The European community is looking for ways to censor "hate speech" on the web. Thank God our country's founders had the forsight to protect our freedom of expression.

Experts gathered in Paris on Wednesday seeking a common approach to combating racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic propaganda on the Internet, believed to be a chief factor in rising numbers of hate crimes.

Officials from more than 60 countries were attending the two-day conference aimed at finding ways to keep racist information off the Web without compromising free speech and freedom of expression.

Now I dislike "hate speech" and racism as much as the next guy. But the European approach to the problem is backwards. "Hate speech" doesn't cause crime, it's the asshole who pulls the trigger that commits the murder. No matter what the motive, the victim is just as dead.

I guess the major problem with limiting speech is that these Euroweenies don't know where to draw the line. In this day and age where people are so hypersensative and easily offended, almost anything can be twisted so that it classifies as "hate speech". If I say that I hate France, am I committing a crime or just exercising sound judgement? If someone reads that and says "Yeah, I hate them too, I'm gonna go kill a bunch of Frenchies", don't blame me. Blame the guy that commits the crime.

Plus they're always trying to elevate "hate crimes" to some sort of special status. As if killing a person for the $100 in his pocket is not quite as bad as killing him because he's French. Dead is dead, and if you kill someone, should do the time. (Actually, I think you should be hanged from the neck until dead, but we know the Euros won't go for that.) But piling on extra punishment because the killer harbored some special contempt for the guy he was killing is dumb. Furthermore, it cheapens your average, everyday, murdering for drugs or money predator. When it comes to sociopathic predators, I say kill them all. They are all equally worthless.