Context People, Context!

I am embarrassed that the White House allowed itself to be bullied into responding to the ridiculous criticism of out-of-context comments by Bill Bennett.

Bennett was making a point about the futility of trying to solve social problems by looking at things through a purely statistical lens. Yes, Bennett was saying, you can say that crime is down in part because abortion is up, but this doesn't make it a moral good. Then he used the poorly chosen example of an extreme argument that could be made but would be morally reprehensible—aborting black babies to reduce crimes.

I wish Bennett would have chosen a different example. One that was more personal to him.

I'm Irish-American, so I could choose to use the following example:
"If your only goal is to see a statistical reduction in alcoholism in this country, you could make an argument for killing Irish-American babies. But, obviously, that would be morally reprehensible."

I would bet that statistics could support this statement. And I can use this example because I'm talking about myself and my own "family." But boy, if you're not Irish-American, don't even THINK of giving this as an example of the ridiculous extrapolations that can be made from statistics.

Bennett should have known this. His error is one of bad judgment, not racism.

But with Senators like Harry Reid smelling blood in the water, the truth is being sacrificed for political advantage.