I am echoing the words of many bloggers today, as we all speak out in defense of free speech. Join us, in a virtual march, to show that you, too, defend the right to speak freely.

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Tell the Truth

Using the idea that if you offend anyone, you’ve committed a hate crime, you can silence anyone, stop any troublesome questioner, turn “justice” upside down and define it as “social justice” which is in fact injustice in which people can be held liable for the alleged crimes of people who look vaguely like them and who died well before they were born.

Again, what is a hate crime? Killing people, or pointing out that the killers’ twisted and atavistic culture advocates subjugation of all who thing differently? Mutilating young girls and forcing them to marry much older men against their will, or pointing out that certain cultures mutilate young girls and force them to marry much older men against their will? Raging and demanding a share of other people’s hard earned wealth? Or pointing out that the underclass brings itself to straits through lack of certain cultural virtues? (Read More…)

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Oh Dear

This um… lady (because calling her what I’d like to call her involves far too many four letter words of the sort I try not to use in public – and you folk know what my in public language is like) seems to think that “free speech” means “not offending people” and that – as a corollary – not being offended is a human right.

Um. Yeah. She says about people who are responding angrily to her: “They seem to make no distinction between free speech and hate speech, and they seem to believe that freedom of speech includes the freedom to say anything. “

Lady, that’s exactly what freedom of speech means. It does not mean the right to have no consequences when you speak unwisely – but you still have the right to speak. (Read More…)

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Are you Willing to Stand Up and Be Heard?

Kohn is more concerned that a cartoon might be objectionable to someone than she is about the fact that armed men stormed an office and killed innocents. She doesn’t even mention the police officer who was killed after the attack, nor does she mention the attack on the Jewish deli. None of that fits the narrative she is trying to set forth — that Charlie Hebdo got what it deserved for being mean.

I’m sorry but if we were to follow her line of thinking, imagine all the different groups who could righteously claim the “right” to attack and kill those who make fun of them.It would be open season on everyone until the government instituted a “Right think-right speech” law and we all walked around like mindless drones, afraid to say or even think anything for fear of arrest or worse. (Read More…

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True Freedom

“You think true freedom is doing what you want? Well, you’re wrong. I’ll tell you what true freedom is. True freedom is doing what I tell you.” – the Ape (CS Lewis, The Last Battle)

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Thoughts on the Islamic Terrorist Attack in France

I felt like writing something here. But then I felt this momentary pang of dread. What if my words make somebody angry? What if I upset them? And that’s when it hit me, every single public figure, every person with an audience, felt that same doubt. That same little bit of fear that evil Islamic lunatics would take offense and kill them. No matter how unlikely or irrational, they felt it.

And that is exactly what evil wants. (Read More..

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Charlie Hebdo

As a writer, what I need is even broader.  I need to be able to explore ideas without censorship and, again, without fear of violent reprisal.

Both of these things are pillars of Western thought, and supposedly held to by Conservative, Liberal, and Libertarian alike.  Attack that and you undermine Western philosophy and the very concept of liberty.  Once you say, “this you may not read, this you may not see, this you may not know”* under threat of violence, whether that violence is from the state or some other body, then you have tyranny. (Read More…) (*Robert A. Henlein as placed in the mouth of his character “Lazarus Long.”)

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Charlie Hebdo and Free Speech

I’m a writer. Even before this, I was a journalist, so I was still a writer. One of the most vital of all freedoms I have is the right to free speech. Without that, almost everything within me that makes me who I am is crushed. The moment you tell people what they can and cannot say is the moment you mark the decay of all that makes Western society wonderful…

Oh, wait, there’s that thing about free speech coming with responsibilities.

You see, Choundary and the author of the Thought Catalog piece, Tonya Cohen, are both free to say what they’ve said because of the very protections they are now criticizing.  There are many places in the world where Cohen’s criticism of government policies are sufficient grounds for imprisonment. There is a school of thought that would make Choundary complicit in future attacks by radical Islam due to his justification that insulting Muhammad is sufficient cause. (Read More…)

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Speech and Punishment

After reading Dave Freer’s piece, it seemed like today would be a good day to compose my own thoughts in kind. Not because the Charlie Hebdo massacre is singularly horrific, but because the massacre has peeled back (once again) the tinfoil wrapper on a notion I find particularly pernicious: that the artists and writers who died in the Charlie Hedbo office should have known better than to offend Muslims. Incite them. Cause them to get angry. Angry enough to kill. Which is a lot like saying, “You’re free to speak, but you’re not free from consequences!” Doubtless you’ve read or heard some variation on that one too? From people eager to see artists, writers, pundits, and speakers punished professionally for any number of politically correct sins? (Read More…)