http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051017/sorkin
Bill Bennett's Abortion Fantasies
By Mark Sorkin
So now we know that William Bennett, in addition to being a moral
crusader with a gambling habit, is a pro-lifer who supports abortion.
OK, maybe "supports" is too strong a word.
But the conservative commentator did proclaim on his radio show last
week that "you could abort every black baby in this country, and your
crime rate would go down." http://mediamatters.org/items/200509280006
That would be an "impossible, ridiculous, morally reprehensible thing
to do," Bennett warned his callers.
But, he insisted, the strategy would work.
Leaving aside the question of whether Bennett considers eugenics or
abortion the greater sin, the statement was so outrageous it hardly
deserves a second thought beyond immediate censure.
But give the man some credit for his timing:
At a moment when Americans are already roiling over the Bush
Administration's racist response to Hurricane Katrina, Bennett managed
to turn up the heat.
Suddenly sensitized, the White House sought to distance itself from
Bennett, a longtime ally who served as Reagan's Education Secretary
and drug czar for Bush Sr., by deeming his comments "not appropriate."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9535204/
What's most striking about this little flap is not the lunacy of
Bennett's remark, recycled as it was from an old theory advanced years
ago by Freakonomics author Steven Levitt.
http://www.freakonomics.com/2005/09/bill-bennett-and-freakonomics.html
Nor is it the speed of the response from the White House, which has
been on permanent damage control since Katrina struck.
Bennett's take on race as a key determinant of criminal behavior is so
unsettling because it reveals in such stark terms the conservative
conflation of poverty and race in America and exposes the racist fears
that underlie our criminal justice policy.
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Moral gambling junkie racist Bill Bennett.
Harry
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