Radley Balko (The Agitator) has an interesting article on actions of the Institute for Justice, which is helping some folks in Mississippi challenge the laws on spending to advocate for a political cause. The idea of such laws, of course, is to provide for openness and accountability in politics. In this case, however, it provides…
… and this amendment will limit free speech. I understand the concern, but I believe that people gathered together in groups must have the same freedom, insofar as possible, as individuals. I don’t think creating greater government control is going to have the effect that people desire. We keep creating government agencies, such as the…
Via Dispatches I found this story about a lawsuit against the Grossmont Union High School District. The suit alleges that the school forbade the student to bring his Bible to school or to preach. The district tells a different story, claiming the student was very disruptive. I mention this story for a couple of reasons….
Troy Britain has it absolutely right on freedom of speech, with the added bonus that I get to agree with Christopher Hitchens at the same time, which doesn’t happen nearly as often.
I have always preferred our classic statements of rights, such as the bill of rights, to such statements as Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms.” What interests me is that while our classic statements of rights indicate things that the government is not permitted to prevent you from doing, the latter two freedoms from Roosevelt’s list, and especially…
Ed Brayton reports on a victory for FIRE against the University of Delaware, which had a diversity training seminar that was mandatory for all students. It was followed up by big brother style watch-dogging. Just in case some of us might get the idea that it is only right-wing ideologues who would like to indoctrinate…
Here’s another case: Leader offers $100,000 for cartoonist’s death. The head of an al-Qaida-led group in Iraq offered $100,000 for the killing of Swedish cartoonist [tag]Lars Vilks[/tag] over his drawing depicting the Prophet Mohammad. I’ll say again what I have said before. Blasphemy should not be illegal. I believe in [tag]free speech[/tag] when it’s engaged…
I like this response to a recent court decision regarding the so-called Patriot Act. Hey Christine–people who read, and even worse write Haiku are extremely dangerous. Didn’t you know that? And those peonies for your garden? Indeed there ought to be a law! 🙂
According to Ed Brayton (Dispatches from the Culture Wars), the suit has been withdrawn. Brayton also makes a number of remarks on this that are totally on point. I agree with him completely as to the nature of the suit and the characters involved. My previous comments were here. PZ’s very own commentary is here….
It appears that WordPress.com has been banned in Turkey because of criticisms of Muslim creationist Adnan Oktar. Oktar appears to be an unusually warped version of creationist, and may well be using creationism to foster Muslim fundamentalism. The reason I’m linking to this is that it is a free speech issue. As a number of…
