Sep 30, 2005

Pull the Plug on Bennett

This current issue with William Bennett, conservative commentator for some radio show I've never heard of called "Morning in America," was just the thing to rouse me from my post-vacation, non-posting stupor.

As I'm sure you all know, this person tried to make this outrageous point illustrating how he disagrees with the notion that crime is down because abortion rates are up.
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.

Bennett then goes on to say that to do this would be "impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible," but that he believes that THIS WOULD STILL DECREASE THE CRIME RATE.

Of course, today Bennett is saying his words were "mischaracterized." Yeah, right. Someone, please check my sphincter for flying monkeys.

The White House has done the requisite condemning of Bennett's comments as well, although I secretly suspect They were high-fiving each other in agreement yesterday.

It's this fucked-up, twisted conservative mindset that will continue to keep this nation from truly realizing racial and socioeconomic equality in this country. I mean Jesus-H, how the hell can people still make outrageous like this and still have a conscience? People like Bennett are dangerous, especially since his weekly listenership numbers in the 1.25 million range. Now Joe and Mary Six-Pack are walking around their little suburban areas somewhere in the Mountain or Central time zones, thinking that yes, if we abort little black babies, they'll be less likely to get jacked.

Bennett's show should be taken off the air. What he said is tantamount to hate speech.

Hey, I just had a thought: Think of how different the world would be if all racists and bigots had been aborted.

Yes, I went there.

2 comments:

MikeJ said...

But Mags, if all the racists and bigots were aborted, who would we listen to on talk radio? And who would serve as a commentator for Fox News?

Bennett is rephrehensible. Do you know he wrote a book called "The Book of Virtues"? If comments like these are the virtues he represents...

Tom Harper said...

I don't think Bennett is a racist, in spite of how he worded his comment. But he's still one of the biggest assholes around. He claims to be one of the greatest authorities on what's moral and upright and what isn't. And then he turns out to do more gambling than half of Vegas put together.

Zero credibility. He should be a total laughingstock.