The Other McCain

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FBI Report: Remember That Predicted Wave of Tea Party Hate Crimes?

Posted on | November 22, 2010 | 9 Comments

Despite warnings about “right wing extremists” from the Department of Homeland Security, the Great Hate Tsunami of 2009 failed to materialize:

The number of hate crime incidents in the United States reported for 2009 came down from 2008, according to data released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday.
“While the number of law enforcement agencies submitting data to us increased — topping off at 14,222 — the number of hate crime incidents reported for 2009 (6,604) was down from 2008,” the agency reported.

The Southern Poverty Law Center — which has spent the past two years shrieking about an alleged proliferation of anti-Latino, anti-Muslim and anti-black hate groups — today expanded its list of anti-gay hate groups to include both the American Family Association and the Family Research Council.

Something about a little boy who cried wolf . . .

UPDATE: Longtime readers will probably not be surprised to see Charles Johnson use the SPLC list (which applies its “hate” label to the Massachusetts conservative group MassResistance) as an excuse to take a cheap shot at Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit:

Let’s pause to consider this typically stupid ad hominem — i.e., Jim/”Dim” — before moving on to examine how utterly false is Johnson’s characterization of MassResistance.

The “teach school kids to fist” remark relates to the role of MassResistance in publicizing a 2000 conference at Tufts University, sponsored by the Boston chapter of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). What transpired at that event — with state officials telling an audience of high school and middle school students about the practice of “fisting” — was described in a Weekly Standard article by Rod Dreher.

The 2000 Tufts conference became newsworthy in 2009 after Obama named as his “safe schools czar” Kevin Jennings, who had been keynote speaker at that event.

So you see that Johnson’s characterization of MassResistance as “the ‘gays teach school kids how to fist’ bunch” — as if the group were demonizing all homosexuals for the actions of GLSEN activists — is completely inaccurate. MassResistance is a parent-sponsored organization arguing (as they have every right to do) about educational policy in Massachusetts public schools.

Surely parents ought to be able to object to teaching school kids about “fisting” without being accused of “hate.” And surely Jim Hoft ought to be able to blog about the controversy surrounding the czardom of Kevin Jennings without being derogated as “Dim.”

UPDATE II: Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch notes this from another story about the FBI report: “Anti-Muslim crimes were a distant second to crimes against Jews, making up just eight percent of the hate crimes driven by religious intolerance.” Dan Blatt at Gay Patriot awaits MSM headlines about “the rising tide of anti-Semitism.”

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Category: Crime, Education, Gateway Pundit, Gays, Massachusetts, Racism, Tea Party

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