Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

Theologically to say the least…

Posted: August 1, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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…Islam has issues.

But I’ve never been one for burning books.

Analysis for me is pretty easy for me on this one. The so-called “International Burn the Quran Day” is geared to the sheer shock factor. It’s beyond incediary, ludicrous and a waste of time. And worse, this kind of behavior (burn the Quran/Koran day) distracts from the clear downsides to Islam. It sells books too, apparently. But in the end it is this group’s right to do as they please on their property – free speech (including liberal pet projects like flag burning) is sometimes ugly.

I’m with Left coast rebel here. Burning books seems kinda anti-American to me.

They get 10 out of 10 for not being afraid of the inevitable fatwa but they also get 0 out of ten for giving Islamists an actual cause for grievance. Going nuts over a cartoon? Nonsense! Burning their holy book, yeah I can see getting angry over that.

This of course doesn’t change the fact that it is protected first amendment speech and violent retaliation is the act of barbarians.

Oh and the Anchoress makes a great point:

But I have to wonder about Rick Sanchez, here. His points are not badly made, but I wonder why he showcased this fellow at all? As one of the deacon’s readers points out:

While I don’t support the burning of the Quran, I can’t help but wonder where CNN and Rick Sanchez were when we had the atheist college Professor Paul Z. Myers desecrating the Eucharist on posting pictures of the act? Maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall Sanchez grilling Myers in a CNN interview. It gives credibility to the statement that anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice.

Just so; I have to wonder whether Sanchez highlighted this story because a) it feeds into the public perception of Christians as intolerant and stupid and b) it is fodder for a potentially huge story: the inevitable fatwa against this man and the tensions his ideas will foment. Is Sanchez stoking this little twig in hopes of reporting on an eventual conflagration down the road?

Either way its bad form and will have a bad end.

Memeorandum thread here.

Howard Zinn a communist? Next you’ll be telling me Madonna used sex to sell records!

Posted: July 31, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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What do this headline:

FBI Files Reveal Historian Howard Zinn Lied to Hide CPUSA Membership

and this one

So Clarkson was right: Sight of a scantily-clad woman drives men to distraction (… and off the road)

have in common? (more…)

Like nobody saw this coming

Posted: July 30, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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Do the words: Blood on their hands ring a bell?

In an interview with Channel 4 News, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said they were studying and investigating the report, adding “If they are US spies, then we know how to punish them.”

This brought to mind something, twenty five years ago just out of college I started at Raytheon. In the list of document that had to be filled out when at my hire was one that caught my eye.

It was a list of offensives that made you subject to death or such lesser penalty as the law would allow.

When you’re 21 it’s really heady stuff to read that there are things you can do on the job that can get you executed. Of course I wasn’t planning to give classified info to the soviets in the middle of the cold war, but it was a sobering thing to read.

As I remember when the media convicted Richard Jewel I’m going to withhold judgment for now on the soldier who is being named in the media, but if an employee at a defense plant is aware that treason carries a possible death penalty how much more should a soldier, particularly during wartime?

If it is proved this or any soldier was complicit in the leaks, such an act that’s as clear a case of treason as there is.

And now it appears that those helping us will now pay for their support of America with their lives.

If this doesn’t warrant a firing squad I don’t know what does.

Memeorandum thread here.

My Shirley Sherrod Sucker post…

Posted: July 30, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, the courts
Tags: ,

has produced some reaction in comments and from some friends who were surprised at my reaction. For those who are unsure, two posts at other blogs make my point best.

The short version comes from Robert Stacy:

A government official successfully pursuing a defamation suit against a private citizen is quite nearly impossible.

Any responsible lawyer would provide three words of helpful advice to Shirley Sherrod: “Discovery’s a bitch.”

The long version is at the American Thinker:

This past Sunday, in his weekly column for the San Francisco Chronicle, “Willie’s World,” veteran black politico Willie Brown confirmed that “there is more to the story than just [Sherrod’s] remarks.”

“As an old pro,” Brown acknowledged, “I know that you don’t fire someone without at least hearing their side of the story unless you want them gone in the first place.” Brown observed that Sherrod had been a thorn in the USDA’s side for years, that many had objected to her hiring, and that she had been “operating a community activist organization not unlike ACORN.” Although Brown does not go into detail, he alludes to a class action lawsuit against the USDA in which she participated some years ago.

In the way of background, in 1997, a black farmer named Timothy Pigford, joined by four hundred other black farmers, filed a lawsuit against Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, claiming that the USDA treated black farmers unfairly in all manner of ways, from price support loans to disaster payments to operating loans. Worse, they charged that the USDA had failed to process any complaints about racial discrimination.

The notion that the Clinton Ag Department had spent four years consciously denying black farmers their due defies everything we know about Clinton’s use of race and should have made the media suspicious about Pigford’s claims dating back to 1983.

Flush with revenue in 1999 and eager to appease this bedrock constituency, the administration settled with the farmers — more realistically, their attorneys — for fifty grand apiece, plus various other perks like tax offsets and loan forgiveness. If any of the presumably racist USDA offenders were punished, that news escaped the media.

Is this all talk? Is there an actual suit that will be filed? Boy does this administration hope not.

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