links for 2009-09-07

After an 18-year-old white kid was beaten half to death by a group of black kids in the neighborhood—after what appear to be the same kids threatened him for having a black girlfriend—a black preacher has taken up the cause of IDing the culprits, pointing out that if the races were reversed here, his congregation would be up in arms. Good for him. If we're going to have hate crime laws, they have to be applied fairly.

A guy charged with murdering a four-year-old girl has subpoenaed media outlets for the identities of pseudonymous commenters who discussed the matter on the websites of four media outlets. He wants identifying information for 300 of them.