Got telemarketed by the HRC last night . . .

. . . even though I'm on the DO NOT CALL list.

Apparently, they bought my info from either the CRAPPY ADVOCATE or A BEAR'S LIFE.

Thing is, I don't think I gave either of those mags my phone number. Did the HRC call up every Hutchison in the Thayer phonebook and ask if John the Fag lives there?

I find out which one of them sold my info, there'll be hell to pay.

HRC just assumed that I would be in favor of an upcoming ThoughtCrime Bill and that I should be on the phone to my congressmen telling them to support it.

If I had planned on doing that, I certainly would not want to after being telemarketed by the HRC. For all they knew, they "outed" me to whoever answered the phone!

There is an argument to be made that might convince me to support this bill. That argument goes along the lines of "This isn't about whether or not hate crime laws are a good idea. This is about whether or not 'sexual orientation' should be added to the hate crimes law we already have."

The problem is, nobody's making that argument.

Instead, they are arguing that hate crime laws do not punish people for thinking wrong thoughts, which they clearly do. Their position seems to be that you can think whatever you want, as long as you don't act on it.

But they ignore the fact that, all other factors being equal, if person A gets two years in jail for robbing someone because he just wants to rob somebody, and person B gets 10 years for robbing someone because that someone is black, person B is getting punished 8 years because of what he thinks. That sounds a lot like thoughtcrime to me.