Our neighbors to the north have had a difficult time with this freedom-of-speech-thing. See B.C. Human Rights Tribunal may never live down embarrassing Steyn fiasco about the attempt by the a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to prosecute Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine for publishing opinions that the Canadian Islamic Congress didn't like. Steyn and Maclean's came out on top. But there are other less well know people caught up in that effort to shut people up.
Guy Earle, for example, was a comedian trying to MC a show but who got seriously distracted by some hecklers. The hecklers were gay females, and he made some insulting remarks to them in regard to their sexual orientation. Insulting? Yes, but illegal? Anyway, he got hauled into the Human Rights Commission because of it. I heard about it on an interview on a Shire Network News podcast. And you can read the story in his own words at A Bitter Joke.
So what do these assaults against free speech have to do with us? Last month we learned that Barack Obama was attempting to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics, and it prompted the Governor of Missouri to respond with this scathing news release. Excerpt:
. . . The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election. . . .
Hopefully Mr. Obama's efforts to shut people up won't get very far. But a lot of his supporters are trying. Take, for example, the steady drumbeat about the "fairness doctrine" which has been hanging like a sword over talk radio's head for some time now. See The Coming Obama Thugocracy for other examples.
We see examples daily of how the main stream media have buried negative news items about Mr. Obama. Today's story involves the LA Times refusal to release the tape of Obama praising a PLO spokesman.
This democracy needs opposing voices. Obama tells his supporters "I want you to argue with them and get in their face." And those of us who don't buy into the Obama magic need to do the same with them.
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