*heh*

Of course, murder and other crimes of violence are frequently motivated by “hate” but as often crimes of violence are motivated by greed or simple temporary anger or other motivations. That is why separating some crimes out as “hate” crimes is, well, hateful. It says that the murder of someone done for reasons of greed (robbery, inheritance, whatever) is somehow less heinous than the murder of someone because of an attitudinal issue in the perpetrator that can be characterized as “hateful”.

Then there’s the thought crime aspect. We tread very close to 1984 with the view that the thoughts a person thinks are somehow worse than the actions they take.

But really, that’s the point of this “hate crime” push: creating a class of “thought crimes”–a natural thing for people who want to exercise cradle to grave control over people’s lives. For when thoughts become crimes, only criminals will think…