its also a BAD thing."

I've been wanting to pick up Freakanomics for a while because of its conclusions about crime rates and abortion. Its a valid discussion to have, but Bennett really exposed a bit of his own slant on things with his choice of words and how he tackled the question.

It's not surprising considering most politicians are full of hot air.

What do you mean - What was he thinking?

He's a Republican, isn't he?

Oi. You're inviting a flame war on that one. I think Eboni will be the first one to cast the stone if she's around.

Maybe he's conserving his compassion. Wouldn't want to waste it, ya' know? Thats where they get the term "compassionate conservative".

Maybe he only meant it would lower crime aborting babies because the human population would decreas, hence fewer humans to commit crimes, and fewer humans to become victims. Also, the job market would even out, the economy would level, edjucation would improve and there would be housing for more people...

Or maybe he just made a jack-ass arrogant comment that he really shouldnt have.
Yeah. That's probably it.


So who is this guy again?

Obviously, Mr. Bennett said what was on his mind, and obviously, yes, he is a racist.

But, what is worse? Overt racists, or racists pretending to be loving liberals?

I personally, not being a WAP, despise those that speak with two tongues and rather deal with those who tell it like it is.

I find nothing more sickening that people that have a big smile in their face when they talk to you, publicy condemn prejudice and racism, but are the first peeking out the window when the new neighbors are moving in and have their fingers crossed while praying they are the right color, the right religion, the right ethnicity, and the right social class.

Guess who is coming to dinner....

ps. I am only posting this because I already saw fingers pointing at the fact Bill Bennett is a Republican. I find the "Holier than thou" attitude among liberals hypocritical at best.

Well, I'm glad that everyone has managed to conclude Mr. Bennett's intentions from a couple of sentences taken out of context. Hell, even when you managed to get the next sentence in there, Cory had to nitpick about the word order. Amazing.

While I admit to being stunned when I first read this quote in an article, rather than just rhetorically asking "what was he thinking" I actually put in a little legwork and got the rest of the story.

The man was using an example of "an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do" to make a point about the dangers of trying to extrapolate too far into the future. A caller into his radio show was saying that a good argument against abortion was that by killing babies one was killing future tax payers. Mr. Bennett was pointing out the dangers of making such long-term extrapolations by saying someone from the pro-abortion camp could just as easily say "well kill all the black babies and the crime rate will go down" (paraphrase).

You guys are like vultures just circling around waiting to pounce on any Conservative carrion you can spot from your ivory towers. Sorry, this one is still kicking.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170880,00.html

You can watch the video there as well.


-K

Kiamat - If you noticed, when I started this post, I didn't even go into the politics of it. I was making a comment about his lack common sense.

I don't really know how one could take that kind of comment out of context (but, just incase, I did provide a link to the article - tyvm).

In fact, your fearless leader and his staff have comdemned the comments, which doesn't support the 'out of context' thought. He said what he said and I would be in the same disbelief if it was a leftie who said it.

Here's the transcript 'in' context:

From the September 28 broadcast of Salem Radio Network's Bill Bennett's Morning in America:

So, 'in' context he mentions some statistics from Freakonomics where they equate the declining crime rate with increased abortion rates. Neither the caller nor Bennett agree with those statistics, but immediately after dismissing those statistics, Bennett says:
'Out of context' indeed.

Arguing with gerin addicts will get you nowhere.

Oh for crying out loud. Listen, Bennett is an idiot, and no one in their right mind is going to use the racial-eugenical example that he did. But it's very clear what he was trying to say - essentially, if you want to reduce crime you could speculate about ridiculous practises that have no place in the real world.

I mean, really, if you wanted to reduce crime altogether, and use abortion as a solution - simply abort every fetus conceived, and end the human species.... Problem solved. But of course, no one would even consider such solution, so such speculations are ridiculous. That's what Bennett was saying.

Only instead of putting it that way, he focused on a particular minority as an example, because a lot of attention has been focused in the media and among academe on the issues of crime among that particular population. Bad mistake. Does it mean that Bennett is a racist? Perhaps - because he so naturally and unguardedly made that particular selection, and that may reveal something about his own perceptions. Does it mean that Bennett advocates such a solution? Of course not.

Does it mean that Bennett remains what he has always been - a self-impressed fool? Sure.

It's good for the statists to get a chance to speak unrehearsed and see what they do when they aren't reading a speech prepared by a team of skilled wordsmiths.

Too bad the election campaigns use so many prepared speeches and not more somewhat freeform interviews like this.

I suspect we'd hear a lot more gaffes like this one.

Well, I'm glad we agree on something.

I am gaining more respect for Seth as the almost lone voice of reason in a sea of insanity.


The quote has been taken completely out of context, but even without it being taken out of context, it was a poor choice of words on the part of Mr Bennett.

Do any of the people here that are outraged and insulted support Planned Parenthood and their agenda? Just curious.

I agree, I think he was simply trying to shock the caller out of his thought process.

His intention wasn't to say that we should do this, but rather "this is the kind of slippery slope you engage in when you practice this kind of logic."

For example, I happen to know that asians have a higher IQ on average than other races. So I am pretty darned confident that if we killed everyone off except for asians, then the IQ of the general populace would go up.

Or: I am pretty sure if we got ride of all those annoying FDA testing laws and let people test out drugs willy nilly then the the advancement of science would accelerate quickly because their would be no barriers.


Unfortunately, I suspect, with all of these there would be a karma backlash of some kind.