Caveat: Headache, hunger, and need-of-sleep. Not as coherent as I'd like. Unfortunately, if I waited 'till tomorrow, the conversation would probably be fair beyond this point.
It depends, I would think, after all, you use sexual thoughts as a example, which I am not quite seeing. For most cases non obvious sexual thoughts cause no discomfort, and obvious ones have their own punishments in the form of stigmas against the lecher. Especially if it is brought to the point of plans of sexual assault. We come full circle.
Thus the difference between a thought out plan and a momentary vision of punching that one ass hole.
Near as I can tell, my point there was that the distance between that momentary vision and a thought out plan is an order of magnitude smaller than the distance between a thought out plan and the actual act. The distance of relation between thought out plan and act, not the one between thought out plan momentary vision, is the important aspect. If the distance between plan and act is the same as momentary fantasy and plan, then the distance between momentary fantasy and act can't be terribly large.
Insofar as I can parse myself, the point is that the act of plotting does not jive well with the act of assault. The latter takes interaction between the actor and acted upon, while the former does not. Acts of a different kind.
Please note, that I said A as to C as B is to D, not the A is to B as C is to D that I think you set that up as.
I think the best way to respond to this is that the distance between A -> B is considerably further than C -> D, so the comparison of A -> C and B -> D doesn't quite match up. A is of a different magnitude of action than C.
I'd say there's a bigger gap between plan and act than act and worse act, so saying that plan is equivalent to act in act-worse act doesn't strike me as as a fair statement. Parallel would have been a better word than "not much", as least to me.
Of course then you need to see there is a line, a easy to see line, when you start taking more peace of mind away for peace of mind, you are no longer following what I am saying. Or other rights as well I guess, depending on what they are.
Yeah, that point was more of a 'be careful with that phrase' than anything actually against your point. People of a particular malicious slant have a nasty habit of extending 'peace of mind' beyond the point it should be used and -- by and large -- considering their own peace of mind to be the only one that matters.