Bear with me, as my mind works in strange ways and sometimes in my more feverish moments I may overreach.  But two separate posts on different sites have created an unexpected neural connection (kind of like scratching a dog’s belly connects to his leg).

First, there was this post from Emperor Misha I that got me to thinking about hate crime laws:

For now, we’re happy to announce that Henry Earl Dunn, received on Death Row on 10/11/95 for the brutal murder of 23-year-old Nicholus West, was sent off to roast in Hell this past Thursday night.

Mr. West was shot several times by Mr. Dunn with a .357 for the “offense” of being gay.

It’s interesting to note that there was a tremendous furor over passing a hate crime law when James Bird Jr. was killed in Jasper, TX.  The Democrats tried to capitalize on the killing in their advertising against President Bush when he was running for office.  What no one seemed to notice was that all but one of these mutant killers were given the death penalty.  And the case that Misha mentions is also from Texas.

I am of mixed ancestry.  My mother is Hispanic and my father was white (he was of mixed European and American Indian ancestry).  While I have a white name, I still have brown skin and dark hair.  While I will be the first to admit that I’ve never experienced the level of racial animus that many blacks have, I have nonetheless experienced some.  Regardless of this, I would never want to be in the situation where an attack on me is treated differently than an attack on anyone else.  I refuse to trade on minority status for preferred treatment in anything.  I’ve never done it and I never will.  If I can’t compete for something on my own merits, I don’t want it (nor would I deserve it).  This is why I oppose hate crime laws (and affirmative action, quotas, and any other such schemes as well).

On the practical level they do nothing other than making the politicians feel good.  Who really thinks that someone who is so far gone as to drag someone behind a truck would give a rat’s ass about a hate crime law?  They’ve already commited murder.

It’s also possible that these kinds of laws will engender a false sense of security in some people, leading them to drop their guards.  I think that the most effective remedy for hate crimes would be if people finally stood up and said, “Enough!”  If enough of these bastards get shot and/or killed trying to kill minorities or bash gays the problem would begin to take care of itself.  We don’t need any more laws.  We just need to stand up and exercise our rights.  And it’s the exercise of rights that leads me to the next thing I read today.

I saw this comment over at Alphecca.  I’m going to quote it, because Jeff’s site doesn’t have comments with the articles.

02/08/03
“I am disgusted that as a queer you would be happy that shrub and his oil cronies now control congress. Every right we enjoy was given to us by the Democrats. You’re the idiot and your website is idiotic.”
  —Julius R.

Let me repeat part of that for emphasis: Every right we enjoy was given to us by the Democrats.  I’m always saddened when I see a horribly uninformed statement like this.  While I realize that the commenter was referring to gay rights, I think it points out a systemic problem we’re seeing more and more in our society.  Too many people today think that rights are “given” to the people by government.  Once again, the complete and utter failure of our public indoctrination centers (did I say that?  I guess I should have been PC and said “schools”) to teach even the tiniest thing about our Constitution and our form of government is evident.  Rights implicitly belong to the people.  We are not required to squat and lick the boots of some bureaucrat or politician to obtain them.  If government has encroached on our rights, then we must stand up and demand their return.

Where I see this connecting to hate crimes laws is in how some people seem to implicitly think that government is the only solution to all problems.  Simply passing a law will make the problem go away and government is the source of all rights.  I abhor this attitude and everything it stands for.  It both enrages and saddens me to see people squandering the legacy of freedom we were given by this country’s founders.