Sunday, February 26, 2006

George Will...

"...In 1989, in two speeches in Austria, Irving said, among much else, that only 74,000 Jews died of natural causes in work camps and millions were spirited to Palestine after the war. An arrest warrant was issued. Last November, Irving was arrested when he came to Austria to address some right-wing students. Last week, while Europe was lecturing Muslims about the virtue of tolerating free expression by Danish cartoonists, Irving was sentenced to three years in prison.

American legislators, using the criminal law for moral exhibitionism, enact "hate crime" laws. Hate crimes are, in effect, thought crimes. Hate crime laws mandate enhanced punishments for crimes committed as a result of, or at least when accompanied by, particular states of mind of which the government particularly disapproves. Governments that feel free to stigmatize, indeed criminalize, certain political thoughts and attitudes will move on to regulating what expresses such thoughts and attitudes - speech."

Well, you see, George, it's like this; politicians vie for the attention of the public. To be considered liberal, a politician must believe that some crimes are so very very bad thay they require extra special punishment. The Austrians, Australians, and Canadians...as well as a dozen or so other countries...have some of the MOST sensitive politicians in the world, so ANY mention of the holocaust causes them great pain. Criminals must therefore be made to not only atone for their crimes, but for the pain inflicted upon sensitive ministers of government.

And it's the same with our hate crimes. Such malevolence causes our elected representatives to virtually bolt upright from a sound sleep, shouting unintelligible pleas of nepenthe directed at they who've been criminally-hated.

When you can't shoot, learn to dunk. Takes less practice and impresses those who believe that size is more important than skill. Athletes do it to get attention and so do politicians.

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