Sometimes I sit back and wonder what goes on in the minds of conservatives. It's a mental exercise, just to keep the old brain limber. Also, like Alice in Wonderland, I try to believe at least one impossible thing a day. It's hard to find anything stranger than a conservative's mind to try to find some to believe in, although it certainly is possible to something impossible to believe in.
Take this for instance. Here's a little tidbit of what goes on inside of Bill Bennett's mind, as in the mind of an unnamed caller. Bill Bennett was the Secretary of Education during the Reagan administration. He also wrote
The Book of Virtues and
The Children's Book of Virtues. He has a radio show,
Bill Bennett's Morning in America. It is broadcast across the nation on the
Salem Radio Network. Here is an excerpt from yesterday's show.
CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't -- never touches this at all.
BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?
CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.
BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as -- abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.
CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.
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. 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.
This is interesting. The caller thinks one of the reasons abortion is wrong is because it is denying the government revenue that could fund Social Security, since those aborted would possibly grow up and become good little taxpayers.
And second, Bill Bennett thinks that if you wanted to lower the crime rate, you could abort every black baby in the country.
If you'd like to listen to an excerpt go to
MediaMatters.
Congressman John Conyers isn't taking this lightly, nor should any of us! This is an excerpt from a letter he wrote to
Greg Anderson, President of the
Salem Radio Network.
It is difficult for us to understand how an individual granted a show on your network could utter such a statement in 21st century America. While we all support First Amendment Rights, we simply cannot countenance statements and shows that are replete with racism, stereotyping, and profiling. Mr. Bennett's statement is insulting to all of us and has no place on the nation's public air waves. The fact that Mr. Bennett later acknowledged that such abortions would be "morally reprehensible," but added again that if it was done "the crime rate would go down," is equally outrageous.
To read more, go to
DKos.
Bennett's remarks are inexcusable. I urge you to write to the Salem Radio Network and demand they cancel
Bill Bennett's Morning in America. While I all for freedom of speech, when it crosses over to
hate speech such as this that is unacceptable. Yes, he did say the abortions were morally reprehensible, but right after that he said if it was done it would lower the crime rate. It's still Hate Speech, racist and unacceptable.
And to think this man had the cajones to write books on virtue!
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