Would someone out there PLEASE tell me------- what is a HATE CRIME??????
If a short white lesbian attacks a tall straight black woman because she is straight, is that a hate crime?
If a fat Asian guy attacks a skinny white homosexual, is that a hate crime?
What if a black man attacks a white guy because he wants his wallet and watch, is that a hate crime?

The questions might sound silly but they are no more sillier than this hate crime garbage out there today.
A crime is a crime is a crime.  Using race to justify increased punishment for a crime says to our children, one race is more valuable than the other.

I am an AMERICAN of African ancestry----if a white guy punches me in the face because he hate blacks or because he wanted to rob me.....the sentence for that crime should be the same----the fact remains he punched me and therein lies the crime......punishment should not be based on the fact that I am black and the guy was white.....

This hate crimes garbage only serves to drive  wedges deeper between the races.....

Where am I going wrong here?

BLACKHAWKE

     There is little good news in our society today but every now and then a glimmer of sanity and fairness peek through the gloom. The recent decision by the United States Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s ruling barring the use of race as the sole factor for promotion (Ricci vs. Stefano) was indeed that ray of sanity and fairness. Reverse discrimination was clearly in play.
    The Ricci case revolved around a 2003 promotions exam given to firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut.  After the tests were scored, only two Hispanics and no blacks scored high enough to qualify for promotion.  After black and Hispanic activists pushed to have the test results thrown out, the city's Civil Service Commission effectively did so by deadlocking 2-2 on the decision to certify the exam.
     After the results of the exam were set aside by the city, 20 New Haven firefighters - one Hispanic and 19 white - sued based on the claim of reverse discrimination.  The city was granted summary judgment at the district court level, and a panel of judges that included current U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor sided with the lower court in a eight-sentence opinion that called the previous opinion allowing the city to throw out the test scores based on race "thorough, thoughtful and well-reasoned."
     As a conservative I have several reasons for wanting Sonia Sotomayor removed from consideration as a Justice on the Supreme Court, and this latest slap against her by that same Supreme Court should disqualify her.  But I am also a realist and I know that this congress will give this president who and what he wants regardless of circumstances.  Hence Sonia Sotomayor will proceed through the process and be confirmed. But the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court was significant and even Sotomayor’s eventual confirmation can’t distract from that ray of sunshine-----every now and then the powers to be win one for the people.

BLACKHAWKE
 

     Over the past few decades the attacks against Christians and the Christian faith have increased in intensity and occurrence. Through rulings and conclusions our court system and federal government frequently encourage such attacks. Almost daily the print and electronic media carries anti-Christian stories or editorial. In 2004 I watched a television program about religion-----the guest, a left-wing political activist, made the statement, “It would be very nice if we could drive all the haters and Christians from this nation for good.”  The host did not challenge him or seek to have him explain his remark.  
    It’s clear there are forces in this nation that would love to force Christians to be fearful of worshipping and to make them afraid to utilize their First Amendment right. When I was in the Air Force I watched a documentary about how Christians were viewed and treated behind the Old Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain long before the Cold War ended. The following is a scene from that documentary:
   A lone dark figure walked quickly down a darkened street, his shoulders bent against the cold January wind. The icy rain pelted his exposed face and he shuddered as he turned a corner onto another dark and deserted street. The lone streetlight mocked the darkness and cast an eerie shadow of the man as he passed.
   The man clutched something very dear to him under his worn and tattered overcoat, as evident by his tight grip.  Before walking down a flight of stairs at the back of a dull gray building, the man nervously glanced up and down the rain soaked street. He knocked quietly on an old wooden door at the bottom of the stairs-----the door opened slowly without a sound. The man quickly entered the doorway and the door closed as quietly as it had opened.
   Inside the drab, dim and dank room sat several rather nondescript figures that quietly rose from their seats and approached the man who had just entered the room. “Have you got it,” they all seemed to ask in unison. The man hesitated for a few seconds but then proceeded to remove a package from under his overcoat.  The package was wrapped in a waterproof covering and it took the man a few moments to remove the outer wrapping.
“Yes, I have it,” replied the man holding up a heavily worn book.  A muffled cheer came from the people in the room.
    The man removed his wet overcoat and one of the ladies took it and hung it on a peg on the wall. The man then walked to the front of the room and stood behind a wooden dais.  A lone light bulb hung from the ceiling above the man’s head and cast a yellowish light across the room.  Silently the others in the room moved forward, brining with them wooden crates and broken chairs on which to sit.
     They all knew that it was sure imprisonment or even death if the government discovered them. The man placed the book on the stand and with deft fingers he opened it. “We shall take up where brother Molokai left off last week, lets pray for him as we all know he was imprisoned for having Christian literature in his home last week” said the man. The man then lowered his eyes and began to read: “In Romans we see where God abandoned them (the wicket) to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.  They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshipped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other.  Men did shameful things with other men.”
   Although this was a documentary back in the early 1980s, there are signs and rumblings from the left in this country today that would have American Christians walking down rain soaked dark streets hiding their bibles under their overcoats and seeking a clandestine meeting place, for fear of imprisonment or even death. Can’t happen here? Remember the frog in the water on the stove? Those who hate God and Christians have already lit the stove and are turning up the heat.
   
BLACKHAWKE

 Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will get confirmed. Who is there to stop her? Unless the Republicans can get a sufficient number of Democrats to vote against her, their efforts are all bluster, noise and virtually meaningless. All nominees put up by this administration will get confirmed for the very reason that they are controversial and are involved in shady dealings and actions. By nominating people of this ilk, this president accomplishes two things; first it puts far left people in charge of powerful government offices and positions; and second he jabs a stick in the eyes of conservatives, Christians, pro-lifers and pro-military citizens.

       I understand that congressional Republicans must come out and make strong statements of disapproval on nominees---what is worse is that they have to make them to a press that abhors them and will take any opportunity to misquote or spin what they say. But given that, they know their efforts are exercises in futility.

     The train to European Socialism has already left the station and the only chance to slow it down comes in 2010, and stopping it completely comes in 2012. Like one French writer recently wrote: “Americans seem bent on making the same mistake France and other European countries made so many years ago, and look at the mess we are in.”

     Sometimes you have to allow a man to stick his hand in the fire and get burnt in order for him to understand the pain that fire brings….maybe we, as a nation, have to stick our “hand” in the fire of socialism------- because so far, warnings of the pain are falling on deaf ears.

Jimmie L. Hollis (BLACKHAWKE)

     Talk of the possibility of another civil war in this country is increasing. However, the subject is met with verbose explanations and wry grins by elites. Some think that today’s collective intelligence, technological advances, and progressive enlightenment will prevent such a war. But the belief persists among other citizens that another civil war, a shooting war, is inevitable given the direction of our country and the extreme vitriolic discourse in today’s secular society.
     Race is inevitably tossed into the mix when any discussion of another civil war is raised. But even the most amateurish person can see that there are more serious factors than race behind today’s high degree of tension, political and social conflicts.  Indeed no one race or group can be said to house all the good guys and the other house all the bad guys. It is evident that there are some whites who are liberals, Socialists and Communists and some who are patriots, capitalists and conservatives-----and this is true of all groups and races living in our country.
     It is also evident that the country is seriously divided along political, social, economic and moral grounds as well as on a host of other germane issues. This division is deep and causes extreme tension that affects families, neighborhoods and workplaces. The media, intentionally or not, is guilty of fanning the flames of division and tension because of their impact on what the masses read and hear about issues. With daily and repetitive reporting of societal and political negatives that are tainted with liberal bias, the media induces a deep skepticism and fear factor into society.
     It is commonplace today to witness violent incidents, hate-filled protests and physical attacks born out of decades of pent-up frustrations, a sense of helplessness and a feeling of being constantly manipulated by politicians and special interest groups---such anger has the potential to reach critical mass at any time. So far, however, we have not reached that point; but all societal indicators are moving close to the red zone. Historically, talking and debate have always ceased right before armed hostilities began, so it is imperative we keep talking alive. But we must talk to, not at each other, which requires a national and personal willingness to listen to the other guy’s viewpoint even if you disagree with him.
     As stated earlier, it is evident that underlying talk of the possibility of another national civil war is heating up---which brings up many questions. Such as, how close are we to critical mass, and what conditions would have to exist for that to happen? Could we recover as a nation from another civil war given the weaponry and technology we possess today? What would our foreign enemies do to take advantage of our chaos and bloodshed? Afterwards, would we look at the human casualties, burned out cities and devastated countryside and say it was all worth it?
     So, I suggest to those in our society who think that we have reached too high a level of education and understanding for such a war to ever happen again to look at history, not just of our country but also at other “civilized and enlightened” societies around the world. Throughout history, whenever people felt oppressed, abused, powerless and threatened, their natural basic instinct for survival emerged and they were and are capable of extreme violence to achieve that survival.  No sane person wants to see a civil war in our nation, but it is naïve to say that it could never happen again. Our civil desire to “fight” with words must keep at bay our basic survival instinct to fight with arms.

BLACKHAWKE