KOM's late take on a dead horse

I found myself an eleven foot pole, so I'm going to touch this one.

Repeated yet again, Bill Bennett's statement:

"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. That would be 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."

I'm of two minds about this statement.

First, it's true. All other things being equal, if every "black baby" in this country were aborted, the crime rate would eventually go down if only because the number of possible perpetrators would also go down. This seems pretty straight forward.

On the other hand, Bennett is obviously a shit-stirring fuck. He chose a given race in this little exercise because he knew that it would be controversial. Any press is good press, you beady-eyed prick.

But on the other other hand, now I have to listen to Al Sharpton opine for the next week about how the Right is to a man racist, and that Bennett's argument is logically flawed. I'm no conservative apologist, but it does seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill. This is America, and like it or not, the Klu Klux fucking Klan has a right to walk down the middle of the street yelling that Jews are mud people. Honestly, so the fuck what if some radio talk-show host says shit? Do any of you honestly think that he's changing anyone's mind? If you agree with him, you already do. If you don't, this sure as hell isn't going to help shift your world-view.

On the other, other other hand, what if he had said, "If your sole purpose would be to reduce serial killers, you could abort every white child born in the US"? Would anyone argue this case? Would it even have been worth the blogosphere repeating once, if not ad nauseum? Logically, it's just as true as the statement that Bennett did make.

That point may not be quite as valid, because it specifies a crime. But the spirit of the argument is the same.

On the other, other, other other hand, I am left wondering if, in his statement, the "morally reprehensible" thing would be aborting "black bab[ies]", or abortion period. Something tells me that it's just abortion. And that is why we should be bending this guy over a hot fire and sodomizing him with a cross.

Kudos to you, Mr. Bennett. Before today I had no idea who you were. Now I have to live knowing that there is another crazy agitator out there living only to cause conflict.