First, consider the case of Derek Fenton, the ballsy guy who burned pages of the Koran at Ground Zero on 9-11. He has now been fired by his employer, the New Jersey Transit Authority. Bear in mind that he was not on the job when he exercised his First Amendment rights, and he never broke the law. Yet they fired him.
The second case involves Molly Norris, the Seattle cartoonist who started the spoof idea of “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. The threats on her life have become so alarming that she has moved away and gone into hiding, given up her publishing gig at Seattle Weekly, and taken an assumed name. All because some Muslims couldn’t take a joke. Now, I think she should seriously consider exercising her Second Amendment rights in a concealed-carry state, but that’s her call. In any case, the authorities could not protect her.
Doesn’t all this sound familiar? Isn’t this what you read here, day in and day out, coming from Europe?
Muslims get angry and violent, and the authorities do nothing. If you do something that offends Muslims, the state takes away your job or your pension or your benefits. Or puts you on trial.
It happens every day in Belgium, in the UK, in Sweden, in Austria, in Finland…
And now it has come here, to the United States of America. Within my own lifetime.
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!
Oh yes, that’s right — this is supposed to be the news feed. To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.
Thanks to 4symbols, Andy Bostom, Barry Rubin, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, JP, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Commenters are advised to leave their comments at this post (rather than with the news articles) so that they are more easily accessible.
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3 comments:
"It happens every day in Belgium, in the UK, in Sweden, in Austria, in Finland…"
Would you include "Holocaust Revision" as Free Speech?
Not denial, mind you, but Revision only. (like revising the deaths, as in the Auschwitz plaque at the entrance). For the joy of less of my people being killed, I would have had a grand party and celebrated with champagne and chopped liver on toasted Russian bread. But you know us, Latinos, we're just party animals, lazy, shifty, greasers and welfare recipients.
Yes, people are being imprisoned all the time for this, in the U.K.,Germany, Austria, Australia, Canada. And now there's a danger of this,same Hate Speech Law, being implemented in the U.S.
Free Speech is Free, until one gets to this. Then everything goes amok. Lions, and tigers and bears, oh my!! Off with her head!!
Sort of like in Turkey, where one can't talk about the Armenian Genncide.
allat --
Would you include "Holocaust Revision" as Free Speech?
I include Holocaust revision as free speech. I include Holocaust denial as free speech.
Some other things I consider free speech:
§ Saying that Jews are the spawn of the devil, or the offspring of apes and pigs.
§ Saying that aliens from Arcturus are in telepathic control of Barack Obama.
§ Saying that the black and white races are incompatible, and should be forced to live separately from one another.
§ Saying that Republicans are evil subhuman creatures who should be exterminated.
§ Saying that women are inferior to men and must be subordinate to their husbands and fathers, because that is the way God created them.
All of the above examples are statements I disagree with to one degree or another. Some of them I find abhorrent, others make me chuckle.
But all of them are examples of free speech, and are thus protected from any government sanction.
The First Amendment means what it says.
Relevant:
Justice Stephen Breyer: Is Burning Koran 'Shouting Fire In A Crowded Theater?'
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on "GMA" that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.
“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater,” Breyer told me. “Well, what is it? Why? Because people will be trampled to death. And what is the crowded theater today? What is the being trampled to death?”
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