But isn't it more twisted to assault, torment, or murder without any feeling of malice? Such a person is not just immoral, he's a monster. Further, the present trend sometimes seems to make the motive more serious than the assault itself. Representative Barbara Cubin R-Wyoming said, "We will not stand for the arbitrary killing of other people due to any hateful act of intolerance.
Why not say, "We will not stand for the killing of other people. The crime itself is reason to lament, but in these cases it's the motive that causes the outcry. But it's worse than that. Hate crime legislation doesn't make all hate connected with assault illegal, only certain types of hate. A Class Action This is the second consequence of hate crime legislation. Consider this. According to Webster's New World Dictionary, "Hate implies a feeling of great dislike or aversion, and, with persons as the object, connotes the bearing of malice.
However, all crimes of passion are not actionable as a hate crimes. Why not? Because they don't involve a protected class of people. This raises a question. Is hate crime legislation about hate per se or is it really about something else? Columnist George Will observed that such laws mandate penalties for particular government-disapproved states of mind. The government is not as concerned with the hateful state of mind as it is with the particular group of people the hate is directed toward.
The result of criminalizing malice under certain circumstances is that only certain types of people get protected. Will observes, "Surely Shepard's assailants would deserve no less severity if he were not gay and their motive had been, as it may partly have been, pure sadism.
In a state with hate crime legislation, penalties levied for an assault on me personally would be milder by statutory requirement than for the very same assault on a Matthew Shepard. Because as a straight, white male I do not belong to a class protected by this law. Hate crime legislation, then, turns out to be not really about hate, but politics.
It's not hatred for the victim that is punished. That's covered under existing statutes. Rather, it's hatred for a protected class—African-Americans, Jews, homosexuals, etc. Such legislation makes two crimes out of one. The murder is a crime against the victim. The hate is a crime against the victim's group. Yet how does one make sense of a crime against a group that is a different crime from the one against the victim? Groups have no rights according to the Constitution.
Only individual persons have rights or groups that become legal persons, like corporations [viii]. Even class action lawsuits follow this pattern. Only individuals who are harmed can collect damages, even though their case is argued collectively. Hate crime laws create a whole new category of faceless, personless victims—the injured class.
They identify crimes against no one in particular, but crimes nonetheless, offenses that are punishable. They don't prohibit all hate, only politically incorrect hate. A "Climate" of Hate Just as these laws are used to defend certain classes of people, they can also be used to oppress a certain class of people. They can serve as a legal tool to enforce a particular moral and political point of view that goes by the misnomer of "tolerance. It encourages many to actually blame Christians for incidents like the death of Matthew Shepard.
As soon as the terrible incident in Wyoming hit the national press, a torrent of criticism descended upon the Christian community. Martin Marty, a prominent religious thinker from the University of Chicago, wrote that "anti-gay" Christians do not act in the name of Jesus. Rather, "Christian rhetoric The phrase of choice is "less than. If a homosexual is "less than," he is marked in a way that makes him an object of scorn, hatred, and physical abuse. This is twisted logic.
In Los Angeles, KABC talk show host Al Rantel—himself a homosexual—noted that this kind of thinking would make Alcoholics Anonymous responsible every time a drunk gets beat up in an alley. Such a tactic is equally dangerous to those who use it. According to them, taking a moral position is called hate. But objecting to hate is also a moral position. Are those who demonize Christians for their views equally guilty of hate-mongering?
Clearly, this kind of attack is not really about principle, but politics once again. Columnist John Leo has noted, "The political advantage of using 'climate' arguments is that you can discredit principled opposition without bothering to engage it. All you have to do is connect the pope, your local rabbi, or any other adversary to a gruesome murder, and your work is done. Most of them are simply attempts to disparage opponents and squelch legitimate debate.
It turns the government into thought police, and turns the law into a club to enforce political correctness. Those felled by its blow will be Christians and others like them. Instead, existing laws should be enforced to give equal protection to all classes of people, punishing the crime and not the frame of mind. For Believers, though, there is a frame of mind that needs attention. Made in His Image Christians have an impulse to distance themselves from people like Matthew Shepard.
He mocked all organized religion and infuriated Catholics with his attacks on the pope. He derided senior citizens as people who steal Sweet 'N Low packages from restaurants and called South Florida "an outdoor funeral home. Rogers, who studied broadcasting at Michigan State University but dropped out before earning a degree, got his first radio job in Canandaigua, N.
When he was let go there, he was en route to Yuma, Ariz. He turned his car around and came back. In , barely a year after being hired at WKAT, he tempted fate by coming out as gay during the charged era when singer Anita Bryant was championing an anti-homosexual ordinance in Dade County. Craig Worthing, a colleague at the time, said he remembered warning Rogers just before he came out, "Don't do it. It will kill your career. Bryant's ordinance passed but Rogers' career took off.
It was the only time I was ever making more than him. He was the first South Florida radio personality known to make more than a million dollars a year. Although Rogers turned down opportunities to go national, he had a national profile, said Tom Taylor, a veteran radio analyst for Radio-Info.
What was amazing was the place he held in the life of the local media. If you were in media, you had to listen to Neil. I'm not aware of anyone in radio who had that kind of hold on local media. Rogers called him "Fat Hank" and "The Humper. It was right after Rogers had suffered a stroke but he still had his wicked sense of humor, Goldberg said.
Neil was a wow. Kane never took it personally and remains an unabashed admirer. We used to go back and forth but I thought it was great.
The phrase of choice is "less than. And so far, 47 percent said it raised their opinion of them, 27 percent, lowered my opinion of him, and 26, did not change my opinion at all. They don't prohibit all hate, only politically incorrect hate. It's not.Zolokree
And the way I hear it -- I don't know if you guys have heard any differently, he's -- I mean, the guy's got a press agent already, you know. His hands and face were cut and his body was burned. I didn't hear the same attacks when the Democrats did it. On same-sex marriage[ edit ] Health issues[ edit ] On Jan 23, , Larry Elder read a statement from Al Rantel on the air at PM announcing to his listeners that he has been diagnosed with lymphoma and undergoing chemotherapy for it. The radio diary had been the most generally accepted method of measuring radio listening since I wrote a column in which I call it like a production.
Zologar
But if you're a liberal and you don't like Republicans because you're a liberal, I don't want you in my party if you're a liberal.
Gardazragore
Shortly after the announcement, fellow KABC talk show host Larry Elder has referred to Rantel as one half of the Marx Brothers , stating that he believed Rantel didn't believe in the conservative principles he professed and that by voting for Obama, he demonstrated more Marxist leanings. Maureen at American University. He has maintained his practice in both areas since that time.
Gugrel
You know, the DNC convention is going to be just as much dominated by special interests, sky boxes, fund-raising parties, all the same stuff that went on at the RNC convention. Until recently, the law has been completely uninterested in penalizing motive. Thoughts could not be made criminal. He has maintained his practice in both areas since that time. This is twisted logic.
Yogar
Rather, it's hatred for a protected class—African-Americans, Jews, homosexuals, etc. I'll agree on one thing, the debates, where Al Gore is going to be very, very strong and take out the knives, are going to be probably more important than either of these conventions.
Mauran
RANTEL: The biggest problem that Al Gore is going to have is that there's a perception that Al Gore is -- you know, the people know that Clinton is a liar and have accepted that and really believe that it doesn't matter, and they like the way he governs and what have you. Kane never took it personally and remains an unabashed admirer. This is twisted logic. In the mids, Rantel developed the first Computer-assisted telephone interviewing systems for its own use and later licensed these systems to other industries, such as political polling organizations.
Mikagor
He ran Let me go to Brian, who is clearly one of the folks that the Republican Party is trying to reach -- Brian. Based on the success of the chapter, he started chapters throughout the state of California. First, they criminalize thought, not behavior. It would be interesting to see when the Democrats convene if reporters bring of Clinton and the women scandals. But I just feel like that's a lot to ask for a candidate to just put himself up there as target practice for the other party to attack him and not be able to rebut in the same form for a few weeks.
Kagaran
Even class action lawsuits follow this pattern. RANTEL: But I do think that we may have transcended the economy, and you know, in an interesting way, I think George Bush pointed this out, the economic growth has been so great, there is so much prosperity out there, it's quite possible that this election, people will vote on other issues besides the economy.
Tonos
How much do George W. Such a person is not just immoral, he's a monster. Rogers called him "Fat Hank" and "The Humper. Rogers, who had been living in Toronto, suffered two heart attacks and a stroke, at least his second, since July. Well, first of all, let's just look at what he just said a minute ago, and he said this was a special interest convention. In spite of its proper intent to curb these attacks, such legislation is ill conceived.
Kenris
BATTISTA: Let me do a couple of e-mails here which kinds of brings on something we haven't touched on too much, but we did yesterday for almost half a show. It shows that there are so many divisions within the party, which is natural. The relaxation of radio station ownership rules allowed by the Telecommunications Act of forced many suppliers to the radio industry to close operations, due to the resulting reduction of intramural competition between stations in radio markets throughout the U. Rantel became an early evangelist for the new PPM method, because Rantel researchers had performed many audits of Arbitron radio diaries during its early years and were keenly aware of the weaknesses of the seven-day radio diary method. I mean, it's not artificial, the way Gore or Bush, when they sort of throw a few -- a few
Zolozragore
Because they don't involve a protected class of people. Martin Marty, a prominent religious thinker from the University of Chicago, wrote that "anti-gay" Christians do not act in the name of Jesus. A man's inner life has been his own. The first Republican nominee for president was John C. Gore has a lot of things to go after -- go after the guy who's running.