The one thing I learned in my College statistics class is that statistics can be made to prove just about any point you want to prove, all you have to do is state them in a way that is most beneficial to whatever point you are trying to make.
Bill Bennett is a big boy, and should know better than to have made a statement that was sure to have been taken WAY out of context, chopped in half and used against him, and I really feel sorry for the firestorm that his remarks have created for him. Especially because firstly I know that he is 100% against abortion in the first place, and secondly he was trying to make a point about statistics not race, but sadly that is not how is remarks will be perceived.
My other sadness for him personally is that because of his having written The Book of Virtues no one will ever let him forget that he once had a gambling habit. Thank heavens that God is more forgiving and forgetful than the media.
Pax
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2 comments:
I don't think you understand the nature of people's complaint with what Bennett said. It wasn't that people thought that he was in favor of aborting black children. No one thinks that, as he explicitly denied it right after. If people thought that then the storm would be a great deal larger. It is the racial issue, not the abortion issue that has everyone upset. It is the suggestion (not explicit, but there to be seen by any fair listener) that there is some special proclivity to crime amongst black people that this option (morally reprehensible as he and everyone else recognizes it to be) would solve.
The statistics do not bear this out. A higher percentage of black people commit crimes, but when you factor out the elements of poverty and being born to single mothers, this discrepancy dissapears. You can go to the website of the author of the book that Bennet was talking about (Freakonomics) and find evidence of this.
The problem that people have here is that Bennett seems to think there is some special connection between crime and being black, and that is both unfounded and racist. You might disagree about how bad it is for him to think that, but it is nonetheless true that this is what people are concerned about, not the idea that he is in favor of aborting black babies. It helps to know what your opponents think. I will have difficulty finding your site again, so if you want to respond to me you will probably have to go to my site.
I don't know why Bennett used "black" but I simply refuse to think he meant anything by it in the way your "progressive democrat" comment person and anyone like him thinks. Bennett should have thought better and I don't know why he didn't, but at this point and time, everyone is sitting back and thoroughly enjoying finding anything wrong they can. They love it and they thrive on it!
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