[livius drusus]

It's a bizarre newsletter. The beginning snears at Satanists, most remarkably in that quote from Seehusen: "When a law supposedly designed to protect religious minorities is being used to protect devil-worshippers, our criminal justice system has been turned upside down." But I think their point is just to dismiss hate crime legislation; Satanists just make for very handy scapegoats.

For instance, I think in the "greed alone" bit they're trying to say that someone who beats up a rabbi for any reason -- whether it be greed or anti-semitism -- should get the same penalty because punishing someone for hate more than for greed is punishing someone for what he thinks rather than what he does.

I don't buy the argument, myself, because the justice system makes those kinds of calls all the time, special circumstances to determine capital crime are a prime example, and extenuating circumstances to reduce penalty on the other end of the spectrum.

Still and all, it's a pretty standard libertarian argument, only this time they've couched it in cheesy punchlines and contempt at Satanist expense.