2005-10-11

Dems The Party Of Free Speech?

Dems want to fire Tom Delay without waiting for trial outcome, and want Bill Bennet fired or suspended from his radio show. A leftist Washington Post pundit speaks out.

12 comments:

Nadir said...

BULLSHIT!!

Right-wingers are just as quick to label an enemy as guilty before they are proven innocent unless it is one of their own. This is called "politics". The Republicans ARE corrupt (as are the Democrats). Don't be a hypocrite.

Unknown said...

I'm not being a hypocrite. This was written by "left-winger" Richard Cohen. He's pointing out that Democrats are always puffing themselves up as the party of free speech. They're the hypocrites, not me.

Nadir said...

Richard Cohen is being a hypocrite then. And the Democrats are definitely hypocrites.

Paul Hue said...

I can't figure out if the left or the right is worse here. I venture to say that the left is worse, since it gave us Political Correctness, which has completely overtaken US universities. I don't reckon that the right has succeeded in so completely overtaking such a huge segment of society. A friend of mine this weekend who is an African American Studies professor at UM-Amherst says that he cannot remember a single time that he's been at a university that he's ever had a discussion with a conservative.

As far as I know, I'm the only person in the US who equally lambastes both sides. Here is a list of free speach opposition from each side:

RIGHT ANTI-FREE SPEACH EFFORTS:
Fire the Colorad professor for supporting the Taliban.
Fire Bill Mahr from ABC for saying that the 911 killers weren't cowards

LEFT ANTI-FREE SPEACH EFFORTS:
-Fire Dr. Laura from TV show before it's first episode aired.
-Expel university students for displaying confederate flags (Yale)
-Fire/Suspend Bill Bennet for describing a statistic.
-Fire Rush Limbough for saying that a black quaterbacks get overly praised.
-Fire a talk radio host for using "n" word in speach to a black audience; turns out he has two adopted kids who are black.

Let's expand this list

Unknown said...

"A friend of mine this weekend who is an African American Studies professor at UM-Amherst says that he cannot remember a single time that he's been at a university that he's ever had a discussion with a conservative."

Boy-oh-boy, doesn't that about say it all?

Paul Hue said...

The guys spent the night at my house Saturday night. He said that it was very refreshing to talk to somebody who doesn't agree with him on everything.

Unknown said...

"He said that it was very refreshing to talk to somebody who doesn't agree with him on everything."

I'll bet.

Paul Hue said...

I side with the dems in lambasting a crook even if he's not indicted, or if indicted not yet tried, and if tried, found "not guilty." Do any of us doubt that OJ and Robert Blake are guilty? The legal system has found them not guilty, and will thus stop punishing them. We, however, can examine the facts for ourselves and make our own assessments.

Nadir said...

Paul says: "-Fire a talk radio host for using "n" word in speach to a black audience; turns out he has two adopted kids who are black."

Having adopted two black kids doesn't give him the right to call them ugly names. And birthing them naturally doesn't give you the right either, Paul.

I know you think name calling is okay, but it really isn't.

Paul Hue said...

Yes, he does have "the right" to call people names. But raising or concieving black children does not confer this right. Owning your own body does. The constitution protects us from the government arresting us for calling people names. But the people can nullify that right by practicing intollerance. I don't think calling people names is bad; I think that punishing people for name-calling is immoral, and it offends anybody who truly supports free speach. The DJ who got fired for using the N word didn't even call anybody a name. He just used the N word in making a point. And the people who demanded that he get fired did so because they assumed that because he used the N word and he was white that he was racist, which he obviously wasn't. To the contrary, *THEY* were racist, because they took into account his race in passing judgement on him. Those same people would not have tried to get Michael Dyson fired for his "I'M A NIGGA!" rant at the recent Tavis Smilely blame white summut, which was nationally televised. For their racist anti-free speach efforts, they got the father of two black kids fired.

So I suppose you are correct, Nadir. If we are misfortunate enough to live amongst intollerant people, we really do have no right to say things that the intollerent will find offensive (in many cases, merely chosing to find offense, often only when accounting for the speaker's race), because intollerent people are bullies and bigots, and they will harm the speakers that they dislike.

So we all better be careful with what we say. The First Ammendment has been nullified. Government agents won't harm you for your speach; they don't have to. Your neighbors and coworkers -- and even strangers! -- will do it instead.

I am sad to report that the leftist movement that I grew up in, which prides itself on "toleration", is certainly no more tolerant than the right.

Unknown said...

"I am sad to report that the leftist movement that I grew up in, which prides itself on "toleration", is certainly no more tolerant than the right."

Leftists and progressives are far less tolerant if you ask me. In fact, the term "progressive" to describe this segment of society is an oxymoron. There's nothing progressive about them. They haven't had a progressive idea in 50 years.

Paul Hue said...

I certainly agree that the term "progressive" to describe leftists is oxymoronic. Those people want to go backwards, to government-imposed wealth transfers, complicated and high taxes, racial catagorization, government retirement programs, socialized medicine, government-only school systems, etc.