Showing posts with label Free Speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Speech. Show all posts
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Paging George Orwell...
The latest attempt to shut down the alternative media. Thanks to That Mr. Guy for bringing this to my attention, as well as the rest of the right wing blogosphere.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
This is why I Started This Blog
I didn't believe it even after I saw it. A man was arrested for reading the bible. the BIBLE! Not only that, but the cop arrested the guy for "impeding an open business" Which is bull since the courthouse was CLOSED AT THE TIME HE READ THE PASSAGES! He wasn't impeding anything!
Let's pray for these brave men who dared practice their freedom of religion in spite of a downright tyrannical police officer.
Let's pray for these brave men who dared practice their freedom of religion in spite of a downright tyrannical police officer.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
If you can't Protect the Speech you Don't Like, you don't Have Free Speech
The title of this post is a comment my political sciences teacher at MTI technical college told my classmates and me during a lesson on the Constitution one day. No more apparent is that example than in the Supreme Court's decision to protect Fred Phelps and his group of inbred cultists who have the audacity to call themselves a church.
I have nothing but dislike and loathing for the practices of the Westboro group, as I've stated in previous posts about them, such as when they protested the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, or when they lauded the actions of psychopath Jarod Lee Loughner when he ended the lives of several, and injured several more, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
The act of horrific hate I'm referring to comes in the form of yet another funeral protest, this one (of course) a soldier who died bravely in Afghanistan (or was it Iraq?) Either way, this young man who gave his life for his country was at the time the latest target of the Westboro crazies. It had gotten so out of hand, in fact, that Bill O'Reilly of the O'Reilly factor had gotten involved and actually picked up the tab for the plaintiff's legal fees, said plaintiff being the young soldier's own father.
But now the supreme court has ruled that Fred and the gang can protest all they want at soldier's funerals under the First Amendment. This is wildly inconsistent of them given previous rulings on speech, particularly in cases involving the Catholic church or other branches of Christianity. How can it be that these people can spew nothing but hate at a solemn time of grief for a family who now has to bury their son, yet a single nativity scene on a front lawn is a violation of that same right?
Before I go on a free speech rant, though, I should make my point clear. The Supreme Court was right to rule as they did. In THIS case, at least. I've got plenty of opinions on bogus free speech rulings by the Supreme Court in the past, but in this case they did the right thing. No matter which side of the aisle you're on, once we start banning certain types of speech, it's basically all over. Despicable as it may have been for these people to do what they do, the only way we can stop them is by not giving them a forum from which to spew their hate. If private broadcasters would disallow more than barely minimal coverage of these wackos, their message would just be ineffective whistling past the graveyard.
I have nothing but dislike and loathing for the practices of the Westboro group, as I've stated in previous posts about them, such as when they protested the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, or when they lauded the actions of psychopath Jarod Lee Loughner when he ended the lives of several, and injured several more, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
The act of horrific hate I'm referring to comes in the form of yet another funeral protest, this one (of course) a soldier who died bravely in Afghanistan (or was it Iraq?) Either way, this young man who gave his life for his country was at the time the latest target of the Westboro crazies. It had gotten so out of hand, in fact, that Bill O'Reilly of the O'Reilly factor had gotten involved and actually picked up the tab for the plaintiff's legal fees, said plaintiff being the young soldier's own father.
But now the supreme court has ruled that Fred and the gang can protest all they want at soldier's funerals under the First Amendment. This is wildly inconsistent of them given previous rulings on speech, particularly in cases involving the Catholic church or other branches of Christianity. How can it be that these people can spew nothing but hate at a solemn time of grief for a family who now has to bury their son, yet a single nativity scene on a front lawn is a violation of that same right?
Before I go on a free speech rant, though, I should make my point clear. The Supreme Court was right to rule as they did. In THIS case, at least. I've got plenty of opinions on bogus free speech rulings by the Supreme Court in the past, but in this case they did the right thing. No matter which side of the aisle you're on, once we start banning certain types of speech, it's basically all over. Despicable as it may have been for these people to do what they do, the only way we can stop them is by not giving them a forum from which to spew their hate. If private broadcasters would disallow more than barely minimal coverage of these wackos, their message would just be ineffective whistling past the graveyard.
Monday, January 17, 2011
He had a Dream.
In recognition of MLK Day, I've decided to post his most famous speech. Hat tip to Musings of a Vast Right Winger for the vid:
Saturday, February 27, 2010
No Coffee for me, Thanks.
So I turn on my blogroll yesterday and what do I see? Aside from all the leftist garbage that I USUALLY have to bitch and moan about these days, I see a whole slew of new crap being shoveled out of the White House and the Capital Building with renewed fervor. Just as I think the machine is about to go over the brink, something new pops up. These morons are like the multi-headed Hydra of Greek mythology. Get rid of one, two more pop up.
As we all know from watching various Sci-Fi and Fantasy programs, as well as reading novels of those genres, pretty much every hero ever conceived, from Hercules to Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise, has an evil twin. Well, now I've come to be acquainted with the latest in a slew of evil twins that exist to oppose the good guys, except this one actually exists. This is not like the goatee-sporting Spock from the Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror". It's a new movement, created supposedly as a response to the TEA parties. They call themselves...wait for it...the Coffee Party.
Shocked? I didn't think so. Not much for originality, these guys. Long story short, the Coffee Party is basically a bunch of left wing loons that think the TEA party is not representative of the majority of Americans. While I don't begrudge these people their right to speak out about what they feel is important, I do wish they would exercise a bit of intelligence before doing so. Have they NOT been reading the newspapers? Have they NOT been watching anything other than the State Run Lame-stream Media? I don't know, but after watching these videos I can't really say they have been.
Are you telling me that the majority of Americans WANT their hard earned money taken from them against their will and given to lazy dillweeds that would rather snarf down schnapps than work for a living? Are you telling me that most Americans WANT Big Brother intruding into every aspect of their lives and tell them what to eat, what to do, what to think and what to say? I certainly hope you're not saying that, because if you are, you need your head examined in my opinion.
To be fair, the woman in the first video was very well spoken in her beliefs, and I could tell that she wasn't just shilling for her so-called "movement". She really believes what she's saying and I can respect that much. I cannot, however, agree with her or the weirdos in the second video because they quite frankly make no sense.
They want a better process. Okay, I want a better process too. They think the system is broken. Well, so do I. They want healthcare reform. Well, so do I. Sounds like we have a lot in common, right? Well, not so much when you look below the surface.
As I mentioned above, I don't want the government taking control of my life. I don't want the government taking control of what I eat, what I drink, what I do in my spare time, or what kind of TVs I can watch. I want to live MY life on MY terms, with little to no interference from Big Sister Pelosi, Prince Harry Reid, or our Commissar in Chief. The Coffee Party, though, seems to think that the government is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that the people are the ones getting in the way of the government. They touted such claims as wanting "progress" and "change". Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Well, it should.
I also noticed an emphasis on "collective will" that permeated the videos. We are not a hive mind, people. We are individuals, with individual thoughts, fears, needs, hopes, wants and dreams. Why is our individuality being derided as a fault when just ten to twenty years ago it was lauded as our greatest asset, as has been proven many times over by those very same individuals? It wasn't the government who helped out with Katrina, remember. It was the American people who raised that money while FEMA and the state government were still sitting on their hands.
Anyone who thinks the government has been doing a great job these days is living in Honalee with Puff the Magic Dragon. Government intervention CREATED the problems we have now. The Fair Housing Act was a direct catalyst for the housing bubble. Obama has spent us into bankruptcy and then goes on TV and with a straight face calls himself a fiscal conservative. Bush did his fair share of bad spending too, don't get me wrong, but he WAS fiscally conservative compared to what we're going through right now.
Personally, I don't think the Coffee Party will be going anywhere once the GOP retakes Congress in November. They are a sad attempt at imitating a true movement that is sweeping the nation. After all, if these nimrods are so angry, where were they a year ago when the Tax Day TEA Party's took place? Were they counterprotesting the 9/12 March on Washington? I didn't see any of them there.
If they REALLY believe that more government is the answer I can't begrudge them that. That's their choice and I don't wish them any harm or malice. I just believe them to be fundamentally wrong and out of touch, just as they most likely believe ME to be out of touch and factually wrong. However, they don't realize that what they want is the SAME THING THAT THE TEA PARTY WANTS. The only difference is who is the best entity to get it done: The individual American or the Collective.
I'm putting my money on the Individual American, myself. How bout you?
As we all know from watching various Sci-Fi and Fantasy programs, as well as reading novels of those genres, pretty much every hero ever conceived, from Hercules to Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise, has an evil twin. Well, now I've come to be acquainted with the latest in a slew of evil twins that exist to oppose the good guys, except this one actually exists. This is not like the goatee-sporting Spock from the Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror". It's a new movement, created supposedly as a response to the TEA parties. They call themselves...wait for it...the Coffee Party.
Shocked? I didn't think so. Not much for originality, these guys. Long story short, the Coffee Party is basically a bunch of left wing loons that think the TEA party is not representative of the majority of Americans. While I don't begrudge these people their right to speak out about what they feel is important, I do wish they would exercise a bit of intelligence before doing so. Have they NOT been reading the newspapers? Have they NOT been watching anything other than the State Run Lame-stream Media? I don't know, but after watching these videos I can't really say they have been.
Are you telling me that the majority of Americans WANT their hard earned money taken from them against their will and given to lazy dillweeds that would rather snarf down schnapps than work for a living? Are you telling me that most Americans WANT Big Brother intruding into every aspect of their lives and tell them what to eat, what to do, what to think and what to say? I certainly hope you're not saying that, because if you are, you need your head examined in my opinion.
To be fair, the woman in the first video was very well spoken in her beliefs, and I could tell that she wasn't just shilling for her so-called "movement". She really believes what she's saying and I can respect that much. I cannot, however, agree with her or the weirdos in the second video because they quite frankly make no sense.
They want a better process. Okay, I want a better process too. They think the system is broken. Well, so do I. They want healthcare reform. Well, so do I. Sounds like we have a lot in common, right? Well, not so much when you look below the surface.
As I mentioned above, I don't want the government taking control of my life. I don't want the government taking control of what I eat, what I drink, what I do in my spare time, or what kind of TVs I can watch. I want to live MY life on MY terms, with little to no interference from Big Sister Pelosi, Prince Harry Reid, or our Commissar in Chief. The Coffee Party, though, seems to think that the government is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that the people are the ones getting in the way of the government. They touted such claims as wanting "progress" and "change". Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Well, it should.
I also noticed an emphasis on "collective will" that permeated the videos. We are not a hive mind, people. We are individuals, with individual thoughts, fears, needs, hopes, wants and dreams. Why is our individuality being derided as a fault when just ten to twenty years ago it was lauded as our greatest asset, as has been proven many times over by those very same individuals? It wasn't the government who helped out with Katrina, remember. It was the American people who raised that money while FEMA and the state government were still sitting on their hands.
Anyone who thinks the government has been doing a great job these days is living in Honalee with Puff the Magic Dragon. Government intervention CREATED the problems we have now. The Fair Housing Act was a direct catalyst for the housing bubble. Obama has spent us into bankruptcy and then goes on TV and with a straight face calls himself a fiscal conservative. Bush did his fair share of bad spending too, don't get me wrong, but he WAS fiscally conservative compared to what we're going through right now.
Personally, I don't think the Coffee Party will be going anywhere once the GOP retakes Congress in November. They are a sad attempt at imitating a true movement that is sweeping the nation. After all, if these nimrods are so angry, where were they a year ago when the Tax Day TEA Party's took place? Were they counterprotesting the 9/12 March on Washington? I didn't see any of them there.
If they REALLY believe that more government is the answer I can't begrudge them that. That's their choice and I don't wish them any harm or malice. I just believe them to be fundamentally wrong and out of touch, just as they most likely believe ME to be out of touch and factually wrong. However, they don't realize that what they want is the SAME THING THAT THE TEA PARTY WANTS. The only difference is who is the best entity to get it done: The individual American or the Collective.
I'm putting my money on the Individual American, myself. How bout you?
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