Quotes

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek"

"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

As Christopher Hitchens once put it, “The essence of tyranny is not iron law; it is capricious law.”

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Law is where you buy it." Raymond Chandler

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Thomas More's definition of government as "a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of a commonwealth.” ~ Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” ~ Jonathon Swift

Thursday, April 24, 2014

"These are sad days for free speech, free debate, free minds."

Little seems to be free for our minds to think, let alone express openly. There is a now, always a check your free thoughts at the door when leaving home and opening your mouth. 
Discomfort was the goal, arrest is next. m/r

Lengthening Shadows :: SteynOnline

by Mark Steyn
April 23, 2014
How bad are things for free speech in America right now? This week the Supreme Court turned its attention to an Ohio law under which people can be fined or jailed if the "election commission" pronounces them guilty of "lying" in a political ad. Orwell's Ministry of Truth, as Justice Scalia rightly called it, is alive and well and living in Columbus and some 15 other state capitals. Steve Huntley writes about the Ohio case in The Chicago Sun-Times and connects it to a broader "hostility to free speech that ought to be worrying to Americans of all persuasions". In fact, certain persuasions are not in the least bit worried about it:
The left is behind much of the hostility to free speech these days. College campuses, among the most liberal environments in America, are notorious for shouting down or outright rejecting speakers they don't agree with. The most notable recent example was Brandeis University withdrawing an honorary degree planned for woman's rights activist Ayaan Hiras Ali, who has said politically incorrect things about Islam.

Commentator Mark Steyn is being hounded with a lawsuit for daring to question climate change alarmists. The head of Mozilla and the directors of the California Musical Theater and the Los Angeles Film Festival lost their jobs for donations backing a winning 2008 California ballot initiative against gay marriage.

These are sad days for free speech, free debate, free minds.
Indeed. And I'm glad to see Mr Huntley writing about it in a mainstream, big-city American newspaper. One of the differences between my current woes and my battles up north a few years back is that, within a relatively short space of time, commentators at the CBC and The Globe & Mail and other bastions of Canadian liberalism, including, eventually, The Toronto Star, identified the threat to free speech and addressed it very trenchantly.
-go to links-
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)