Michelle has courage

I just read something on the web that makes my blood boil.

There is a demented woman in Texas saying she's pissed off with Bush because her soldier son was killed in Iraq. Grief has the power to drive you crazy. However, it's been a year now and she seems to be getting worse, must have had the propensity all along.

The disintegrating ranks of old media have latched on to her story to counteract news stories about minor little things like inappropriate use of funds for Air America, or the inability to care about the problems of any hill of beans outside the States.

Michelle Malkin, a popular web journalist, is being sent sickening hate mail because of what she's written about this news item (ie. the looney mum). That's a sobering fact. The good news is one of the items was sent from the hatemailer's work address and he's been sacked. Just need to hear the other two have come a cropper and at least some good will come of this. Read about it here.

More thought needs to be given to hate mail and incitement to violence. It is a crime like stalking, the quality of life of the person (or community) that receives it is adversely affected. Every email message has an IP address attached. Every mad sheik Omar has a postcode. That's the way to find these bad guys.

There should be a monetary value attributed to amount of pain doled out. There are court cases I've heard about - a high school in the States being sued because students there used the school website to bully another kid. The hatemailers called on other students to kill him. The prediction is...millions. Not that money will make it any better for that one high school student. What it will do is send a wake up call to the school governors and parents. I hope the case is won for zillions!

I send my very best wishes to Michelle and her family (she's a mom with a couple of little kids) and I admire her so much for her courage in expressing her opinions and making herself vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. She could sit quietly at home writing romance novels but she's trying to make the world a better place, and I think she already has.