Posted on 09/30/2005 3:31:28 PM PDT by patriciaruth
From Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
"So, how did Roe v. Wade trigger, a generation later, the greatest crime drop in recorded history?
"As far as crime is concerned, it turns out that not all children are born equal. Not even close.
"Decades of study have show that a child born into an adverse family environment is far more likely than other children to become a criminal. And the millions of women likely to have an abortion in the wake of Roe v. Wade--poor, unmarried and teenage mothers for whom illegal abortions had been too expensive or too hard to get--were often models of adversity. They were the very women whose children, if born, would have been much more likely than average to become criminals. But because of Roe v. Wade these children weren't being born. This powerful cause would have a drastic, distant effect: years later, just as these children would have entered their criminal primes, the rate of crime began to plummet.
"It wasn't gun control or a strong economy or new police strategies that finally blunted the American crime wave. It was, among other factors [including building more prisons and incarcerating criminals with longer sentences], the reality that the pool of potential criminals had dramatically shrunk."
"If you're white and comment, no matter how honestly, on any issue impacting the black community you'll be labeled a racist if you aren't apologizing and beating yourself bloody for something your ancestors may or may not have done 200 years ago."
Unless you're senator "Sheets" Byrd, former KKK member, who uses terms like "white nigger" with impunity.
And lets not forget Democrat Lt. Gov. Bustamante's use of the N word in California, for which he apologized and was immediately forgiven by Democrats.
Bill Bennett knows the rules. Republicans are not allowed to discuss race related issues.
Now would be a perfect time to link abortion with its original purpose - eugenics.
Do research on the mother of abortion.
Google.
It's very well documented.
"And lets not forget Democrat Lt. Gov. Bustamante's use of the N word in California, for which he apologized and was immediately forgiven by Democrats"
Another good example. I think the Republicans should be defending Bennett, not running away from his comments which. I'm glad to Bennett he blasted the old murdering lard ass from Mass (Teddy Boy) noting that he wasn't going to take any moral lessons from the coward who killed a young woman.
Even IN CONTEXT I think his choice of words was really bad. It's sounded racist.
I guess I'm way on the outside of this.
I never heard of the book.
I had no idea there was a defense of aborting babies.
Are you telling me this is a conservative book?
Book is not conservative or liberal.
It is a discussion of studies that analyzed data and revealed some interesting realities, cause and effect situations, etc.
Only in the sense that it relies on facts not emotions to come to its conclusions is it conservative.
Only in the sense that some data does not support some conservative policy proposals as being effective, like school choice, is it liberal.
I have that book....I knew exactly what he was quoting...but the media is too self absorbed to get it.
Why did he feel the need to specify a race in his comment? Levitt and Dunber didn't.
It is neither conservative nor liberal, just interesting.
He was once Secretary of Education, I think. Let me go check that.
That statement alone, even within the context of his dicsussion of the text you referenced, seems to draw an association within the mind of Mr. Bennett between blacks and crime, and as such is an indefensible statement.
Have you ever taken a look at the FBI Uniform Crime Reports?
You can dislike the statistical evidence as much as you want, but it is beyond dispute that blacks account for a disproportionate amount of violent crime
Bill Bennett served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He was also the first person to occupy the post of "drug czar".
And yesterday he made an ass out of himself with his comments on blacks and crime.
I was just going to ask this question, because the majority of women who have abortions are not poor black women. In fact, I've cited studies on term papers in this regard, and I would be shocked if the information had changed.
It's amazing how the "crime" rate drops when you redefine murdering children as legal. "Crime" goes down somewhat in exchange for a huge increase in "surgical procedures" across the nation.
It's too bad I'm not a famous author like these two. I'm only capable of seeing abortion as a horrendous business where a child's life is traded for personal prosperity.
Not the wonderful tool of social engineering the enlightened see.
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