While it is true that we lack an understanding, either genetic or environmental, for things like freewill and creativity, I believe I made a pretty good case that they must stem either from that which is genetic or environmental unless one wants to argue for the existence of something "other," ie: spirit, soul, essence. However, no one has ever proved this "other." I tend to think that mind = brain and its adjuncts such as the nervous system.

What confuses us I think is the idea that X happened to Henry and X happened to me, but I did not turn out to be a callous loser like Henry. Nor did you. (My apologies to whomever is named Henry.) Although X happened to Henry, we are not Henry. We do not have Henry's DNA, which makes Henry unique to all others. Nor did we rest in Henry's mother's womb before birth. We did not live where Henry lived. We did not eat Henry's diet. We did not take Henry's medication or perhaps we had access to care and medication and schooling that Henry lacked. Perhaps we had that one amazing nurturing human being (maybe a teacher) in our lives who reached out to us and made us NOT HENRY. Even if what distinguishes us from Henry is our will or our creativity, that does not mean that the will and creativity that we can muster was not caused. Perhaps someone taught us self-discipline or perhaps we are more innately stubborn than Henry and we were able to fashion that stubbornness into a form of "will." However you slice it, Henry's and my experiences and your experiences will diverge, even though X may have happened to both of us.

To use a rather stark example of Henry Lee Lucas, serial killer, I am probably less likely to be like Henry than you could be simply by virtue of being born female. We are not like clay. We are born imprinted.

That said, I did like your story of the samur1a. However, it could be argued that though he wanted to kill dispassionately, he wanted to extract vengeance rather than only justice. The very human desire for vengeance is part of the reason why we have law. While it is true that in criminal matters that convictions are not "laid down to assign fault," the criminal trail and the guilty or not guilty assignment is a not just a matter to complete a civilized order but also a ritual to give dispassionate completion to human needs and emotions.

I say this as someone who has spent much of my life combating my own desire for vengeance, which, whether inherited or learned, is strong and sometimes wild within me.

Yes, of course "genetics can be fought" but they are fought only with the environmental tools available to us -- unless you want to posit some sort of "god" or extra-natural events.

For instance, pedophilia may be caused by "environment and early childhood development" as you say (if one wants to leave aside any genetic possibility) but it is also caused by being unlucky.

If one is able to think of it that way and to think of other crimes and human failings in the same manner, then the desire for vengeance is lessened and the brain can begin to work better upon solutions. Right now, my favorite solutions for pedophiles who act upon their desires is containment in a facility that separates the offenders from all possible contact with children. If a CURE could be affected, my attitude could change.

That is precisely because I think that I am a more rational than emotional person. I don't get all gooey and squishy over the Christian blah blah blah about forgiveness.

BTW, I have read some of your old posts. I was quite impressed with your writing on p. 10 of your archives about Terry Shaivo. Wonderfully lucid writing, that one. A true mini-essay in its organization.

"I love watching America die."

I take it you are not an American?

Yes, cultural and social cannibalism does appear to be an American trait.

For many "E Pluribus Unum" has little meaning, but for most of us it is still our motto. Its the reason why I decided to serve.

Wow, you never saw that coming did you? Know why? Because it could impinge on their efforts to fight the evil Homosex. It's of little consequence that they have been the targets of hate crimes themselves. If it means they can't queerbash then they don't want it.

I love watching America die.

"Our societal trend seems to be if we want something "fixed now", we will legislate a law for it and now people will stop doing the particular action, because of course it is against the law."

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe that the Matthew Shepard Act creates any new laws. It just establishes that acts of violence motivated by hatred towards someone’s gender, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability can be prosecuted as a hate crime. It also indirectly creates the frame work that civil right’s lawyers can use to bring civil suits against hate groups that are responsible for encouraging, financing, motivating, or supporting criminals that committed acts of violence that are motivated by their hatred toward people’s gender, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disabilities.

In the past decades civil right's lawyers have done a very effective job of going after hate group's money, by suing them for all of their assets, and those civil right's lawyer were in no small part aided by the legislation that established acts of violence motivated by hatred of a race or a religion as hate crimes. Hence why "Focus on the Family," which is a homophobic hate group responsible for encouraging a lot of violence that has been committed against gays, is scared sh*tless of the Matthew Shepard Act.

This makes me think of a bumper sticker I would like to have for my car. "We need an Evolution, not a Revolution".

Our societal trend seems to be if we want something "fixed now", we will legislate a law for it and now people will stop doing the particular action, because of course it is against the law.

We have many felonies in the United States that one can be convicted of, but these laws don't seem to eradicate the behavior; in fact the behavior may only change after someone has broken that particular law.

American prisons are not known for rehabilitation, so any thought to breaking the "hate mentality" through a prison sentence can come close to being illusionary. I agree that dangerous persons should not be on the streets, but the question remains how do we deal with this "hate" in our society? If we work with these prejudices effectively, along with using appropriate laws, then "hate crimes" will decrease.

The problem with "hate crimes" legislation and other similar laws is that most people will sit back and go "whew, well we don't have to worry about that anymore". Coincendently, there is this Jewish folk story about the residents of Chelm. These villagers lived at the top of a mountain and the trail to the valley was poorly taken care of and one could take many missteps and fall to their death. In fact, many Chelmesians were lost every year as they fell to their deaths. The Chelm village elders came up with a solution: They built a hospital at the bottom of the trail.

Psychologist Gordon Allport came up with a scale to measure prejudice in a society.

Allport’s Scale of Prejudice goes from 1 – 5.

Scale 1, Antilocution -Antilocution means a majority group freely make jokes about a minority group. Speech is in terms of negative stereotypes and negative images. This is also called hate speech. It is commonly seen as harmless by the majority. Antilocution itself may not be harmful, but it sets the stage for more severe outlets for prejudice.

Scale 2 Avoidance- People in a minority group are actively avoided by members of the majority group. No direct harm may be intended, but harm is done through isolation.

Scale 3 Discrimination-Minority group is discriminated against by denying them opportunities and services and so putting prejudice into action. Behaviors have the specific goal of harming the minority group by preventing them from achieving goals, getting education or jobs, etc. The majority group is actively trying to harm the minority. (e.g. Jim Crow laws)

Scale 4 Physical- Attack The majority group vandalize minority group things, they burn property and carry out violent attacks on individuals or groups. Physical harm is done to members of the minority group. Examples are lynchings of blacks and pogroms against Jews in Europe and tarring and feathering Mormons in 1800s.

Scale 5 Extermination-The majority group seeks extermination of the minority group. They attempt to eliminate the entire group of people (e.g., Indian Wars to remove Native Americans, Final Solution of "Jewish Problem" in Germany, Turkish purges of Greeks, and Ethnic cleansing in Armenia.).

At some periods in our society we are at Levels 4-5, at other times we are on the lesser levels. As human beings we are instinctual in our fear of the unknown, it is a survival mechanism. Being human however with cognitive thought processes means we can learn to overcome this knee jerk behavior and learn that those who are different than us are not evil. However, as long as our society tacitly promotes discrimination whether through derogatory speech such as demeaning jokes or harassment toward minority groups, or one's philosophical or religious beliefs, refuse to respect the civil and human rights of others we will have a turnstyle of persons filtering in and out of discrimination. Others will also promote or support the discrimination in some way so that finally someone becomes angry enough to commit a "hate crime".

The real problem here is that we are all responsible for Matthew Shepard's death and other discriminatory acts. We need to educate by philosophy and by our actions. We are all equal and we are all responsible.

As one African American male actor experienced: "It was odd, I played my part very well, but the director didn't think I was "Black enough", he said I sounded too well educated and I should be a little more "gangsta" in my role. I needed the job so I did it, but now I realize what I did to myself."

Let us re-educate, think and evolve so we won't need to adjudicate.