Thursday, March 19, 2009

Alan Keyes on Hate Crimes


Yea. Yea. Yea.

It's almost priceless, blame-the-liberals for the problems of the world that we have come to know and expect from Alan Keyes but... you know what, I'm not going to even do the typical "he brings up a good point here" thing I usually try to pull.

It's just a funny read:
Liberals nowadays are disposed to blather condescendingly about the separation of church and state when it comes to defending the natural family or legally established standards of decency for sexual behavior. Ironically, their penchant for hate crimes legislation seems intent on revisiting the mentality of the medieval statutes that enabled the Inquisition- laws that insisted on states of mind that satisfied a standard of purity in the understanding and observance of sacred ideas, people and things. Much like the special penalties imposed by some religions for mistreatment of sacred groups of people or animals, the proponents of "hate crimes" legislation deal in special classes of people against whom criminal acts are somehow more grievous and offensive.

Pity benighted individuals like me, who actually thought it an advance in jurisprudence when people concluded that actions, rather than thoughts and attitudes, are the proper objects of legal regulation and punishment. How absurd were those philosophers of human liberty who saw efforts to impose purity of thought and attitude as thin excuses for sectarian persecution or vengefulness. Of course, today's benevolent liberals aren't looking for excuses to arrest and try those who disagree with their promotion of homosexuality. They aren't seeking a legal excuse to censor the language of preachers who reject their worship of hedonistic sexuality. They are liberals, whose sole aim is to free the world from every semblance of thought that might produce an evil consequence, provided only that everyone is made to think of good and evil exactly as they do.

Sarcasm aside, hate crimes legislation is the statutory framework for the forceful imposition of a political and social religion. The so-called liberals mean to institutionalize intolerance, even as they loudly proclaim Holy Tolerance as their all in all. Because we seek to protect a form of human life that they despise, they defame as bigots or religious fanatics people working to re-establish respect for the law against abortion. Meanwhile they move boldly to use the force of law to punish the thoughts and attitudes of any who move against the sacred untouchables of their new cult of sexual pleasure and self-indulgence. Behind their phony slogans of hope and progress comes the return of Dark Age zealotry, dressed up in the fleshy tones of New Age vanity and glamour.
You know, I have to say this: I read it a few times, and one thing struck me -- Alan Keyes runs a blog? And it's hosted on Blogger?

Didn't he run for President once? Oh, and for Senator of a state he didn't live in? Oh, and has he made up with his lesbian daughter, or is he still the pinnacle of Christian family policy, having cast her out?

Sorry. My point is the same: Alan Keyes has a blog? Does anyone care?

Oh, and apparently you can follow him on Twitter. Weird. I think most of the world just wished he disappeared into the "also ran" category of history and gone home to (Maryland? Illinois? where is he from? where is he running for office?) and been quiet. I wonder if, at some point, the GOP looked at their African-American national players (Keyes, Blackwell, and Steele) and went, "Seriously? This is the best we can do?" There are better ones, I promise you. I'm just making fun.

4 comments:

Charlie said...

all i have to say is "legally established standards of decency for sexual behavior" sounds tots hawt.

Charlie said...

Almost always It seems these homophobic bigots supposedly worried about "protecting" the family structure are usually the worst parents.

Jeff Elrod said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jeff Elrod said...

'scuse me while i preach to the choir...

arguments against hate crime mentalities generally miss the point.

a hate crime is a crime perpetrated against the victim BECAUSE of that person's characteristics. in a hate crime, the victim's sexuality, gender, race, religion, etc. are not simply incidental to the situation, they are an integral element of the perpetrator's motivation.

hate crimes hurt more than the victim. they cause apprehension among people who share the victim's "hated" characteristic. someone gets beaten up because he is gay, and the gay community becomes concerned for their safety in the area in which the crime occurred. a beaten gay alone does not a hate crime constitute, but the motivation is an important factor in these incidents.

thanks for being so prolific, b.