The land of the free....

...except perhaps in Texas.

Stop making sense....

...apparently the First Amendment does provide a Pennsylvania high school kid with the right to wear a T shirt promoting gun violence; thank heavens. Expect Donald Miller III and his exemplary parents to be back with a suit based on the Second Amendment!

I almost missed it!

Today is the final day of the American Library Association's Banned Book Week.

Your attention please

Saturday marked the opening of the first, and hopefully last, Sarah Palin Memorial Banned Books Week. Look here for an event near you!

Yet another sad day

Did any of us ever imagine that the United States would be severely criticised by international human rights organisations for the arrest of journalists, on clearly trumped up charges, on American soil? (I could imagine, even though I did not need to, that there would be similar charges on foreign soil.)



Video of Amy Goodman's arrest.

Finally - China becomes a democracy!!

The Chinese authorities have belatedly decided to provide "free speech zones" during the Olympics and everyone knows that free speech zones are as good as free speech or they wouldn't be allowed in America, right?

Is this a crime?

I am an uncompromising defender of free speech, including offensive speech, and have long thought that many countries in Western Europe as well as Canada have gone far too far in regulating "hate" speech. To me, the right to be offensive, cruel and even hateful is part and parcel of living in a truly free society. I do, however, draw the line at incitement to violence and I think that there is a question that must be answered as to Michael Reagan's comments in the clip below. Is he inciting violence, even murder, and if he is will he be prosecuted? I would answer those questions with a "yes" and a "of course not".

I thought I might share this with you

Yesterday's Independent on Sunday carried an opinion piece by Sarah Churchwell about Barack Obama and his chances for victory in November. It is thoughtful and well worth a read but I don't mention it for that. I mention it because the following quote highlights the much more sensible policies of all of the major British papers towards the use of obscenity in print. Ms. Churchwell, in discussing Senator McCain's character has the following to say:

"I would put nothing past a man who, it has been alleged and not denied, has called his own wife a cunt."

The use of the justifiably reviled "C" word in this case is not gratuitous. How can one possibly discuss the (alleged) incident without using the word? The American press would simply report, had they not already chosen to ignore the accusation, that "McCain cursed his wife" or "McCain called his wife an expletive". Neither of those does justice to what may, or may not, have occurred between the two. If it is duty of the press to report then they must report, and report truthfully, including the use of often offensive language when it is necessary and germane to the story.

It's not really what I expect from IHoP

They sure know how to have a good time down in Louisiana so no one should be surprised that the International House of Pancakes Prayer in Shreveport celebrated the coming of summer with a good old fashioned book burning. After throwing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and, for good measure, some porn into the conflagration one Adriane Banks is quoted as saying:

"As I tore the pages, I felt a generational curse of immorality and perversion breaking off my family...I felt it."

Like I said they sure know how to have a good time down there.

All Bill Moyers, all the time

At forty minutes it is rather long for our sound bite age but I think you will enjoy Bill Moyers's speech to the National Conference on Media Reform at the weekend.

Paging David Horowitz

I am sure that the erstwhile champion of "academic freedom" will be eager to take on the case of Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala where any left wing thinking is banned and only "free" market economics, Ayn Rand and Adam Smith* are considered worthy of study. I eagerly await his loosing of the attack dogs.

*Adam Smith must however be heavily redacted to eliminate the thread of socialism and government intervention to fight poverty and inequality that permeates his work.

Damned liberal American media continues to shamefully ignore Middle Eastern Bible burnings!

Hundreds and hundreds of Christian Bibles have been blasphemously burned by radical Muslim Jewish students in Israel and the American press refuses to report on this gross violation of the Christian nature of the American state! When do we invade?

American Jewish academic refused entry to Middle Eastern country for criticising government!

But since the academic is Norman Finkelstein and the Middle Eastern country is Israel there probably won't be a boycott or anything. Nonetheless I am sure that the State Department will protest in the strongest possible terms!

Good for Google!

They took the side of free speech and refused the request of Senator Joe Lieberman (Republi-dent - CT) to censor things he doesn't like.

The horns of a dilemma

At first glance I would have assumed that I would wish to support the cause of Crystal Dixon who was sacked from her job at the University of Toledo (US) after she wrote a column dismissive of the fight for gay rights. Irrespective of the fact that I disagree totally with Ms. Dixon's thesis I believe that she has a right to express herself as a private citizen. However after further consideration it is clear that her opinions make her totally unsuitable in her position as a Vice President of Human Resources. So the question is what should have been done. Should she have moved to another position where her homophobia would not be an issue? Demoted to a position where she would have no responsibility for decision making (with appropriate reduction in compensation)?

It is a difficult decision to have to make but I think that the status quo could not have reasonably been maintained.

They're back!

Wikileaks has returned to the (American) internets after a Federal judge dropped his injunction. A small step for freedom.

A Wikileaks non-Wikileak

Thanks to the Guardian I now know that one can still access the original Wikileaks site, despite the recent extra-Constitutional court injunction, by using the IP address directly; 88.80.13.160!

And now so do you!

I think the "yelling fire in a crowded theatre" clause might cover this

I am an extreme advocate of the right to free speech, including the right to offend and insult. However I am not sure that wearing a blinking circuit board to an airport ought to be covered the First Amendment. Perhaps it just me.

The trouble with freedom of speech

Michael "The Weiner" Savage. Fortunately we don't have to listen to him and we can work to ensure that he doesn't have a platform.

They really do love freedom don't they?

Meghan O'Sullivan, a former assistant something or other in the Bush administration, has had to abruptly cancel a public speech at Indiana University after some members of the awkward squad insisted that it be a public speech. According to Ms. O'Sullivan (pictured below in case you've forgotten who she was and what she did): "it's a common practice for people who leave government not to give on-the-record interviews for a certain period after they leave government...I have spoken widely off-the-record and it has been respected".