That case which has been covered so thoroughly by Glenn's wife isn't new to me. For whatever reason I linked to it once from Glenn's site. It's an incredibly insightful story of a society in which we teach too much hate to our children and tolerate too much of the hate we see around us.

I have no curiosity about this followup. It's an issue that certainly concerns me, but this is one particular crime I know more than enough about.

Hate breeds hate crimes. Our churches, schools, and other basic institutions in our society are obligated to each our children that hate is wrong, just as their parents are obligated to do the same. Groups accepted in our general society must be told they have such responsibilities. We have no right to allow them to teach religious beliefs which add fuel to the fire. I'm beginning to be more concerned about those who will only support "taxes" in our states like additional gambling means and methods, passing the responsibility for decision making about education to the Federal government. Too often the very people who complain about an issue cut their own throats.

We've seen increasing intolerance towards criminals who tortured and killed blacks in this country. Some of us remember the 1960's which began bringing that injustice to an end. Gay and lesbian rights are only now appearing in our periscopes and we're debating legilation we know in advance will lose when we should be discussing support for our war against terrorism and better education for our children and health care and care for the elderly, all the issues we claim we care about.

This article links to the site of Instapundit whose blog many of us also read daily. Another popular blog on our list, it certainly has been on mine, is that of seld described conservative Republican and supporter of Ronald Reagan, Andrew Sullivan.

Unfortunately he's gay. He's learning, however, that his strong position on many issues is also supported by his base who read him regularly, that it's not really a conservative or a liberal issue any more than it's a Republican or Democrat issue.

In the early 1960's I was called a "liberal" and a "yankee" for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, travelling through a southern state where there'd been a big demonstration or something, anyone with plates from my state immediately was suspect. While I learned to tolerate "yankee" in later years, I never did get along well with being called a "liberal."

And in those days my conservative Republican father explained to me every time we went on a vacation south, primarily to visit relatives, why it was wrong to have those "whites only" signs over the doors of the men's room at every gas station we stopped at. I'm hopeful and belief my children are going to shortly be teaching my grandchildren the same thing about hate crimes and other hatred directed at those who are gay and lesbian in their sexual practices.

I hear the phrase "sexual preferences" used all the time as if we all go through a different door when we exit with our high school diploma to determine which sex our partners will belong to. Most people who've paid much attention in school in recent years are aware that there's clearing a difference, but "preference" also implies choice. That's why I'm filling this spot to plug any of Andrew Sullivan's books. I thought I understood, but was wrong, until I read one what the real issue is.

We have a war to fight that will be long and strain our courage to endure it. There are no quotes around that but that statement had better have been made by politicians I vote for. And out the other sides of their mouth I don't want to come support and excuse making for organizations which don't seem to understand that tolerance requires support. Intolerance comes through ignorance. If they plan to teach against something, then they need to ratchet up their support for toleration.

I wish that were the case at present in this country. I don't like to post links to someone's blog or site without a specific link in mind. If you read Instapundit you won''t find Andrew Sullivan's blog hard to find, nor from most other "conservative" (I personally dislike labels) blogs. One interesting thing about Andrew is that he's one of the small group of conservatives who all link to the liberals and visa versa. I assume that "know your opponent" is the reason, but it also shows respect for who he is and what he stands for in all supposed political groups because anymore we've got so many hot button, key issue things to deal with that sooner or later we find ourselves on the wrong side of one of them. That's what's happened for the last year to Andrew Sullivan. His hate mail from "loyal readers" over this and similar issues is substantial.

BTW, his blog is reportedly the only political blog on the Internet which reportedly actually makes money (links to his book). Even Instapundit and a few other high traffic sites on all sides of political issues are beginning to lament the workload.

It may be that some bloggers are wiser than they know to take a day off now and then and even forewarn their readership. ;)