THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2003

FEDERAL "HATE CRIMES" LEGISLATION IS ON THE WAY

Now we have Republican Senator Orin Hatch joining with Teddy Kennedy in pushing yet another version of a federal hate crimes bill.  This bill would allow federal prosecution for any crime motivated by prejudice based things like race, ethnicity and religion, but also on gender, sexual orientation or disability of the victim. 

Come on, folks.  Let's call this what it is.  It's "thought crimes" legislation, not "hate crimes."  It allows for the federal government to step in and prosecute someone for what they were thinking when they committed a crime.  Let's say this crime became law.  A white person commits a crime against a black person.  The white person is prosecuted in a state court and is acquitted by a jury.  Civil rights warlords would then be in a position to pressure the local federal prosecutor to bring a federal hate crimes charge against the white person.  The federal government could then step in and prosecute the white person not for what that person did to his victim, but because of what that person may have been thinking when he did it.

There was a trial in Atlanta recently of a group of particularly noxious young whites who attacked a group of blacks in an area known as Little Five Points.  The whites were yelling racial epithets.  These whites were convicted and sentenced to jail.  Some local race warlords immediately started screaming to high heaven because these idiot kids didn't receive 20-year sentences.  If this federal law were in place the race warlords would be able to pressure the feds to bring the federal hate crimes charges to bear.  Maybe they could get their precious 20-year sentences after all.

Another scenario.  I'm waking down the street with a black friend.  A gang of white skinheads comes up and pounds the stew out of both of us.  The skinheads are charged with assault, tried, convicted and sentenced to jail.  Then along comes the federal government to file hate crime charges against the skinheads.  They are going to be charged with an extra crime because they attacked the black guy.  The federal government will view the assault on my black friend as one worthy of federal prosecution ... simply because of what they feel skinheads were thinking at the time.  The assault on me?  Not worthy of federal attention.  Tell me, is the law treating me equally in this scenario?  Can you honestly say that I'm getting equal treatment? 

Hate may be ugly, but it is not illegal.  In a free society you should be free to engage the negative emotion of hate as you see fit.  You cannot legislate loving or liking someone.  Thought processes should not be crime.  Actions should be crimes.  This federal hate crime bill, as all hate crime bills, is a bad idea.

REMEMBER THAT PARTY QUESTION?

Last week ... the CNN "Rock the Vote" special.  You remember, there were all of these college-age MTV types gathered in Boston to question the Democratic offensive line.  We learned last week that CNN planted at least one question in the audience .. that question about whether the candidates preferred the Macintosh or the Windows platforms for their computer work.  Now we've learned that yet another question was planted by CNN.  The party question.  One young adult asked the candidates who they would most like to party with.  Now it turns out that this was yet another question forced on a participant by the "journalists" at CNN.  At a time when we need more Americans, young and old, to be paying more attention to politics and to how politicians use the police power of government to serve their own ends, we have CNN planting questions about computer platforms and partying at a presidential debate. 

Is Neal's shirt hot or not?

THE SPAM SOLUTION

The congress is considering extending the ban on Internet taxes right now and Internet interests are busy trying to drum up support for the continuation.  There does seem to be something a bit inequitable about "brick and mortar" merchants having to pay sales taxes while Internet vendors don't.  I've purchased some big ticket items over the Internet lately just to step around sales taxes.

OK .. Internet taxes are one thing, but would a continuation of my ban mean that we have to abandon my spam-buster idea?  It's simple, just charge everyone five cents for every email message they send.  That five cents doesn't go to government, and it doesn't go to Internet Service Providers.  That five cents goes to the person to whom the email was sent.  If you send me an email five cents is added to your account at your ISP and is credited to my account at my ISP.   If it isn't worth five cents for you to be sending the message then maybe you shouldn't be sending it in the first place. 

What's the purpose?  Busting spam, that's what.  That nickel isn't going to hurt you for the five or six email messages you send every day ... but it's going to break the bank for spammers.  What about free newsletters?  They would be exempted for all emails sent to those who requested them.

Come on, folks.  What's wrong with my spam-buster plan?  Talk it up out there.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

This one is fun.  Chris Plummer of CBS MarketWatch has compiled a list of the ten most overpaid jobs in the United States.  Thankfully, radio talk show host isn't listed.

Howard Dean has picked up the labor endorsement of two major labor unions.  To some political experts this means that he pretty much has the Democratic nomination locked up.  Time to start looking closely at Howard Dean.

But Ross Mackenzie thinks that Dean stuck his foot in his mouth by saying the deadly "Confederate Flag" words.  Hello Hillary?

Thomas Sowell calls it "Free-Lunch Medicine."  The problem is, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Will Osama be found?  What about Saddam?  Former U.S. Army General Tommy Franks weighs in on which, if either, of these two monsters will be caught.

For my Atlanta listeners ... Colin Campbell says that a tough cop is needed to fix Buckhead.  What it would really take is for bar owners to stop trying to attract the Hip Hop crowd.

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