HATING HATE: Saying you’re against hate crimes...

HATING HATE: Saying you’re against hate crimes may be a little like saying you don’t like kicking old people. But the Santa Ana City Council decided this week to go on record opposing “acts of ignorance and senseless violence.” Its resolution noted 150 hate crimes in the county last year--a 25% increase over 1991. . . . Says Councilwoman Lisa Mills: “We need to indicate as policy leaders that we condemn these acts, and encourage understanding and tolerance.”

THE BIG CHILL: Gregory Benford wrote “Chiller,” his new Orange County-set novel about preserving bodies for possible future revival (E1), under the pseudonym Sterling Blake. The Laguna Beach resident doesn’t find it unusual writing under a nom de plume . . . . “You get used to it very quickly,” he says. “I just don’t even care that much about the recognition. I’ve never written in order to be an ‘author.’ I like writing, period--and the ideas behind it.”

RALLY TIME: Republican defectors from George Bush last fall helped put Bill Clinton in the White House. Now with Clinton trying to sell his economic package to the American people, he’d like a little more GOP help. . . . The President invited two of his local GOP supporters--political consultant Bob Nelson and developer Kathryn G. Thompson--to Washington this week for a lobbying session on his budget. Thompson couldn’t make it, but Nelson left there angry with his fellow Republicans who oppose the Clinton plan: “The bitter partisanship being generated by my own party isn’t in the best interest of the country.”