I just might be able to get behind this guy

Yes, okay, he was drunk and violent and perhaps nuts, but I'm pretty tired of Palin politics too.

what todo about Marty Peretz

Sometimes more speech really is the answer to bad speech -- especially when the speaker is a smart guy like Winston Warfield.

Urinate on them? Is that what's known as drawing a line in the sand?

Ah, symbolic violence -- as opposed to the real kind, which makes us all heroes.

holy book, holy cow?

Isn't the point of symbolic protest to make people take notice?  (Especially when what they take is also offense.)

Whom does god hate?

Repugnant, indeed, but I want the right to say, God hates the tactics of the Westboro Baptist Church, don't you?
So I guess it's the First Amendment to our dying breath.

Protecting symbolic speech that would destroy written speech

This is where the First Amendment gets really weird: The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., said it will burn the Islamic holy book to mark the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. And, Bloomberg is right.

Except when it's for Iraqis

and then we get to call it national security

Oh, for christsake, give peace a chance!

National Security! Terrorism! Lock up the children!  Or, in the to-the-point words of David Cole, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case,“This decision basically says the First Amendment allows making peacemaking and human rights advocacy a crime,”

Hamas? Jamais.

Wait till it is beamed to the United States.

Is there a more effective conversation killer than invoking the Holocaust?

 Even indirectly, as Helen Thomas found out. 
Her much-quoted-out-of-context Jews go back to the shetl was a dumb thing to say and it obscured her larger point that Israel is occupying Gaza (this is the original interview; commentary is too voluminous to include). So people who say dumb or shameful things should be shamed. But shunning & banning & make it clear that certain ideas are beyond the pale, a very effective way to shut people up.

Except when it's a most unique [sic], toxic person -- or in the state of Wyoming

Suellen Carman, an old friend of mine and of the First Amendment, who lives in Wyo. and received the Intellectual Freedom Award from the Wyoming Library Association in 2002, wrote to state officials to object to their barring Bill Ayers from speaking at the Univ. of Wyo. The following is a response from Jim McBride, the state superintendent of education.

Subject: RE: Letter to the President and Board of Trustees
Carman, sorry, we aren't going to agree on this issue. This is a very unique person with a very unique history - - I believe he is simply too toxic for UW. Let's simply agree to disagree! I simply believe there is a view beyond academic freedom.
J McBride
Wyoming Department of Education
Superintendent of Public Instruction
"One Team One Effort"

By all means, protect kids from playing at violence.

Much better to send them to war so they can work at it  (Please note that sex, cigs & booze are already off limits. Violence is now up to the Supremes.)

The offense that just keeps on giving.

How could South Park, equal opportunity offender, resist?

Censorship is a boomerang

Free speech is a U.S. thing; Canadians know better. (And, yes, more odious, but isn't that the point?)

Emma Goldman had a point

If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution.  Emma Goldman
(Sure, it's not earth-shattering, but the real question is, why not dance?)