Posted in libertarianism, tagged absurd, anti-discrimination, civil liberties, europe, freedom of association, laws, offended feelings, rights, sweden on July 1, 2008 | No Comments »
I have seen a lot of absurd things but this one is king. The last sentence of the excerpt below is possibly the greatest example of WTF-ness ever.
An eight-year-old boy has sparked an unlikely outcry in Sweden after failing to invite two of his classmates to his birthday party.
The boy’s school says he has violated the [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, tagged sex, censorship, freedom of expression, offended feelings, obscenity, pornography, first amendment, paternalism, morality, stagliano, pleasure on July 1, 2008 | No Comments »
Adult film producer John Stagliano — facing up to 40 years in jail if convicted in a currently running obscenity case – debates Pepperdine Law School’s Barry McDonald on free speech vs obscenity. Money quote from Stagliano:
Barry, your point is that people must be forced to not think things that you don’t like, and for that [...]
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Posted in India, libertarianism, politics, tagged freedom of speech, censorship, offended feelings, defamation, laws, sonia gandhi, information technology act on June 23, 2008 | 3 Comments »
This is a disturbing and stark reminder of how much India lags behind the US in free speech.
The cyber cell of the Pune police on Saturday arrested one more suspect for allegedly uploading obscene and derogatory text about Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on a social networking site.
The suspect has been identified as Nithin Chakravarti Suresh Sajja (22) [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, tagged freedom of speech, freedom, censorship, offended feelings, laws, ezra levant, hate speech, canada, human rights commission, mark steyn, slippery slope, alberta, tribunal, ruling, macleans on June 11, 2008 | No Comments »
One of the many good arguments libertarians and other advocates of complete free speech offer in support of their position is the slippery-slope argument. Basically, once you restrict certain types of speech, the bar is lowered and the censorship gets more and more oppressive with the passage of time. The result is a slow but [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, tagged freedom of speech, liberty, discrimination, offended feelings, laws, cartoons, islam, ezra levant, fee speech, danish, hate speech, canada, rights on June 1, 2008 | No Comments »
OMG, this is so awesome!
But a little bit of background first. Ezra Levant is the publisher of Western Standard, a right-wing Canadian magazine. I quote from Glenn Greenwald’s post on Salon, where I first came across the video that appears next.
In February, 2006, he published the Danish Mohammed cartoons, which prompted an Islamic group’s imam to file a complaint against Levant [...]
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Posted in education, libertarianism, people, tagged absurd, anti-discrimination, civil rights, college, course, dartmouth, discrimination, education, freedom of speech, funny, harassment, laws, lawsuit, offended feelings, priya venkatesan, professor, studies, title vii on April 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
This case is so absurd that it is difficult to take it seriously. Priya Venkatesan, who taught writing this year at Dartmouth College, is threatening to sue former students under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act for criticizing her in course feedbacks. This report has the details along with snippets of Ms Venkatesan’s own [...]
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Posted in India, news and links, politics, tagged India, freedom of speech, Indian politics, offended feelings, controversy, regionalism, amitabh bacchan, marathi, fanatics on April 8, 2008 | No Comments »
Amit Varma nails the sad truth in his choice of post header.
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The headline of this DNA report reads:
Tamil movies to be banned in Karnataka.
However, the first sentence of the report merely says
To protest against Tamil Nadu going ahead with Hogenakal project on Karnataka border, the Kannada Rakshana Vedike (KRV), a pro-Kannada organisation will be prevent (sic) Tamil movies from being screened in theatres and television channels from today.
My [...]
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Posted in education, libertarianism, news and links, people, tagged barber, creative writing, expulsion, freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, guns, involuntary commitment, liberty, offended feelings, school, story, temporary detainment, university of virginia, violence on March 13, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Think twice before writing a violent story. Steven Barber, a student at the University of Virginia at Wise, was searched, involuntarily committed for three days, and finally expelled from the university, for … hold your breath … writing a story in which a character contemplates murder and suicide.
I don’t know which is more disturbing - [...]
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Posted in education, libertarianism, news and links, people, tagged affirmative action, civil liberty, first amendment, freedom, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, ku klux klan, offended feelings, political corectness, racial harassment on March 6, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Keith Sampson, a university employee and student, has been charged with racial harassment for reading a book called “Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan” during his work breaks. Apparently, the mere presence of the word Ku Klux Klan offended a co-worker, despite the fact that the book is in fact [...]
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Posted in India, libertarianism, news and links, tagged India, freedom, censorship, movie, liberty, ban, freedom of expression, constitution, indian constitution, offended feelings, supreme court, jodha akbar, free speech, film, indian law on March 4, 2008 | No Comments »
The Supreme Court of India has once again put its weight behind freedom of expression, overruling the ban on the film “Jodha Akbar” by three state governments.
It is a sad matter that in India people think they have a moral right to ban things they don’t like. And the ludicrous loopholes in our constitution (think “free-speech for [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, tagged freedom of speech, freedom, censorship, liberty, freedom of expression, civil liberties, moral police, offended feelings, nanny-state, karen fletcher, obscenity, obscenity case, intolerance, pittsburgh, pornography, first amendment, internet pornography, child abuse, explicit content, police state, civil liberty, policies on February 8, 2008 | 4 Comments »
A hundred years ago, you could be arrested if your drawing, writing or other form of creative expression was considered obscene by the authorities. Artistic freedom was not as important as preserving public morality. And the idea that a century on, pornography could be displayed and sold in perfectly legal shops was unthinkable.
For good or [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, news and links, tagged freedom, liberty, anti-discrimination, discrimination, civil liberties, civil rights, offended feelings, gays, jason dixon on February 3, 2008 | No Comments »
I stumbled upon this excellent article by Jason Dixon on anti-discrimination laws which parallel my thoughts on the subject. While Jason’s article focusses on sexual-orientation, it could apply equally well to any other protected characteristic such as race, gender or age.
It is not a comfortable position to defend the rights of bigots who do not [...]
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Posted in libertarianism, news and links, politics, tagged freedom of speech, freedom, freedom of expression, volokh, civil liberties, racism, offended feelings, political correctness, hindley, brandeis, academic freedom on January 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Eugene Volokh has a great post about the Hindley affair. Yet another example of political correctness taken too far in America.
Someone once said that the greatest American ideal isn’t democracy or mobility or justice or equality, but freedom. Apropos of nothing, I remember the song -
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what [...]
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Posted in India, libertarianism, news and links, tagged blindfold, defamation, freedom of expression, Gandhi, Ingrid Newkirk, jallikattu, Newkirk, offended feelings, PETA, statue on January 18, 2008 | No Comments »
Not even as a token of protest…
Ingrid Newkirk and the PETA activists had gone to Gandhi Park, blindfolded the statue of Mahatma Gandhi and hung a board that said ‘reject cruel sport jallikattu.’
Following a complaint lodged by a Congress functionary, police registered cases against Ingrid and others for creating religious ill-feeling, defaming the national leader, [...]
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