if this happened on a predominantly white school bus and it was predominantly white (toss in some Hispanics if you want)kids cheering it on and carrying out the assault, people on *our side* of the "aisle" would be decrying hate crime.

People who make judgments about the facts of a crime based on a 2 minute web video, where that judgment just happens to dovetail neatly into one of their pet agendas, are disingenuous, to put it mildly. Except for me and my donut legislation, that is.

And guess what - it probably would be.

You're proving yourself to be quite disingenuous yourself here. You've just prejudged what "probably happened" in a yet-to-occur videotaped beating of a black kid. There's no saying what "probably happened" when we're discussing a hypothetical. When crimes actually occur, cops look into the facts of the case and make a determination. That's how we know what took place. Prejudging a situation to reflect our pet causes (such as diagnosing Terry Shiavo's condition) is fraudulent.

Also, in case you haven't been in too many fights

Oh yes, the scenario looked very familiar to me too. I was the white kid getting picked on many times, particularly on the bus home. However, here's the thing: I was a white kid and I was picked on...wait for it...other white kids! And yet the dynamic was the same as the videotape on this bus. And, no one booked those bullies of committing hate crimes in my case. What's up with that?? What I saw was some bullies picking on a kid that was different from them. So, in this case, the difference happened to be ethnic. But that's no requirement. It can be infinite things, all with the same result.

The important thing is not to jump to conclusions, and not to play into the games of other people who are also jumping.

you can't at least TACITLY admit that you just watched an assault - and concede that it possibly, JUST POSSIBLY was based on race.

Sure, I concede that it was possibly, JUST POSSIBLY based on race. But why stop there? We have no idea what caused the assault, so let's imagine all the things it could have been. The white kid could have said something bad about the black guy's momma. He could have stolen the black kid's donut. He could be shagging the black kid's sister. He could be wearing the same shoes as the black kid, and the black kid is demanding he change. It could be lots and lots of things. And the beauty is, since we have absolutely no idea what the cause was, we're free to use this incident to pursue any agenda we like. Personally, I'm going with the idea that the white kid stole the black kid's donut, which is all part of my campaign to have donut theft elevated to a felony. Can I count on your support?

Now, are we going to go through this exercise each and every time two humans of different ethnicity resort to fisticuffs? I hope so, because those kinds of assaults happen a lot, and it just means my donut legislation will get pushed through all the sooner! Viva la revolucion!!

Above I asked you to support the claim that "we all justify black kids beating the snot out of white kids" (or whatever you said). Of course, I gave you an out, saying that if you were too cowardly to have your claims scrutinized, to feel free and ignore my request.

However, I'm disappointed that you took me up on that offer. OK, you're a coward, I get that. However, I was really looking forward to seeing you attempt to defend your claim, or backpedal about it. Sigh.

I don't see much sycophancy here surrounding Joan. The reason people appear to come to her defense is because they're actually defending the truth. Someone comes here and bases their argument around a "quote" from Joan that they just made up, the obvious step is to point out that their quote is false. Sorry if that rains on your parade.

I sincerely believe if Obama said everyone has to cut off one leg she would find a way to support him just because he's black

In other words, you're an idiot.

He provides a vivid reminder of just how unglued republicans are. Here's a guy who has a bee in his butt so severely over Joan Walsh, that he's taken to stalking her on her blog. Now I don't know about you guys, but where I come from, that sort of behavior is strictly loony bin material. The fact that he ties such insanity to republicanism is very useful.

And, I have to admit (guilty pleasure here), I find republican mental problems amusing.

Basically you liberals justify violence against white people, because you think they deserve it.

Who is justifying violence among anybody? Please provide a direct link to that post. Either that, or admit that you lied in making that claim. Or, if you're just too cowardly to do either, just pretend you never read this.

Fact is, nobody is justifying the violence. However, neither are any of us claiming a single high school fight is Obama's fault, or representative of some larger trend. These views are all part of being what we call "sane."