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Free speech

• 01.24.10
  Public interest ruling
  Free speech, Words from President Obama (0)

  President Obama seems to be confused by the Supreme Court ruling. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday strongly criticized a Supreme Court ruling removing limits on corporate donations for political campaigns, saying it was a major victory for banks and oil and health insurance companies. Yes, it is a victory for those entities, but part of the President's job is to look out for the legal rights of those entities. It's a victory for those of us who aren't banks and oil and health insurance companies, too. It's a victory for all of us. ...
  
  
• 01.16.10
  Global Online Freedom Act
  Free speech, Human rights (0)

  Google has to be feeling a lot of pressure from both sides of the issue of governmental censorship in China. Now would be an especially excellent time for Congress to pass the Global Online Freedom Act in order to support Google in its efforts not to be evil. There are those who sneer at Google for waiting until now to act, after its business interests have been undermined by hackers. They say it's profit more than heroism that's motivating Google. But I argue that it's good when the profit motive is aligned with the desire to ...
  
  
• 01.02.10
  Rude and abusive
  Free speech (0)

  I figure it's the sound of somebody's ox being gored. But one commenter says that anytime he sees someone telling us to be civil, he grabs his copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. There's no reason both couldn't apply when the founder of Wikipedia starts lecturing on the topic in the WSJ: Keep a Civil Cybertongue: Rude and abusive online behavior should not be met with silence. It figures. Wikipedia has become increasingly authoritarian and less democratic of late, but not necessarily more accurate. And you'd be right if you're guessing that the authors of ...
  
  
• 10.30.09
  Adventures in breakfast coffee
  Coffee, Free speech (0)

  Today is coffee day! Today the mail brought a freshly roasted supply from Great Northern Roasting Company in Traverse City. Usually I like single origin coffees, which I sometimes mix together on my own. But this time I tried Jack's Breakfast Blend again. I tried it back in January, but it was not my favorite that time around. It's a lighter roast than I usually prefer. But this time I noticed some good, brownish flavors that I had never before tasted. Excellent! I'll try it again tomorrow ...
  
  
• 08.08.09
  Shut up while I listen to you
  Free speech, Words from President Obama (0)

  Usually when politicians talk out of both sides of their mouths, they don't do both sides at the same time. But here's what one of our country's political leaders said in a campaign speech last Thursday, as reported by the AP. This must be what he meant when he said, "I have a gift, Harry." Appealing across party lines, Obama told the Democratic audience that leaders must listen to their opponents and disagree with civility. He pointed to Virginia's two most recent governors, Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, the former now a senator and the latter Obama's ...
  
  
• 07.20.09
  My friend, the wacko-extremist
  Free speech, Leftwing fascism (0)

  After reading "So Three Cows Walk into Court..." in The Weekly Standard, I decided it was time for a blog article about the wacko-extremists in the Obama administration. First there is the guy who advocates censoring the Internet, now there is this one who thinks animals should have standings to sue in court. Could Obama have been elected if he had made known such people would grace his payroll? Then I realized: These two guys are one and the same wacko. His name is Cass Sunstein. He's described as a ...
  
  
• 06.13.09
  Time for Americans to pay more attention to Canada
  Free speech (0)

  When the subject of hate-crime legislation comes up, there are always advocates who say, No, it's not going to outlaw hate speech or hate thought. If that's true, then we should expect those people who advocate hate-crime laws to do the following: Condemn the existence of the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the legislation under which it operates, which explicitly does try to regulate hate speech, as can be seen in this non-debate debate on CTV. (And by the way, what about those people who criticized George W. Bush for paying no attention to other countries, and those who advocate ...
  
  
• 11.07.08
  How do you say Nihil Obstat in Finnish?
  Free speech (0)

  The government of Finland says "Little House on the Prairie" shouldn't be shown publicly to children. That would be a show of good judgment if it had been based on the content of the program. I've long said that if we're going to have censorship of television, that should be the first program to go. The producers took good literature and ruined it. Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose had given us some interestingly drawn characters in their books. In the TV series they were turned into typical Hollywood ninnies. But, alas, it's only that the ...
  
  
• 11.02.08
  Fairness
  Free press, Free speech (0)

  So Obama doesn't support reimposing the Fairness Doctrine. That's good, I guess, considering his chilling statement that he wants to "clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation’s spectrum." But will he go to the mat for the First Amendment? As far as I can tell, he has had absolutely no experience in bucking the wishes of the Democrat establishment. Why would he start now?
  
  
• 10.31.08
  Protect a hundred flowers from blooming
  Free speech (0)

  Conservative Republicans for years have had to put up with hostile questions from LeftDemocrat reporters. It comes with the territory. There is a certain amount of whining and complaining about it from people like myself, but the politicians generally learn to take it in stride. Take, for example, Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric. (I didn't watch it, but I read a transcript.) Now Joseph Biden got a small taste of it himself when Barbara West of WFTV asked some hostile questions. She asked her questions in a polite, respectful manner, and Joseph Biden handled ...
  
  

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