Saturday, September 29, 2007

Bill Maher: New Rules 09/28/07

Something interesting is happening with this season's Real Time with Bill Maher. Each week, I find myself agreeing vigorously with some things he says, and then stunned by something else he says that I disagree with. Bill's an extremely smart and funny man, but his politics and opinions are really all over the place.

My disagreement with Maher this week was on his opinions of hate crime legislation. Maher thinks that it is basically "thought crime," and is unnecessary. While I kind of get where he's coming from, that is largely beside the point. Intent is already a very large part of criminal law. "Hate crimes" are already on the books. What happened this week was the extension of hate crime protections to gays, lesbians. And the reason they are important is, crimes perpetrated against gays and lesbians are very often treated less seriously than the same crimes perpetrated against others. A "slap on the wrist" punishment is often handed out to people who commit crimes against gays and lesbians. The extension of hate crime laws helps prevent that.

OK, enough of that, and onto this weeks' batch of New Rules! Not his best collection, but there is some great stuff here.

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