You really have to hand it to author/ex cabinet member/moral crusader Bill Bennett for his ability to find New and Interesting Ways to Screw Up.
First we find out the guy was pullin’ slots at $500/pop. Hmm. For someone who says he’s for morals, I get a bit confused by this. But oh well – everyone has their fun stuff. I suppose if we found out Bill Bennett was downloading unlicensed anime series on BitTorrent, I wouldn’t mind. Still.
But then he goes off and makes comments like these where he suggests if we “abort all black babies, crime would go down”, then wonders what all the fuss is about.
I’m just wondering how it is anyone could make a statement like that and not think someone would not be too happy about it. PC or not PC or whatever, it’s an example of how people who spend most of their lives in the rareified air of DC, think tanks, radio shows, and politics, can lose touch with reality.
People like that (and sad to say there are way too many of them) sit around all day, coming up with more and more wacky statements, policies and campaign slogans, without first taking a moment to apply the Common Sense test to what it is their doing. It creates a lot of hot air, without acheiving anything more than verbal gushing from places we really don’t want to go.
That’s how you get wars you don’t need, policies that don’t work, and guys like Bill Bennett advocating aborting black folk to cut crime. Like a lot of the wacko pundits (and there are tons on ALL sides, believe me!) it’s almost a game – seeing how loud and obnoxious one can be, drawing lots of attention to themselves, and then act shocked when anyone decides to hurl a verbal aside back at ’em. Yes, Bill, you have the right to say your silly comments. But guess what? So does anyone else that feels like saying you’re a goofus.
What’s funny is how folks defend folks like Bennett for being “brave” but to me he’s a wimp. Instead of making pronoucements from his throne, safely tucked away from the masses, I’d like instead to see him make his “bold anti PC statement” live and in person to some of those he suggest we should abort to cut crime.
I’m not holding my breath. I’m sure Bill Bennett is too much of a coward to go up to any African American, be they a leader, or an average citizen, and pop off about how their kids shoulda been aborted to fight crime the same way he does on radio shows and the like.
If he was really as tough or standing up to the “PC” types like his supporters claim, he’d do it, But he won’t because like all partisan nutjobs, he can’t do it. He’s too much of a fraidy cat.
I hope he takes a lot of crap for it – after all can you imagine how “outraged” this clown would be if some radical person suggested ending (insert policy they dont like here) by aborting all white people? He’d go nuts (as most folks would) over such an over the top, and unproductive, statement.
Or, put another way – can you imagine the flack someone who was the Democrat or liberal equivalent of Bennett would get for making some similarly ill-worded remark? Odd how having an “R” next to your name changes the rules.
Personally, I think it’s more interesting that few of Bennett’s fellow moral leaders felt a need to repudiate this guy very much. Oh, but wait! I forgot! If it’s Their Guy saying it it MUST be ok!
Life must be good when you have a posse.
PS: In the “What the HELL was that” category of unrelated stuff, take a look at this McDonald’s ad from Japan. Enjoy!
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com
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