Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Free speech for all--even wackos

The Supreme Court, not surprisingly, ruled 8-1 in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church to spread vile, hateful, exceedingly painful messages by capitalizing on the tragic deaths of our military personnel, using solemn funerals to promote their obnoxious agenda in the same way perverts post disgusting graffiti on public bathroom stalls.

But the true measure of a great country is not by speech we cheerfully allow, it is by that infinitesimally tiny minority--where we need to hold our nose and then later take a shower for having heard or seen it.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Complete nonsense and not even remotely historically accurate. Our Founding Fathers would never recognize this concept. The Alien and Sedition Acts were passed in 1798 and in force until they expired in 1801. And later the Sedition Act of 1918, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, and is still in force today, directly limited free speech.

Anonymous said...

Free speech is not the problem; a lack of basic human decency is. We've come unstuck from our moorings and no law, no Supreme Court ruling, can save us from that.

We're in a tyranny of the loudest and the most outrageous. Good luck trying to put two nuanced thoughts together without being either interrupted or shouted down.

I think that many people are simply retreating from public life and politics out of despair.

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, well, "historically" speaking the Supreme Court also ruled that black slaves were not protected by the Constitution.

And, technically speaking, the Dred Scott decision has never been overturned.

Anonymous said...

Well if you put yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time and piss off the wrong person, you might just get popped. If these clowns keep it up someone will do it.

Larry Kelley said...

Indeed.

And like the wacko who put a bullet in Congresswoman Gifford's head, they will go to jail.

Anonymous said...

"And, technically speaking, the Dred Scott decision has never been overturned."

It was a court decision not a law. The law was overturned by The Emancipation Proclamation.

Larry Kelley said...

Did not help out the 800,000 slaves in border states that had not joined the Confederacy.

Ed said...

BOTH of you are wrong - it was reversed by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. Doesn't anyone teach Civics anymore????

"And, technically speaking, the Dred Scott decision has never been overturned."

It was a court decision not a law. The law was overturned by The Emancipation Proclamation.

Anonymous said...

Yah, and it wasn't the Jews who killed Jesus, it was the Roman occupiers. Last I looked, they were "heathens" with many gods.

But, hey, the rabid rowdies don't need any facts to cloud up their thinking.

It just can't be good karma to inflict psychic pain on so many people.

Anonymous said...

Teachers don't teach civics anymore. It's not politically correct.

Anonymous said...

Re anon @4:42...the Sedition Act is no longer in force, it was repealed in 1920.