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My February birthday fund-raising campaign for this website, Behind the Black, is now over. Despite a relatively weak initial three weeks, the last week was spectacular, making this campaign the second best ever.

 

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A bill introduced in Congress would require numerous government agencies to study the role of telecommunications in the encouragement of hate crimes.

A bill introduced in Congress would require numerous government agencies to study the role of telecommunications in the encouragement of hate crimes.

The bills require a report within one year by the NTIA (The National Telecommunications and Information Administration) with the assistance of the DOJ, the Commission, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, to be submitted to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate on the role of telecommunications in hate crimes. … The report, according to the bill, “shall analyze information on the use of telecommunications, including the Internet, broadcast television and radio, cable television, public access television, commercial mobile services, and other electronic media, to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate, as described in the Hate Crime Statistics Act.”

The bill leaves the definition of “hate” entirely up to the government, and would produce a report that would be a great tool in the hands of politicians to squelch speech they don’t like.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

6 comments

  • Pzatchok

    This sounds very very bad.

    Hate crimes are not that much of a problem, statistically.

    Very very few crimes get hit with that charge.

    Looking for a connection to telecommunications in any way is juts looking for a way to curtail free speech.

  • Richard

    Liberal guilt is the ultimate hate crime.

  • mpthompson

    I guess Overzealous Photoshopping counts as a hate crime?

  • LTCStein

    Can anyone say “tyranny”?

  • john benz

    This is not a worthy use of my tax dollars

  • Jake

    This will mean that Brendan Eich of Mozilla can be charged with a hate crime for his 2008 donation to a California constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. It also means that, since that constitutional amendment passed overwhelming by 2/3 of California voters, all those who voted for the marriage protection amendment are not longer considered fit for employment in California since they are all guilty of a hate crime.

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