The Anchoress
Free Speech –
“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” – G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
Steve Boriss has a thoughtful piece up at Pajamas Media, on how the internet will be at the front of the fight to preserve free speech:
In a recent editorial, the NY Times welcomed federal regulation of the Internet under the benign-sounding cause “net neutrality,” warning us that Internet service providers might suppress ideas they do not like. The Times ignores the fact that the First Amendment is designed to protect us against suppression of ideas by the government, not the private sector, which has neither the power nor the motive to suppress ideas.
That’s not surprising. The left that has been accusing the right (and specifically President George W. Bush) of blowing a “chill wind” of suppression is in fact the side that is doing the most talking about regulating free speech on the ‘net and suppressing what it does not like:
The Pelosi-Claybrook proposal builds on the restrictions on free speech created by campaign finance reform measures like McCain-Feingold that bar criticism of congressional incumbents for 30 days prior to a primary and 60 days before a general election…What we are witnessing here is the continuing repeal of the First Amendment. If Pelosi-Claybrook becomes law in 2007, you can be sure it will be followed by more regulations and restrictions on free speech in 2008 and beyond.
Not to worry, anything they couldn’t push through the last two years will fly through congress as soon as they sweep the house/senate elections and enthrone he who was “sent”, aka Lightworker Obama.
“We are all going to have to rethink how we deal with this, because there are all these competing values … Without any kind of editing function or gatekeeping function, what does it mean to have the right to defend your reputation?”
Yessir, lots of things are going to change if the ’08 election (helped by the “teach ’em a lesson faction” of the right) becomes a Democrat sweep. All those new SCOTUS justices in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, plus more of this, too
POWER GRIDS AND RANK PARTISANSHIP –
“Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern.” – G. K. Chesterton, The New Name, Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays
Have you had your first brown-out, yet? We did, yesterday.
Remember this: when Bush tried to put through a comprehensive energy policy which included upgrading our powergrids, that got shot down by the Democrats, so…enjoy your brownouts this summer, and when they are all blamed on President Bush not upgrading the grids, remember that he tried, and the Senate Democrats and the spineless GOP who controlled the senate and the house, respectively, would not help him serve the nation because of rank partisanship.
Oh, and btw, in case you haven’t heard over all that rank partisanship: Bush did not lie. Even the Washington Post admits it.
Rank Partisanship is why your kid can’t find a job this summer, too.
Gays Beaten –
It was because Islam was broad that Moslems [sic] were narrow. And because it was not a hard religion it was a heavy rule. Because it was without a self-correcting complexity, it allowed of those simple and masculine but mostly rather dangerous appetites that show themselves in a chieftain or a lord…the great Saladin was in his tent, and he must be obeyed unless he were assassinated. Those who complain of our creeds as elaborate often forget that the elaborate Western creeds have produced the elaborate Western constitutions; and that they are elaborate because they are emancipated.” (G. K. Chesterton “The Fall of Chivalry” The New Jerusalem) – [emphasis mine – admin]
Meanwhile in enlightened Europe – the place some are so eager to emulate and replicate here in America, gays are being bashed and beaten by an evolving element, and the US press is not saying much about it – nor, notes Gay Patriot, are the gay websites and press:
At a fashion show to promote tolerance of gay people on April 30, a national holiday in Holland, celebrating the birthday of the late Queen Juliana, a group of ten Muslim youths dragged gay model Mike Du Pree down from the catwalk, beating him up and breaking his nose. A second model who tried to help out was also attacked…I could find no reference to this beating on any of the gay news web-sites I checked, including 365gay.com, the Advocate, the Washington Blade as well as sites of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF). (I did searches on each of these sites for “Amsterdam.”) …
Fortunately some of the stereotypically “intolerant” people on the right are covering it and expressing outrage. Because, you know, it’s pretty freaking outrageous, and I’m actually really surprised that it’s not getting more attention. But I guess fear of one group trumps favoring another? (H/T Restoring Democracy).
Anti-Semites –
Moderns have not the moral courage, as a rule, to avow the sincere spiritual bias behind their fads; they become insincere even about their sincerity. G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News 12/27/19
Finally, Obama’s Campaign website has, apparently since April, displayed some pretty potent and paranoid stuff up about Jewish lobbyists. The post and comments have been down and even Google has been scrubbed (how do you do that?), but it seems many got the screen-catches and so forth.
Ideals –
“Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.” – G. K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong With The World
You know what’s interesting? From a political standpoint, obviously the anti-semitic stuff needed to come down, but from a purely “free speech” perspective (and as difficult as it may be to imagine, these days) anything – even ugly, offensive stuff like that – should be heard, because such words give us the most accurate picture of a person or movement, and we need that – for the sake of clarity.
Thanks to the movements of the 1970’s and 80’s – when it became “hurtful, insensitive or intolerant” to express negative or stereotypical thoughts or feelings about (or even tell a joke involving) anyone but white males, fundamental Christians and fat people – we’ve fallen into this PC mentality of censorship and speech prohibition fed by a never-ending line of offended “victims.” Like so much that originates from the left, good intentions – and they are mostly good – have been taken to a prohibitive and restricting extreme.
Politicians and public figures no longer say their piece and succeed or fail in an open arena on the basis of their own words, clearly heard. Every pronouncement is weighed, measured and minced into inoffensive gobbledygook that is easily digested but often false and usually meaningless. Public discourse has devolved into a pretty facade that hides a great deal of ugliness, but if we cannot see the ugliness, we may find ourselves – in all innocence – enabling it.
In Canada, Mark Steyn is being subjected to a farce of a tribunal and possible fines and more for the “hate crime” of looking at demographics and discussing how they will affect western culture. The churches will be subjected to similar censorship due to their doctrines, soon enough. That that sort of idealism – precisely the sort that George Will is describing here – is just censorship and suppression writ as “niceness.” And it’s coming to already in practice in a state, town or village near you.
Oh, look, we’ve gone full circle and ended up back at the most fundamental of all freedoms: free speech. And, sadly, it seems the circle starts and ends on the left.
“Anyone who is not an anarchist agrees with having a policeman at the corner of the street; but the danger at present is that of finding the policeman half-way down the chimney or even under the bed.” – G. K. Chesterton, What I Saw In America, 1922
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In