"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
On 3rd., I wrote (scroll down) of "A Reuters journalist who will be looking for a new job soon". Guess what?
"Journalist Whose Article Was Retracted Leaves Reuters
The journalist who wrote an article on Monday that turned into an embarrassment for Reuters and a cause for some conservatives has left the wire service, the company said Friday. A Reuters spokeswoman declined to say whether the journalist, Terri Cullen, left voluntarily, or why. “I can’t really go into any detail,” said the spokeswoman, Courtney Dolan.
Ms. Cullen stepped down less than a month after being hired for the newly created position of wealth management editor. She had worked for more than a decade for The Wall Street Journal Online.
Her article said that President Obama’s budget amounted to a backdoor tax increase for middle-income and even lower-income people, based largely on the scheduled expiration of income tax cuts passed in 2001. But the president had actually proposed keeping those cuts in place for all but high-income families.
After a complaint from the White House, Reuters withdrew the article, stating that it was inaccurate.
Whether the article was inaccurate or not is not what interests me here. What I would like to know is how many articles Reuters withdrew in response to requests from the Bush White House? Should ANY White House be pressing news organizations to withdraw articles? What happened in this instance sounds to me very much like censorship, albeit censorship with a willing accomplice.
You can read the censored article here. A blogger caught it before it disappeared.
'Negro' Race Choice On Census Form Sparks Outrage
We read:
"A fiery blast from the past is conjuring controversy in the new millennium. The word "negro" is now featured on an official U.S. document and now many are questioning if the Census Bureau is being insensitive.
It's a word that many African Americans associate with segregation, so imagine how shocked many were to see it on the 2010 U.S. census form.
"The fact that it's 2010 and they're still putting 'negro,' I am a little offended," said Secaucus resident Dawud Ingram.
Question #9 on the this year's census asks about your race. One of the boxes you can choose is "black," "African American," or "negro," all placed next to the same box. Ingram said it's not a word he uses to identify neither himself nor anybody else.
"African Americans haven't been going by the term 'negro' for decades now. It's really confusing," he said.
But census officials disagree, saying they found some older African Americans identify themselves that way and they're trying to be inclusive. In a statement, they said: "Results from the census in 2000 showed that a number of respondents provided a write-in response of 'negro' when answering the question on race."
In fact, Congress approved the form more than a year ago. Newark resident Jabbar Ali can't believe it. "I thought it was something we left behind a long time ago – the word 'negro,'" said Ali.
The incomparable Pat Condell on the trial of Geert Wilders
No-one speaks the truth about Islam better than Pat Condell. Background: Conservative Dutch politician Geert Wilders is on trial in Amsterdam for inciting hatred against Muslims. The Dutch judges have refused to allow most of the defense witnesses Wilders wanted to call -- probably because they knew that the Muslim fanatics he wanted to call would confirm everything he has said. For more details of what is happening, see here
A foolish Australian politician has involved himself in an ethnic squabble from the other side of the world
"Premier Mike Rann has sparked an international diplomatic furore by accusing Macedonia of stealing Greek culture and its leader, Gjorge Ivanov, of "stirring up trouble in the most dangerous way". A videotape of a speech given by the Premier at a the Dimitria Greek festival in the western suburbs in November has sparked outrage across the globe.
Washington-based United Macedonian Diaspora president Metodija Koloski flew to Adelaide for a confidential meeting with Multicultural Affairs Minister Michael Atkinson yesterday and delivered a protest letter addressed to Mr Rann.
In the controversial speech, Mr Rann affirms his commitment to Adelaide's Greek voters and promises his Government will "remain firm and unswerving in our support for your cause". "It is important because no one is entitled to steal another nation's history or culture," Mr Rann said. "We have a leader in Mr Ivanov who is stirring up trouble in the most dangerous way."
Mr Koloski yesterday told The Advertiser that his people had been "slandered" and demanded an unconditional apology. Yesterday, Mr Rann said he would not be "silenced or muzzled" and would "continue to speak out on issues I believe in".
In the ancient world, Macedonia was Greek. Alexander the Great came from there. But these days most of the population of historic Macedonia are Slavs and the Greeks hate that. Premier Rann was evidently trying to suck up to Australian voters of Greek origin. There are far more of them than there are voters of Macedonian Slav origin.
Update:
Maybe I should tell a little fun story about Macedonia and Greeks:
There is a Greek club near where I live that has quite a good dining room. I went there one day with a lady friend in search of some good Greek food. Half way up the escalator I said in a rather loud voice: "Of course, Macedonia isn't really Greek"
All conversation with earshot stopped. There was a stunned silence.
Then I laughed. So everybody knew it was just a tease. They all smiled and life went on undisturbed. If I hadn't laughed, I would have been thrown out bodily, I think.
The Greeks have made such a fuss about Slavic Macedonia that nobody these days is in fact allowed to refer to it as "Macedonia". They have to refer to it as "FYR Macedonia" -- where FYR is short for "Former Yugoslav Republic".
It doesn't sound like a good place to live, anyway. Lots of ethnic conflict etc. Its only redeeming feature may be that you can get kaimak there. And if you haven't had kaimak with your cevapi, you haven't lived.
I may be a bit biased though. The Croatian shop from which I used to get my kaimak has recently stopped stocking it -- so woe is me.
Cevapi are skinless sausages and kaimak is a sort of cream cheese -- but any Southern Slav will tell you what a poor comparison that is.
7 February, 2010
Hate organization (NIF) accuses critics of hate speech
Leftist Israelis hate Israel just as Leftist Americans hate America. The ludicrously biased Goldstone report accused Israel of improper behavior when it invaded Gaza to stop the rocket attacks coming from Gaza.
"A trip to Melbourne by the chair of the New Israel Foundation, Naomi Chazan, has been postponed because of a controversy about the fund's alleged role in helping the Goldstone inquiry into the Gaza war.
Several Israeli members of parliament are now attempting to have a parliamentary inquiry into claims by the Zionist student group Im Tirtzu, which released a report alleging that 92 per cent of the negative documents used by the Goldstone report came from Israeli non-government organisations funded by the NIF.
The controversy has become major news in Israel, with The Jerusalem Post quoting the chief executive of the NIF, Daniel Sokatch, saying the report made "baseless allegations" and was "the worst kind of vicious hate speech".
The President of the Zionist Council of Victoria, Danny Lamm, said his group was not involved in organising the visit but was asked to act as one of three co-sponsors for a public lecture. "We decided to withdraw our co-sponsorship because of Professor Chazan's chairmanship of the New Israel Fund, which funds groups whose activities are inimical to the interests of both Israel and the world Zionist movement," Dr Lamm said.
He said that the Im Tirtzu report was "quite detailed in its analysis of the connection between NIF and those NGOs which produced unfounded allegations and fuelled the Goldstone report." He also said it was "ludicrous" for the NIF to argue an attack on freedom of speech. "Im Tirtzu has analysed their actions and reported on it," Dr Lamm said.
No free speech for Israelis at British universities
But Muslims can say what they like
"The Israel Society at Cambridge University has succumbed to pressure and canceled a talk by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev historian Benny Morris after protesters accused him of “Islamophobia” and “racism.”
Morris was scheduled to speak to students at the university on Thursday, but following a campaign led by anti-Israel activist Ben White the Israel Society canceled the talk. Instead Morris was invited to speak at an event hosted by the university’s Department of Political and International Studies.
White, who graduated from the university in 2005 and authored the book Israeli Apartheid: A Beginners Guide, set up a protest page on Facebook in which he claimed that “on different occasions, Morris has expressed Islamophobic and racist sentiments towards Arabs and Muslims.” ...
Last year, Cambridge’s Palestine Society hosted Abd al-Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. In 2008, Atwan said the terrorist attack on Jerusalem’s Mercaz Harav yeshiva, in which eight students were killed and 15 were wounded, was “justified”
US Judge dismisses charges against William White for allegedly threatening Richard Warman
Mr. White made angry statements about what should happen to Canada's most famous enemy of free speech but that was held not to be a direct threat and hence protected speech in the USA. It would probably have been a very different story in Canada
"A federal judge today dismissed one of four charges that neo-Nazi leader William A. White was convicted of in December. "The court finds that there is no substantial evidence which would permit any rational trier of fact to find the defendant guilty," U.S. District Judge James Turk wrote in an opinion.
The jury verdict dismissed by Turk alleged that White had threatened Richard Warman, a human rights attorney from Canada who often brings civil actions against white supremacists.
White, the self-proclaimed commander of the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Workers Party, wrote on his Web site that Warman should be killed. But unlike the other threats for which White was convicted, most of White’s comments were not communicated directly to Warman, Turk wrote in his 32-page opinion.
The decision upholds the remaining three convictions against White — intimidating a group of apartment complex tenants in Virginia Beach and threatening a university administrator in Delaware and a bank employee in Missouri.
They don't actually burn the books but the effect is the same.
"Detective Sergeant Steve Irwin, a veteran Toronto police hate crime specialist (not to be confused with the late Crocodile Hunter of the same name) told the conference that his policy is to respond to reports of hate crimes "as if it were an incident of violence," but that it is rarely clear how to proceed. Having worked in homicide and sex assault, he said hate crimes are "probably the greatest challenge I've ever dealt with regarding the Criminal Code."
He recalled the single time he has used the law that allows for a warrant of seizure against hate propaganda when a large Toronto bookseller imported copies of the Turner Diaries, a popular white supremacist fantasy of race war, and book industy representatives lined up in defense of freedom of expression.
So Det.-Sgt. Irwin called a meeting of Customs officials and the industry representatives, and said any store that tried to sell the books would be raided and the books seized.
"Of course, no one volunteered to do it, the books never made it out of the warehouse, and in fact were returned to the States," he said.
Probably not a flashy enough procedure for Hitler but the mentality is the same. The prevailing ideology must be shielded from dissent.
5 February, 2010
Nutty Olympic Committee bans Australian sporting flag at Vancouver winter games
Is this flag "commercial"? If so, what is it selling?
"Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard slammed the International Olympic Committee's protest over the Aussies' giant green and gold flag, which has been draped over a balcony in the athletes' village.
The Olympic movement's ruling body has complained that the flag, which bears the image of the iconic Boxing Kangaroo, should be removed from the Vancouver athlete's village because it is "too commercial". Australian officials in Vancouver have vowed to ignore the order.
In what could be the first sign of a backdown, it is understood the IOC now plans to have one of its marketing expert view the flag. The Herald Sun has learned that IOC officials ordered its removal just 24 hours after it was unfurled.
The IOC complained it was "too commercial", a source said. "It's the first thing you see when you walk in the gate. "The village is already covered in national flags. "Someone from the IOC is objecting because it's our team mascot.
"They've said that it's too commercial because it's a registered trademark." The popular Aussie icon is a registered brand because it is used by Olympics officials in Australia to promote sport and fair play in schools.
"Recent criticisms of President Obama and his policies have been characterized as un-American. Suggestions that his policies should fail are equated with a suggestion that America should fail. This concern for American institutions may be something new, because it apparently was not a factor in the past. In 1986, Washington Post columnist William Raspberry commented on his view of the Reagan administration: "Ronald Reagan is in trouble, and [we might as well own up that] some of us are tempted to take a certain fiendish pleasure in the fact." Later, Michael Kinsley of the New Republic wrote in the Washington Post, "The fall of Reagan is a laughable matter. The only irritating aspect of the otherwise delightful collapse of the Reagan administration is the widespread insistence that we must all be poker-faced about it."
Liberals can demonize entire classes of people. One of the favorite targets of the liberal elite is the Christian right. According to Michael Weisskopf of the Washington Post, the followers of people like the late Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "are largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command." These people are not only ignorant, but they are also a definite threat. Chris Matthews has declared, "The group in this country that most resembles the Taliban, ironically, is the religious right." Rosie O'Donnell asserted, "radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America." This demonization makes it permissible to say some pretty outlandish things. NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu on his "All Things Considered" segment stated, "The evaporation of four million [people] who believe in this [Christian] crap would leave this world a better place." Actress Megan Fox, admittedly not a representative of the elite intelligentsia, said that if given the chance, she'd urge the fictional character Megatron to murder only the "white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super Bible-beating people in Middle America."
Of course, Republicans and conservatives are the prime target of liberal spleen. Sen. Ted Kennedy gave this description of Republicans: "The Republican Party is basically anti-civil rights, anti-immigration, anti-women, and anti-worker." Howard Dean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, stated, "I hate Republicans and everything they stand for." Jesse Jackson after the 1994 GOP victory claimed that "[h]ate and hurt are on a roll in America. If what was happening here was happening in South Africa, it'd be called racist apartheid. If it was happening in Germany, we'd call it Nazism. And in Italy, we'd call it fascism. Here we call it conservatism."
Liberals appear to get a pass when they attack conservative individuals. USA Today columnist and Pacifica Radio talk show host Julianne Malveaux expressed her opinion of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on PBS: "The man is on the Court. You know, I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early, like many black men do, of heart disease. Well, that's how I feel. He is an absolutely reprehensible person."
Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio and ABC News reporter, commenting on Senator Jesse Helms, said, "I think he ought to be worried about what's going on in the Good Lord's mind, because if there is retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it." Former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill had a less than flattering opinion of Ronald Reagan: "The evil is in the White House at the present time. And that evil is a man who has no care and no concern for the working class of America and future generations of America and who likes to ride a horse. He's cold. He's mean. He's got icewater for blood." New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis claimed that President Reagan "spews out rage and hate, fear and falsehood." It would take volumes to chronicle the outrageous attacks on George Bush or Sarah Palin.
On "Late Night with David Letterman," Sam Donaldson said, "I think he's [Reagan] going to have to pass three tests. The first is, will he get there, stand in front of the podium, and not drool?" After the audience showed its disapproval, Donaldson responded, "Wait a minute, I don't mean that disrespectfully." Letterman replied, "Well, I think we all took that as flattery, Sam, we did." When Whoopi Goldberg drew a distinction between "rape" and "rape-rape," she possible provided an explanation for liberal "rants." They are not "hate-hate" -- simply "hate."
"After CBS agreed to run a Super Bowl commercial featuring Tim Tebow, several feminist and pro-choice groups rose up in protest against the ad, calling on the network to pull it.
Now, however, even some liberals are calling those attacks misguided, saying the choice to give birth to an unborn child is also part of pro-choice beliefs.
An unsigned New York Times editorial called the campaign to have CBS reject the Tebow spot "puzzling and dismaying." The paper, which takes a pro-choice stance on its editorial pages, called the protesting groups "would-be censors" and said they should use the ad to convey to America that their movement favors "protecting the right of women like Pam Tebow to make their private reproductive choices."
Rahm Emanuel apologizes -- sort of -- for 'retarded' remark
We read:
"A White House official emails that Rahm Emanuel has acknowledged calling liberal Democrats "retarded" and apologized for the remark.
"Rahm called Tim Shriver Wednesday to apologize and the apology was accepted," the official said.
Shriver is the Chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics, which has launched a campaign against what it calls "the R word."
The remark was first reported last week in the Wall Street Journal, and drew an extended attack from Sarah Palin.
Said the official, “The White House remains committed to addressing the concerns and needs of Americans living with disabilities and recognizes that derogatory remarks demean us all.”
UPDATE: A Democrat points out Rahm apologized to Shriver, but not to the liberals he called "retarded."
Marvellous what you can get away with when you are a Democrat
3 February, 2010
Outrage as Australian TV station 'mocks mental patients'
Jocularity is very risky these days:
"Mental health advocates have lashed out at Channel 10's new station promotion, which features network stars mimicking patients in a support group, "suffering'' from their celebrity status.
High-profile presenters including Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Paul McDermott and Shaun Micallef parody those in crisis, appearing dishevelled, catatonic and highly emotional. Bassingthwaighte cries hysterically, comic Mikey Robbins rocks in his chair, mumbling, while Neighbours starlet Margot Robbie mindlessly strums the show's theme song on a toy guitar.
Talkin Bout My Generation's Amanda Keller sums up the stars' complaints, telling the group they are feeling "the pressure of making 2010 even better than last year.''
However, counsellors have attacked the station I.D as "insensitive'' and "distasteful.'' Lifeline's Chris Wagner said the latest "Seriously'' sketch, which leaked on YouTube but will air this Sunday, ran the risk of discouraging those in need. "They make a joke of what can be a really important process for those dealing with a mental health crisis and if it discourages even one person from seeking out this sort of help or support that is not on.''
"First they were lambasted for making Kiwi air hostesses look like drag queens. Now Air New Zealand's new uniforms are under fire for disrespecting Maori culture with their "misuse" of curly patterns.
The country's national carrier has hit heavy turbulence with its latest set of hot pink, lime green and aqua blue outfits to be donned by staff next year. The risque concept range, which includes a garish pink and black dress, have Kiwis reaching for the barf bag, with comments on websites branding them "absolutely hideous", "vile" and "an embarrassing and tragic disaster of epic proportions".
The stylists were no more impressed, likening them to drag-queen-meets-barbie and questioning the "over excited" colour palette.
Now the country's indigenous academics have weighed into the debate, adding that they believe the patterns on the uniforms, designed by famed Kiwi Trelise Cooper, were "disrespectful".
So far only in South Australia but I expect the Democrats will seize on this idea within 12 months -- ready for the mid-terms?
"South Australia has become one of the few states in the world to censor the internet. The new law, which came into force on January 6, requires anyone making an online comment about next month's state election to publish their real name and postcode. The law will affect anyone posting a comment on an election story on The Advertiser's AdelaideNow website, as well as other Australian news sites. It could also apply to election comment made on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The law, which was pushed through last year as part of a raft of amendments to the Electoral Act and supported by the Liberal Party, also requires media organisations to keep a person's real name and full address on file for six months, and they face fines of $5000 if they do not hand over this information to the Electoral Commissioner.
Attorney-General Michael Atkinson denied that the new law was an attack on free speech. "The AdelaideNow website is not just a sewer of criminal defamation, it is a sewer of identity theft and fraud," Mr Atkinson said. "There is no impinging on freedom of speech, people are free to say what they wish as themselves, not as somebody else."
The Advertiser's editor, Melvin Mansell, said: "Clearly this is censorship being implemented by a government facing an election. "The effect of that is that many South Australians are going to be robbed of their right of freedom of speech during this election campaign. "The sad part is that this widespread suppression is supported by the Opposition. "Neither of these parties are representing the people for whom they have been elected to govern."
People often have good reasons for anonymity. For instance: Known supporters of California's successful Proposition 8 (banning homosexual marriage) were subsequently harassed and attacked by homosexuals. A ban on anonymity could therefore have a VERY chilling effect on free speech.
School says it can punish students for what they write at home
We read:
"Students from Roxboro Road Middle School will begin the last of their three-day after school detention Monday, after administrators in the school district punished them for being part of a Facebook group. The page, which has now been removed, criticized a teacher at the school to the point where the superintendent said the comments were libelous.
But by disciplining the students, communication law specialists say the school violated students’ free speech rights.
“Maybe it's offensive, maybe there are bad words, but they are ideas that students have a right to have , especially if they're doing it in their spare time at home,” Syracuse University Professor of Communications Law Roy Gutterman said.
The "libel" claim sounds hysterical. If the content was in fact libelous that should have been tested in court. Truth is a defense.
1 February, 2010
Britain: Must not speak the truth about Islam
We read:
"A Tory MP was plunged into a race row after he accused some ethnic communities of importing 'barbaric and medieval' views about women into Britain. David Davies, a member of the Home Affairs select committee, was accused of a 'crass misunderstanding' of the issues after his comments over a rape by 14-year-old Asian Balal Khan.
The MP for Monmouth told BBC Radio 5 Live: 'What is it about this young man's upbringing... his community or his parental upbringing, that led him to think that women are second-class people whose rights can be trampled over like this?
'There are some sensitive issues here, but there do seem to be some people in some communities who don't respect women's rights at all and who - if I may say, without necessarily saying that this is the case on this occasion - who have imported into this country barbaric and medieval views about women.'
But critics described the remarks as 'dangerous' and the Conservative Party said they 'do not reflect the views of the party in any way'.
"A US-based group of Holocaust survivors has condemned an Apple iPhone application featuring speeches by Benito Mussolini, calling it "an insult to the memory of all victims of Nazism and Fascism." "It is a disgrace and a surrender to crass commercialism that the Apple computing company has approved the release of this 'app' through their online iTunes store," Elan Steinberg, vice president of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, said in a statement on Friday.
According to the creator of the application, Luigi Marino, Italians are downloading "iMussolini," which features audio, text and video of his speeches, at a rate of around 1000 a day. Marino launched the app last week and it is already reportedly the best-selling application on Italy's online Apple store.
Musso was not an antisemite and Italy was one of the safest places in Europe for Jews during WWII. Jews were in fact prominent members of Musso's Fascist party until Hitler pushed Musso to put a stop to that. So why are Jews protesting?
Jews are mostly Left-wing so they may well fear that listeners will recognize how similar Musso sounds to the Leftists of today -- with his raving against "plutocracy" and calling Hitler a "pederast" etc.
"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."
Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."
The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.
A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.
Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.
Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?
Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862
The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand
Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)
First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean
It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.
It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."
"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica
Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper
Leftists don't have principles. How can they when "there is no such thing as right and wrong"? All they have is postures, pretend-principles that can be changed as easily as one changes one's shirt
When you have an argument with a Leftist, you are not really discussing the facts. You are threatening his self esteem. Which is why the normal Leftist response to challenge is mere abuse.
The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
