Sunday, June 05, 2011

I'M JUST TRYING TO FOLLOW THE LINE OF ARGUMENT TO ITS LOGICAL CONCLUSION

Today, The New York Times reviews a biography of Hank Greenberg, who played for the Detroit Tigers. The review dips into the dishonorable history of another famous man associated with Detroit:

Nine years before Greenberg played his first game for the Tigers, [Henry] Ford had run a Page 1 headline in his Dearborn Independent: "The Peril of Baseball -- 'Too Much Jew.'"

It's interesting being reminded of Henry Ford's anti-Semitism, at a time when people like Herman Cain argue that Planned Parenthood is evil in part because its founder, Margaret Sanger, sought "black genocide." (For the moment we'll ignore the fact that the charge is inaccurate.) Since the Herman Cains of the world think our judgment of Planned Parenthood should be based on the beliefs (or alleged beliefs) of its long-dead founder, and our decision to provide the organization with government funding should be based in part on that history, I wonder if they also believe that no government agency -- no police department, say -- should ever purchase a Ford automobile, given the demonstrated anti-Semitism of the company's founder. And maybe no private citizen should ever buy a Ford, or even ride in one.

And if that's not what the Herman Cains of the world believe, why not? If the sins of Planned Parenthood's founder can never be expunged, doesn't that apply to all founders?

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