Tag Archive 'Free speech'
Bookworm on Jan 23 2012 | Filed under: Free speech
Back in the late 1980s, early 1990s, when political correctness first floated into the realm of mainstream culture, everyone thought it was the same as being nice or having good manners. It’s not. Good manners, to my mind, means assuring that the people around you feel comfortable. Political correctness means controlling people’s thoughts and actions. [...]
Bookworm on Jan 05 2012 | Filed under: Education, Free speech
American universities pay lip service to multiculturalism and inclusiveness, but one of their despicable secrets is that, while conservative and Jewish speakers are ignored or shouted down with no push-back whatsoever from the university administrations, pro-Palestinian speakers are given a bully pulpit. The worse their rhetoric — the more anti-inflammatory and antisemitic — the more [...]
Bookworm on Sep 13 2011 | Filed under: Free speech, Judges, Judicial activism
Do you have any spare change lying around? Yes? I thought you might. My dollar coins say “In God We Trust.” My dollar bills say “In God We Trust.” My quarters say “In God We Trust.” My dimes say “In God We Trust.” My nickels say “In God We Trust.” My pennies say “In God [...]
Bookworm on Apr 05 2011 | Filed under: Constitution, Free speech, Islam, Muslim violence
If you’re old enough to have lived through the 1970s, you recognize my post title: Gilda Radner’s famous character Roseanne Roseannadanna would let loose with a foolish tirade, and then wrap it up by saying “It’s always something — if it ain’t one thing, it’s another.” Someone needs to resurrect that character, or at least [...]
Bookworm on May 20 2010 | Filed under: Free speech, Islam, Muslim violence, Religion
Sometimes, to their creator’s dismay, ideas take on a life of their own. In the wake of Comedy Central’s decision to censor a South Park episode that didn’t actually draw Mohamed, but merely suggested the possibility of doing so, Molly Norris came up with the idea of “everybody draw Mohamed Day.” Then, terrified by the [...]
Bookworm on May 04 2010 | Filed under: Britain, England, Free speech, GBLT, Homosexuality
In 1931, Nancy Langhorne Astor’s son Robert Gould Shaw III was arrested for committing a homosexual act (in a park, I believe). This was a continuation of a long-standing British public policy of prosecuting “sodomists.” Arguably the most famous prosecution was that against Oscar Wilde, for public indecency. The trial, scandal and imprisonment destroyed the [...]
Bookworm on May 03 2010 | Filed under: Free speech
In the early television era, one of the most innovative and imaginative shows around was Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Certain episodes were so compelling that they entered the popular imagination, and are familiar to anyone over 30. One of the most brilliant episodes, shown in 1961, was It’s a Good Life, based upon a [...]
Bookworm on Apr 27 2010 | Filed under: Open Threads
If you’re on the ball, this week you have the opportunity to bid on a great sounding book, get an iPad, and help Soldier’s Angels. Everyone’s wondering why multiple New Yorkers just walked by as a good Samaritan bled to death on the sidewalk in front of them. The intelligentsia has jumped on the usual [...]
Bookworm on Apr 26 2010 | Filed under: Free speech, Identity politics, Jihad, Media matters, Muslim violence
Unless you’ve been visiting some other planet somewhere in the universe, you already know about Comedy Central’s South Park debacle. That’s the one, of course, that saw Comedy Central, the oh-so-hip-and-edgy (meaning often offensive) television station brutally censoring a South Park episode that implied that Mohamed was walking around wearing a bear suit — when [...]
Bookworm on Feb 04 2010 | Filed under: Education, Free speech, Jihad
I’m working on a post, but thought you all would find this interesting in the meantime: From AJ Strata, something that’s not just interesting, but is also terrifying: the terrorists are out there and, having gotten the measure of our new president and his administration, they are massing for war. If you needed a reminder [...]
Bookworm on Dec 19 2009 | Filed under: Free speech
Alan Grayson, last heard of when he accused Republicans of backing a health care plan that told sick people to die, is at it again: Not everyone thinks imitation is the best form of flattery. In fact, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando took such offense at a parody website aimed at unseating him that [...]
Bookworm on Dec 08 2009 | Filed under: Africa, Iran
Through the Bush years, those in the grips of BDS likened him to Hitler based upon their contention that he was running the most oppressive administration ever in American history. They made this claim despite the fact that, insofar as I know, no protestor was ever imprisoned merely for having protested. (This is separate from [...]
Bookworm on Oct 23 2009 | Filed under: Free speech, Government, Media matters
Twenty-four hours after the fact, the AP finally figured out that, maybe, just maybe, it’s worth reporting that the White House tried to freeze out a news organization that challenges it, and was stopped only because other news organizations realized that, if they let this one pass, they would forever be barred from voicing any [...]
Bookworm on Oct 23 2009 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Media matters
Charles Krauthammer identifies the enormous damage the Obami risk doing as they attack and try to destroy national entities associated with conservatives (the Chamber of Commerce, talk radio, Fox news): There’s nothing illegal about such search-and-destroy tactics. Nor unconstitutional. But our politics are defined not just by limits of legality or constitutionality. We have norms, [...]
Bookworm on Sep 20 2009 | Filed under: Britain, England, Free speech, Islam
All of us have been worried that the Obama Administration, working in tandem with a wildly Democratic Congress, wants to clamp down on freedom of speech. Heck, in true Orwellian fashion, the House of Representatives has already taken myriad terms off the table for fear that they might be used against their Fearless (albeit whiny) [...]
Bookworm on Aug 06 2009 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Free speech
A few days ago, I quoted from some representatives saying that those attending town halls are an ill-informed mob that must be ignored. The editors at National Review nicely sum up the Democratic party attitude and its profoundly anti-democratic meaning (links omitted): President Obama likes to pose as the tribune of the common people, but [...]
Bookworm on May 28 2009 | Filed under: Free speech, Judges
Sotomayor’s statements about judges (better if they’re female and minority) and their role (to make policy) have been disturbing. It’s worth nothing though that, as James Taranto points out that, on at least one occasion Sotomayor came out strongly in favor of free speech, even though it was very ugly speech: Sotomayor Plays Against Type [...]
Bookworm on Feb 12 2009 | Filed under: Britain, Free speech
The Brits turned Geert Wilders back at the border for daring to try to enter the country to show an anti-Islamic film. Wilders isn’t too pure himself, since he advocates muzzling Islam, which just goes to show that Europeans fundamentally fail to understand free speech. (England once understood it, but a combination of leftism and [...]
Bookworm on Nov 21 2008 | Filed under: Abortion, Barack Obama, Free speech, Judges, Judicial activism
Okay, I admit it. I’m easy. Call me “winsome” and write a thoughtful, well-informed, interesting article about the continuing resonance abortion has on the political process — even if it did not serve as the centerpiece of this last political campaign — and of course I’m going to link to the article. In this case, [...]
Bookworm on Oct 22 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Media matters
Thought to be extinct, Marinicus Republicanus is emerging from its long dormancy and beginning to make itself known. Tonight, I attended an enthusiastic rally of at least 100 people crammed shoulder to shoulder in a beautiful home in Marin. People were informed, excited, and refused to be intimidated by the polls. Melanie Morgan, former conservative [...]
Bookworm on Oct 14 2008 | Filed under: Free speech, Leftist morality
As I do, my in-laws, all of whom are McCain supporters, live in a liberal community. They periodically get together with their conservative friends and bemoan the fact that lawn signs are stolen or despoiled, or that cars bearing McCain-Palin bumperstickers are targets of vandalism (keying, smashed windows, etc.). Along with the rest of us, [...]
Bookworm on Oct 01 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Free speech
A righteous Andrew McCarthey puts together in a single place what astute observers have long known: Obama is an active enemy of Free Speech. Using tried and true Leftist tactics, including coopting sympathetic officials in the current administration, Obama and his team are doing everything they can to stifle speech. It’s just the beginning of [...]
Bookworm on Sep 27 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Free speech
“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” — Harry Truman. If you can’t stand the heat, get goons to frighten your opponents — and in Missouri, this means rounding up Democratic government prosecutors and officials to threaten people with prosecution for political speech.
Bookworm on Sep 26 2008 | Filed under: Barack Obama, Free speech
Being a circumlocutious type myself, I’m not normally a fan of Glenn Reynold’s bullet point approach to sharing information. Nevertheless, it makes a powerful point in his post setting out an ever expanding laundry list of the efforts the Obama campaign is making to stifle open political debate. What’s really scary is that this list [...]
Bookworm on Aug 25 2008 | Filed under: Uncategorized
I’m still happil figuring out all the bells and whistles on my new iPhone, so I’ll start off this Monday with a few quick picks: No wonder Putin still dreams of the old Empire: it turns out that, if the Soviet Union still existed, it would have left all the other countries int he dust [...]
