…you all will have to forgive me. Every now and then, I put a link up that I haven’t read nearly well enough for whatever reason. Today’s reason is that I was working on about three hours sleep. I figured that ol’ Bill was talking moreso about what Levitt discussed, which was basically that drops in crime rates post-1973 could be attributed to Roe v. Wade. That’s bogus for the reasons in the last post.
Inexplicably, I really managed to not tell that this bastard actually said that crime would drop by aborting all black babies.
Wow, Bill…you went there. You really did.
Bennett can’t get a rise out of me. He’s Bill Bennett, and this is what he does. He actually was on the anti-gangsta rap crusade with C. Dolores Tucker about ten years ago. Those two knuckleheads were the strangest set of political bedfellows ever. And I really do mean ever. This ain’t nothin’ on Clinton and Dole playing golf together, believe you me.
Anyway, I can’t get emotional about him because he just says dumb shit like this all the time. It should be noted that he is the former secretary of Education, which should explain a lot about why the schools black kids have to attend are generally shitty. There will be little investment in something with little expected return, so what do you think happened when the federal body that oversees these things thinks black kids are better off dead? That’s right, folks.
By the way, it’s cats like Bennett that make the right so untrustworthy to many black people.
Anyway, the theory is stupid. Two most significant variables that cause crime, if I’m not mistaken, are population density and poverty. It just so happens that black people are primarily urbanized these days and poorer than white folks. With substandard skills of deduction, you could easily say that black folks are the cause of crime. You would also be a moron.
No study I’ve seen on this phenomenon has had nearly enough controls to hold water. Or, as I like to say it, “they’re off on that Bell Curve.” That’s what this really comes down to.
I guess we could stand on tables and say, “goodness! Bill Bennett’s a racist!” After that, we could marvel at how the sky is blue. Next, we’ll call Flavor Flav dark-skinned.
Not sure what the good is in stating the obvious.
Guess that’s it. Forgiveness for me being a little slack this morning. Just got rushed in making sure we had a post for today. Prince songs 26-50 coming Monday.
10 thoughts on “Let's talk about Bennett again…”
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Fucking amazing!! I almost ran off the road today when I heard this on NPR. I guess being the “moral compass” (extreme sarcasm) of America wasn’t enough for Bennet. Now he is also a racist that preaches infanticide.
Is it just me or is the entire religious right and republican politicians coming off the sanity tracks? Everyday one of these crazy groups has somone saying something unbelieveable or getting charged with some crime.
The next round of elections should be fun.
Were Republicans or the religious right ever on the tracks of sanity? ‘Cause I sure as hell don’t remember that time.
On top of the poor state of urban education–which come to think of it, if I were Reagan and he was my Ed. Sec., I’d want to close the damn department, too–we can also thank Bennett for the so-called war on drugs. He was Reagan’s “drug czar” before he took the educational reigns. It makes more sense to me now why drug laws are inherently racist.
I guess they have that “Bennett Touch.”
He wasn’t advocating aborting every black baby. He was making a point about how the means, aborting every black baby, doesn’t justify the ends, lowering the crime rate, and how it relates to other irrational methods.
However, what a stupid, stupid example. And, the fact the he chose this example does show what he feels about blacks–that they are the main contributor to the crime rate. That makes him racist. But no one should be under the impression that he advocated genocide.
Anyway, his comments made me hopeful in a sense… Now with this, and the government’s handling of Katrina, maybe the blinders are being pulled off America and they can start to see how the right-wing, crazed conservatives are ruining this country. They are showing us how countries like the middle eastern countries turned into extremists regimes because of religious beliefs.
Thank God he said what he did and everybody heard it. It may have been taken “somewhat” out of context, but the reaction is healthy just the same.
(Well, I tried making paragraphs, but it wouldn’t take,)
Well, I guess it did, just not in the preview…
Why does the Ozzy Osborne song “Crazy Train” keep coming to mind when thinking about this story and Bennett’s relationship with the rebuplicans and religious right?
Before you start looking up in the sky for the metaphorical anvil to fall on Bill Bennett’s head, let us remember who and what we are REALLY dealing with.
The only reason this quote escaped the vacuum that is far-right radio into the mainstream is that it was so far beyond the pale. The truth is you can listen to, at random, any common talking head on AM radio and they will say something to make you puke. The usual amount of time is approximately 22 minutes.
The Republican core…a good 75-80% of their base has already drunk the kool-aid. No hypothetical ruminations of genocide or ethnic cleansing, no matter how couched in disclaimers, is going to move them off their perch of pious, self-righteous myopia. If a natural disaster wipes off the map pracitically a segment of the country while the most powerful government in the world drags its feet, a few thousand dead babies that don’t look like them that they think would carjack them or rape their daughters later in life isn’t really going to be enough to change hearts and minds.
Nothing short of a pimp slap from the most High God is going to do that at this point.
The key to change is in helping the voiceless faceless VICTIMS of what is being perpetrated in this country realize the power they have a citizens of this country…even second-class ones.
wow…now IM being idealistic….it’s a sickness.
Before you start looking up in the sky for the metaphorical anvil to fall on Bill Bennett’s head, let us remember who and what we are REALLY dealing with.
The only reason this quote escaped the vacuum that is far-right radio into the mainstream is that it was so far beyond the pale. The truth is you can listen to, at random, any common talking head on AM radio and they will say something to make you puke. The usual amount of time is approximately 22 minutes.
The Republican core…a good 75-80% of their base has already drunk the kool-aid. No hypothetical ruminations of genocide or ethnic cleansing, no matter how couched in disclaimers, is going to move them off their perch of pious, self-righteous myopia. If a natural disaster wipes off the map pracitically a segment of the country while the most powerful government in the world drags its feet, a few thousand dead babies that don’t look like them that they think would carjack them or rape their daughters later in life isn’t really going to be enough to change hearts and minds.
Nothing short of a pimp slap from the most High God is going to do that at this point.
The key to change is in helping the voiceless faceless VICTIMS of what is being perpetrated in this country realize the power they have a citizens of this country…even second-class ones.
wow…now IM being idealistic….it’s a sickness.
Expecting any politician, regardless of ideology or party affiliation, to be within rock throwing distance of sanity is just asking for disappointment. That being said, Bennett has always struck me as more of a talking head/career appointee rather than a politician. And that just might be the one group that is even further from sane than politicians are.
Realistically, I’d be more upset at what Levitt says than Bennett, if for no other reason than more people are likely to listen to what Levitt has to say.
And why do black conservatives keep following these guys?
The answer to that question can surely be found on the W-2’s of cats like McWhorter, Sowell, Williams, et al.
And why do black conservatives keep following these guys?
The answer to that question can surely be found on the W-2’s of cats like McWhorter, Sowell, Williams, et al.