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. | 
Search Boortz.com
