free speech issues

Holocause denial is a crime in some countries because of the atrocities of the second world war. Couldn't denial of evolution be criminalised along the same lines so as to undermine the (Koranic literalist) Islamic fundamentalism which caused 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan? There's even more...

On the heels of COICA passing Senate Judiciary Committee we have 70 websites disappear off ICANN. One owner of a disappeared website complained: "My domain has been seized without any previous complaint or notice from any court!” the owner of Torrent-Finder explained TorrentFreak, “I firstly...

But Heaven help me... I just can't come up with the tears for these victims. I hope the criminal assailants behind the vicious attack on a fellow americans private property rights get everything they deserve.

Linky. I've long called for mandatory school uniforms. He was shocked, shocked he tells ya! Won't someone please think of the persecuted straights who are bullied by school districts every day? (Yes, personally I find this very creepy. But they obviously aren't being straight (har har)...

http://www.slate.com/id/2270167/

Uk dave brings up an interesting point in this post in another thread: http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6375332&postcount=42 I think it deserves its own thread.

Title: Censorship of the Internet Takes Center Stage in "Online Infringement Bill" Author: Richard Esguerra URL: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/censorship-internet-takes-center-stage-online Opinions?

Six British Men Arrested After Quran Burning Germany couldn't take your freedom by force. Looks like they went about it the wrong way. They should have merely been greatly offended until you turned things over to them.

I want to limit this discussion to the constitutional issue of freedom of speech, not the particular content of the speech. City plans to bill pastor for security around planned Quran burning Is it normal for police to bill people who receive police protection? How about when, for example...

I heard Clinton today calling this Koran burning event un-American. It got me thinking, is it actually very American given the fact that this man is permitted to do such a thing?

Hi, my dad told me today that he heard some american christian leader (minister, priest, don't know) say on the radio that people aren't allowed to go preach in public areas. I really doubt that would happen in the US, but I had to check. So, is it, in any state, true?

http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/german-banker-sacked-for-making-jewish-gene-remark-threatens-litigation-1.312168 This guy apparently suggested Jews have a common genetic marker and got fired for saying it. This is true for many Jews and my wife did her Genographics genetic testing and...

I just read a scifi book in which a most interesting comment was made. I am sure most of you already knew this but the distinction just hit me when I read that the first amendment prevents only Comgress from passing laws against free speech. Apparently anyone else can. So, can a state pass...

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100623/METRO/6230376/1041/LIFESTYLE04/Christian-ministers-challenge-arrests-at-Arab-fest They were arrested for "disorderly conduct", which seems to really stretch the meaning of that offense to where it can be used to arrest anyone for anything. They might as...

The report came in three hours ago, and wasn't posted before, and we could use just one more Venezuela thread :) http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/06/12/venezuela.media.arrest/index.html?hpt=T2 The Venezuelan government has issued an arrest warrant against the president of one of the...

Just a thread to explore the frequent issue of free speech. When should it end? When it incites violence? Surely any fool can be incited to violence, especially if it's related to religion. Should racist banners like 'asians go home" be permitted on the motorway?

Because obviously drawing pictures of Muhammad is the equivalent of genocide. The thing is, nobody will be calling for the Pakistani embassy to be burnt, nobody will be making death threats. I want them to do it because then they'll show the world what idiots they are. Although I guess the media...

Noam Chomsky has been refused entry to the West Bank by Israeli officials: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8685930.stm Prof. Chomsky was attempting to enter via Jordan, to deliver a lecture at Birzeit University. Denying him access seems rather silly, and is likely to prove...

The house of Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who was assaulted earlier this week at Uppsala University, was firebombed by arsonists yesterday: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5577216,00.html There are no suspects at this time, but my money is on devotees of the Religion Of Perpetual Outrage.

Facebook "prayer" apparently calling for death of Obama doesn't violate FB policy. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/21/obama.facebook.prayer/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

there was a Documentary about Islam in Switzerland and they showed some Hate preacher's. in one case they were told that an imman said, Non belivers are less worth than animals, even animals accept Allah and serve him. Now atleast 2 parties want take the guy to court for what he said. sofar...

The Kansas City Star reported that a father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by our favorite slimebag has been ordered to pay Phelps' court costs. http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/29/1844265/marines-dad-ordered-to-pay-protesters.html Excuse me while I go throw up.

Haven't seen any threads regarding this, but if there is, my apologies... There is currently a controversy here in Ottawa where Conservative author/columnist Ann Coulter was supposed to give a speech at the University of Ottawa. However, the talk was canceled after protests by students...

Unfortunately some look upon Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling as a conservative/liberal issue. It’s not really. It’s an American issue, and will greatly affect our rights and freedoms as individual human beings, families and members of a greater community. Are corporations “persons”...

welcome to the plutacricy? Or something like that from Star Wars http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/21/supreme-court-sides-hillary-movie-filmmakers-campaign-money-dispute/ The ONE thing that every one seems to agree on in US politics - from the extreme left to the extreme right - is...

Didn't see this posted (please correct me if it has been): http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_columnist_mikethomas/2009/11/aclu-defends-antiislamic-tshirts-in-schools.html I'm not sure what to think about this. While I'm in no way religious and think kids should be able to wear whatever...

Does the government have the right to forbid meaningless gibberish? From Here. Supposedly, the school feels justified on the grounds that certain students were deliberately disrupting school with the nonsense syllable, 'Meep,' from the Muppets. I don't have a problem with banning disruptive...

There was some kind of court ruling in which a company claimed that because according to an old supreme court ruling, Corporations are people and thus any attempt to limit the amount of money corporations could contribute to politics would be a violation of the first Amendment. It was this...

The CHRC (Canadian Human Rights Commission) is back in the news. I have posted a few things in the past on what appeared to be a dangerous trend for the CHRC being used as a weapon to silence opinions. There were a number of controversial prosecutions for opinion pieces which raised a lot of...

So yesterday's Colbert Report dedicated two segments to this case, and I'd be lying if I said that their angle did not scare the crap out of me. The show's argument was that if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizen's United (which seemed likely), it would rule that laws limiting campaign...