Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

This is a good thing

Posted: December 28, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech
Tags: , , , ,

Will it make a difference? Who knows, but if the Hollywood types want to protest something is a nice change for them to protest an actual tyranny:

Academy Award winners Paul Haggis and Sean Penn, along with film producer and movie studio chairman Harvey Weinstein, have joined forces with British-Iranian actress and Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) spokesperson Nazanin Boniadi to condemn the harsh sentence imposed on distinguished Iranian film director Jafar Panahi.

Both Panahi and his artistic collaborator, Mohammad Rasoulof, have been given six-year prison sentences after being convicted of “propaganda against the state.” Panahi was also sentenced with a twenty-year total ban on artistic activities. The Hollywood greats have signed a petition that Boniadi initiated with AIUSA to urge Iranian authorities to overturn Panahi’s sentence and encouraged others to go to http://www.amnestyusa.org to do the same.

“As someone who has often gotten in trouble for opening his mouth, it is hard to fathom the idea of being incarcerated for six years simply for speaking my mind, or to be banned from making films for 20 years,” said Haggis, who is best known for becoming the first screenwriter to write two Best Film Oscar winners back-to-back: “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash.”

There is not a lot of support in comments for these guys over this move but lets face it, even if it is just talk, it is talk in a good cause for a change. When these guys actually fall on the side of the angels I say good!

If you want to know how far left the panel is on Morning Joe

Posted: December 23, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media
Tags: , , , ,

When Joe Scarborough quoted this Victor Davis Hanson piece today a panelist (Jeffrey Sachs) pooh poohed him as an “extremist” and nobody on that panel challenged him. He maintained Victor Davis Hanson is an extremist who has gotten us into a bunch of wars.

Yes this writer and grape grower who pens books on military history is the cause of all evil.

When you don’t have the intellectual power to match a Hanson then all you can do is attack.

Update: Ron Radosh notes that the idea of “No Labels” and civility doesn’t seem to apply to conservative thinkers:

And what did Joe “Mr. No Labels” movement Scarborough, who talks every day about the need for civility, camaraderie and dialogue between folks of different opinions, have to say to Jeffrey Sachs after this most vile outburst?

The answer: absolutely nothing, but move on to the next point as if Sachs had never spoken these words. Sachs has accused the estimable historian of causing us to get into more wars than anybody else in America, and of being an extremist, and all Scarborough could come up with is a lame joke about Hanson not being on his Christmas card list.

All labels are bad, but some labels are more equal than others apparently.

The only thing wrong with Lisa Graas column at newsreal today…

Posted: December 22, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Is that it answers Max Blumenthal who frankly deserves no answer only scorn.

With all due respect (very little is actually due here) one wonders if Blumenthal is off his proverbial rocker. This claim of anti-Muslim “hysteria”, without which his conspiracy theory unravels, is insanely false. One might even say it’s spastic. More accurately, it’s just another “astonishing act of left-handed legerdemain” of the sort that Blumenthal routinely engages in as he touts the very same falsehoods we are used to seeing from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The latest statistics from the FBI tell quite a different story.

Max makes his living the way he makes his living, he frankly isn’t worth the attention but enough well-financed left leaning outlets promote him that it becomes necessary to make sure that voices of sanity are not crowded out by the dollars of the left.

Pay particular attention to the chart on page two, of the piece, it speaks volumes.

Meanwhile there is no comment about this poster from a banned Islamic group concerning the evils of Christmas out of England. I’m sure Max will get around to condemning it as soon as someone pays him a higher wage to do so.

No Labels no clue

Posted: December 19, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media
Tags: , , ,

I watched with some amusement the “No Labels” republicans on Meet the Press paired with the other side. Joe as usual made some good points, but his assertion that Rush Limbaugh is enraged with the group is nonsense. There is no nice way to say it so I’ll just say it: He’s laughing at you because he correctly thinks this no label thing is a farce.

George Will nails it:

adopting a political label should be an act of civic candor. When people label themselves conservatives or liberals we can reasonably surmise where they stand concerning important matters, such as Hudson’s ruling. The label “conservative” conveys much useful information about people who adopt it. So does the label “liberal,” which is why most liberals have abandoned it, preferring “progressive,” until they discredit it, too.

And Glenn Reynolds (guest Jan 15th btw) dots the I and Crosses the T (in the navel sense):

Why are they against labels? Because if they were labeled accurately, no one would listen to them . . . .

That ones gotta leave a mark, particularly from the blogfather but hey if no labels can prove me wrong more power to them!

Older Entries
Newer Entries