I’m having a bad case of brain fuzz today and probably should be getting my head out of the computer altogether, but I thought I should blog something.
Regarding Jim D. Adkisson, who opened fire in a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, killing two people — until the accused is thoroughly evaluated it’s a tad premature to call what he did a hate crime, or terrorism. He might be psychotic, for example.
Police retrieved a letter from Adkisson’s car in which the accused said was motivated by hatred of liberals and gays. Some of his neighbors said he had some attitude about Christianity also, which caused some of the Right to jump in and say his real motivation was hatred of Christians. Somebody needs to explain to them that, strictly speaking, most UUs aren’t Christian. See also Sara Robinson.
Over the weekend John McCain met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. (Aides to His Holiness stressed that the meeting was not an endorsement.) Some commenters say McCain was meeting with His Holiness to show toughness against China. Yeah, get your picture taken with a sweet old monk; that’ll show ’em. But as long as China is holding about a trillion dollars of U.S. debt, that’s about as tough as anyone is gonna be.
“until the accused is thoroughly evaluated it’s a tad premature to call what he did a hate crime, or terrorism. He might be psychotic, for example.”
I think a lot of political hate crimes are committed by people with serious mental issues (allthough a lot of others are committed by generally well-adjusted people, too). Doesn’t stop those crimes from being political hate crimes, IMO.
Anyway, best wishes to the survivors, and cudos to the church members who overpowered him.
I’ve been leaving this comment everywhere, so forgive me, but if a muslim shot up a church and then jihad literature was found in his house, the organizations that published the jihad literature would be put on the FBI’s terroist list and their assets would be seized. Either Savage and Hannity should face the same legal consequences, or islamic organizations that support jihad without actually engaging in violence should similarly be protected by our free speech laws. It’s about time the borderline terrorist right stopped being able to play this double standard.