Hate

OAKLAND -- Speaking on his own behalf, John Frederick Thanos today stood before his sentencing jury and preached to them about love, hate, evil, Jesus and Lucifer.In a 35-minute rambling discourse, in which a bespectacled Thanos read from notes and frequently gestured, Thanos called Sue A. Schenning, the prosecutor, an evil and "cunning, calculating woman."He accused the prosecutor of violating the law by reading parts of a pre-sentence report to the jury. He said the state's case was all about "hate."

As a journalist, I'm a big believer in free speech, but also in the idea that bigotry and wrongdoing are fair game for scrutiny. Regardless of your political leanings, it's fair to say that publicly ridiculing others in a confrontational and unconstructive way deserves calling out. Today is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, a campaign to confront bigotry as it exists across the globe. According to its 2012 annual report, the campaign launched in 2004 and chose May 17 "to commemorate the World Health Organization's decision in 1990 to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.

You love how he plays and hate how he plays. You thrill to the rainbow jumpers and the fearless drives to the hole and the no-look passes. And you want to strangle him when he tries to force the ball inside or puts up a crazy shot with defenders draped all over him, as happens all too frequently. Oh, yeah, if you're a Maryland basketball fan, Greivis Vasquez drives you nuts. And maybe because of this, you end up over-analyzing everything about him. What's with the hair?

Your editorial is just what I expect to be printed in The Sun ("Misoverestimating Bush," April 28). Typical liberal hatred of those who rise to the top on their own honesty as opposed to lies and deceit. Finton Cordell Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Time is running out. I've got only a few more days to get over my man-crush on Peyton Manning. Won't be easy. Even during his perfunctory conference call with the media on Tuesday, I found myself wondering how anyone can pack so much smart and charming and successful into one human body. And he didn't really say anything all that interesting. "It's going to be a tough game here in Indy on Saturday," he said. "We know that, but it'll be two really good teams playing against each other."

A 20-year-old Harford County man accused of striking an off-duty Baltimore police officer in the eye with a glass beer mug was indicted by a county grand jury on hate crime and assault charges, according to the county state's attorney. James Aaron Kimble of Joppa was arrested May 6 after Detective Jerome Cook suffered significant injuries to his eye that doctors feared could cause him to lose his sight. County sheriff's deputies said Cook was returning home when he encountered Kimble and was struck in the eye. Kimble was yelling racial epithets when deputies arrived at the scene, comments which were captured on Cook's 911 call for help.

"Beyond Hate" is Bill Moyers as video pilgrim on a quest in search of moral enlightenment. As is almost always the case, watching Moyers' TV journey is a challenging and uplifting experience.The good challenge in "Beyond Hate," which airs at 9 p.m. on MPT (channels 22 and 67), is that Moyers and his producers seek out some of the most enlightened thinkers of our time to talk about hate.The most recognizable names include Jimmy Carter, Elie Wiesel and Nelson Mandela. They all have things to say that will force you to think hard about your own feelings.

The Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a St. Paul, Minn., ordinance forbidding cross-burning. Does this mean Maryland's two state laws forbidding such activity are also invalid? Probably not.What the court said was that governments may not forbid speech -- real or symbolic -- on the basis of its content. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects free speech. The St. Paul ordinance outlawed acts which "arouse anger, alarm or resentment in others on the basis of race, color, creed, religion or gender."

Chicago -- C-SPAN made it possible to watch the recent Republican convention in Virginia, which chose the state candidates for this year's election. This show made the national Republican convention of 1992 appear like a scholarly seminar on economics. Fifteen thousand delegates -- far more than there were at the national convention -- gave us oratory and screams that made Pat Buchanan's appearance in Houston look pale.The religious extremism in Houston is generally thought to have hurt President Bush's chances of re-election.

"Hate" ("La Haine") begins the morning after a riot at a housing project outside Paris has left a teen-ager near death in a hospital, the victim of overzealous cops.During the next 24 hours, three of his friends will pick their way through the debris, stoking their hatred for authority, for their lot in life, for their dead-end futures. One has a gun and is vowing revenge. A sense of impending disaster shadows their every move."Hate," which opens at the Charles today and became a cultural (and controversial)

In regard to the "rain tax," Baltimore County Councilwoman Vicki Almond says, "I still don't like this bill, and I think there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered. " Councilman John A. Olszewski Sr. says "I don't like this bill. " Yet they both voted in favor of it ("Anger grows over stormwater fees," April 16). If you don't like it, why did you approve it? Another example of one party, if it exists we can tax it, government. Clay Seeley, Owings Mills Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Democrats apparently know no bounds in their quest for gun control. The Second Amendment and the right to own guns and firearms by law abiding American citizens must not be overthrown or defeated by the current Obama administration. President Barack Obama and his conspiring drive-by news media have ruthlessly attacked and smeared the tea party, conservatives and talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Mike Savage, Glenn Beck and other voices of freedom and truth. Now, Mr. Obama will stop at nothing to attack the Constitution and anything or anyone that stands in his way. There is no excuse or explanation for such uncalled for and savage hate speech being leveled against gun owners and red-blooded Americans.

A 25-year-old Northeast Baltimore man convicted two years ago for vandalizing a synagogue, has been charged with attemped murder after police said he attacked two men with knives in the Upper Fells Point area, severely injuring one of them.  Ian Baron. who was arrested and charged on Wednesday, has been in trouble before. In 2010, the Latino-born, Jewish-raised man was charged with causing $25,000 worth of damage to a Jewish temple in his hometown of Olney, Md. He had neo-Nazi tattoos, lived in a shack with "Whites Only!"

Politicians (including former politicians) like to be right more than most people. You see, in politics, public officials live or die by their (very) public opinions concerning the issues of the day. It is with this somber thought in mind that I reissue a sampling of previously published opinions - with timely updates For Your Information. Opinion: Prominent liberals will continue to market a new narrative that pushes public sector growth as the key to economic recovery. Update: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Jan. 31 floor statement concerning the U.S. economy's negative growth in the last quarter of 2012: "Growth went down in the fourth quarter because of reduced government spending, and a reticence in the private sector as government fought over the fiscal cliff.

Columnist Marta Mossburg's column on the Maryland Council on American-Islamic Relations' protest against Pamela Geller as a speaker at the recent Maryland Conservative Action Network conference in Annapolis is factually incorrect ("A controversial speaker's right to be heard," Jan. 16). As a moderator at the conference, Ms. Mossburg was understandably biased in favor of Ms. Geller's hateful and hurtful views, but she failed to disclose this potential conflict of interest to her readers.

As the punches kept coming, landing across his face and head, Kenni Shaw tried to talk to his five attackers but couldn't get the words out. "I was pinned down by punches," Shaw said of the beating he received Christmas night, outside the East Baltimore liquor store he frequents near his home. "It was so hard that I felt my lip and side face swell up immediately. I was trying to talk to these guys, but they weren't letting me talk. " Instead, they were intent on beating him - simply out of hate, said Shaw, a 30-year-old gay man. "I was just beaten in my face.

WASHINGTON -- Today's music, comedy and literature are doing more than reinforcing unflattering racial and sexual stereotypes, minority leaders fear.Popular culture, they say, is teaching a generation of Americans it is OK to hate.The latest evidence they cite is the release this week of an annual study by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith that shows anti-Semitic crime rose for a fourth consecutive year. It also found eight out of 10 people charged with hate crimes were under 21."

I'm getting real sick of this resurgence of hate groups and of individuals who espouse hate under the disguise of respectability.I'm talking about David Duke, a certain presidential campaign, the Ku Klux Klan's forays into Howard County in search of new members and now the distribution of a hate-filled newspaper in Columbia.Some of this hatred has been camouflaged by the use of "code words" to make it appear to be mainstream right-wing political rhetoric. But anyone with intelligence can see right through it.Thankfully,the people of Louisiana chose to see David Duke and his platform forwhat they really stood for. But this sort of thing is far from over,with another presidential election coming up soon.

I completely agree with op-ed contributor Mark Thistel's commentary on the progress our country has made over the last century ("The not-so-good old days," Dec. 1). If our country's government and laws have become so oppressive to some people, those that feel that way should know there is an alternative. It's a Utopia where big government, taxes and gun control laws don't exist. You can walk down the middle of the street, armed to the teeth, and keep every cent you earn. This place is known as Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.

I told myself I wasn't going to go here -- I wasn't going to weigh in on the pasting Matt Lauer was taking on Twitter Thursday and Friday for his less-than-stellar performance as TV host for NBC's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. But where there is vitriol like this, there is definitely something deeper happening -- something worth thinking about. Actually, I think there are several things going on. I wouldn't call it a perfect storm, but there are some ill cultural winds blowing Lauer's way -- and it could mean some rough weather ahead for him and the "Today" show in the battle with ABC's "Good Morning America.