Abort black babies, reduce crime - A PNAC member says

White House criticizes Bennett for comments
Ex-education secretary tied crime rate to aborting black babies

WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday criticized former Education Secretary William Bennett for remarks linking the crime rate and the abortion of black babies.

“The president believes the comments were not appropriate,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Bennett, on his radio show, “Morning in America,” was answering a caller’s question when he took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up.
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“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,” said Bennett, author of “The Book of Virtues.”

He went on to call that “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.”
MSNBC

William John Bennett (born July 3, 1943) served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He was also the first person to occupy the post of "drug czar".

He is a member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, PNAC Letter sent to President Bill Clinton.

Bennett was born in Brooklyn, New York. After moving to Washington, DC, he attended Gonzaga College High School. He graduated from Williams College, and went on to get a PhD from the University of Texas in Political Philosophy. He also has a law degree from Harvard Law School.

From 1976 to 1981, he was the executive director of the National Humanities Center, a private research facility in North Carolina. In 1981, President Reagan appointed him to head the National Endowment for the Humanities.

He served here until Reagan nominated him, in 1985, to be the Secretary of Education.
Wikipedia

Oh that PNAC at it again! Those crazy neo-cons and their jihad against the USA. The Bush administration was quick to distance itself from the comments, but the PNAC were the architects of the Iraq invasion and occupation. The Bush administration is full of them, occupying prominent positions. Do they have a vision of America that maybe we are not a part of?

EDIT: Once again, Title

[edit on 30-9-2005 by curme]

[edit on 30-9-2005 by curme]

curme,
RANT already has a pretty good thread on this
politics.abovetopsecret.com...

Notice, he also said, "...an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do..."

I have also read articles written by black men saying the same thing out of anger that their race is responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime.

But again, read what he read in response to that notion.

Curme, I think the sickness of the idea disturbs you, as it should anyone who thinks about the idea for more than a fraction of a second. While you're thinking about it, remember that abortion was legal abortion was brought to us courtesy of the Council on Foreign Relations folks to begin with. Don't simply target a Johnny Come Lately NGO when there are orthers who've ran the country dangerously close to the rocks. So close that some fear their is no way to get back out to deep water.

Originally posted by kenshiro2012
curme,
RANT already has a pretty good thread on this
politics.abovetopsecret.com...

You're right. Mods, please close this thread. When I click 'New Posts' in PTS I get a dozen threads, it's kind of disorientating. So few that I don't even think to do a search, my fault.

Originally posted by curme
You're right. Mods, please close this thread. When I click 'New Posts' in PTS I get a dozen threads, it's kind of disorientating. So few that I don't even think to do a search, my fault.

No prob. I think a "slug fest" version highlighting the comment in the title is just fine. I was more focused on Bennett and the AM radio phenom myself.

I also agree the default page on PTS is confusing though. The setting should be last 24 hours. It's a once a day page, not every 6 hours for most active members.

Until that time, everyone please check "past 24 hours" for ACTIVE PTS.

But feel free to continue this topic.

[edit on 30-9-2005 by RANT]

Originally posted by Thomas Crowne
Notice, he also said, "...an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do..."

While you're thinking about it, remember that abortion was legal abortion was brought to us courtesy of the Council on Foreign Relations folks to begin with.

I think you might be missing the point. I find Bennett's statement ridiculous, not because of the 'abortion' part of it, but because of the 'black people are criminals' part.

He could have said 'kill all the black people' instead of 'abort all the black babies' and it would have meant the same to me. Abortion is not the issue. Bigotry is.

Well I think when you talk to morons on the phone 4 hours a day for a living you find yourself walking all kinds of stupid places you wouldn't normally go, and no matter how fast you start backpeddaling it's still on tape and a million people heard you.

It's interesting that Democrats want him to apologize (according to the article)....

Why? What good would that do? He's a bigot and he doesn't hide it. An apology isn't going to change a thing.

I find this guy just totally ignorant. What would an apology mean? It's one thing to get an apology from someone I care about, but really, what would an apology mean? What's he going to say, "I'm sorry I'm so stupid."? In my book, he's right up there with Pat Robertson.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
It's interesting that Democrats want him to apologize (according to the article)....

Why? What good would that do?

Oh sure, no less than 10 organizations have now asked for an apology I'm sure. It's the only way to make his comment public and make him respond, which he has, saying no apology. It's kind of a BS thing all around IMO.

He's just a has-been on the radio. Made a name for himself talking about Clinton's ethics problems while quietly blowing millions on his addiction. Sound familiar? See a pattern? Don't RUSH to judgement or anything though.

I just don't understand why these hopelessly flawed personalities have jobs as "authorities" and the center of attention in the first place. I really don't get talk radio.

Fair is fair if you ask me. Go ahead with his plan, but while you're at it, we've gotta abort the white-devil warmongers and business crooks, abort white guys from the North West before they grow up to be crappy musicians, etc etc etc.

I can only hope that Bennett intended his comment as a "modest proposal". It would still be irresponsible in light of the low comprehension skills of the average American (afterall, there is ample legal precedent for outlawing any and all thought/speech which an unreasonable person could construe as offensive), but at least then it wouldn't be completely ignorant.

Like Thomas said, we are ignoring the second part of his quote. "...an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do...".

Although it was a stupid thing for him to say, I think it was being taken out of context. He wasn't actually promoting aborting black babies, or saying that blacks are murderers, I think he was just using an extreme example to highlight his point. If we could just remove all racial barriers in this conversation, it would be a lot easier and less awkward to discuss. But think about it, the majority of crimes are committed by blacks. I'm saying this statistically, and not in any way racially. So, although discusting and sickening, what he said is technically true. It's kind of like saying "If there were no white people, there wouldn't be as many child molestations". It's a fact that most child molestations are committed by whites. Although it's pretty bad, and I wouldn't be promoting killing all whites, it technically would be true. And again, I don't think he was in any way promoting racism or "killing of black babies". He was probably just trying to take it to the "extreme" level. I don't think he should apologize, but I think he should explain himself.

I think that a lot of people in America are afraid of discussing racial issues for fear of being called racist. That's something we need to change in our society. There's a fine line between "Statistically, blacks do commit more crime", and "Those damned black are all a bunch of criminals!".

A better idea would be to 'help abort' black babies. Give blacks money to receive abortions, maybe it could reduce the crime rate.