Recently in Free Speech Category

Thanks to Shortstuff for the inspiration! Unlike many of the talking heads who now appear on various "news" shows, Edward R. Murrow was a journalist with integrity who not only fought for free speech, but for TRUTH in journalism as well. He once said at the RTNDA Convention in Chicago in 1958 to a group of fellow journalists: "It is not necessary to remind you that the fact that your voice is amplified to...

"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; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Our forefathers set up an intricate set of basic rights that could be interpreted any number of ways. Certainly, current events has taught us this. However, I am amazed at...

In a continuous effort to keep it classy among right wingers, Rush Limbaugh, Head of the GOP,  yesterday offered the following commentary regarding the death of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner. From Media Matters: "That cracker made a lot of African-American millionaires.  He fired a bunch of white guys as managers left and right." Listen for more:   I'm not going to say he can't say this stuff, that's what free speech is for.  I am just so...

This has been a very eventful couple of weeks. The health care debate seems to be like grandma on the respirator, but the discussion has quickly moved in recent days from health care to the level of discourse in our country. There have been several good pieces here that you should take a look at (Eljefe had a great piece this morning on right wing hate speech, Astrogirlkel had another on Ann Coulter, and Jefe...

Forgive me if I have done this before, but I am going to present to you an assignment that I assigned when I was an English and Philosophy teacher. I will present to you three prominent works and let the listening (or reading) audience decide for themselves. I'll provide my own answer at the bottom. It may surprise some of you coming from the political wing I come from, but it something I truly believe....

The debate over the chicken or the egg is a common one even if you don't have a chicken or egg handy. It can be spread to just about any discipline you want. Today, it will be used in the field of politics. As an amateur political scientist (with only a Bachelor's Degree) I love to delve into these political questions of the day. As we have noticed, there has been a sudden breakdown in...

If you want to see what stifling free speech really looks like, examine the case of Simon Singh.  I had the honor of seeing him speak at the Museum of Natural Science here in Houston once, so I'll get my own bias in his favor out of the way up front.  He's a real scientist and a brilliant communicator, kinda like Britain's Neil deGrasse Tyson.Singh recently published a book with Edzard Ernst, the first Professor...

Rush Limbaugh's ongoing tantrum over being excluded from a group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams is hilarious to me. Especially this statement yesterday that the NFL is an "outpost of racism and liberalism": <br />Yes, that outpost of racism where 70% of the players are African-American. Where 17 of the top 25 salaries belong to African-American players. Just for our 2 Texas teams, the highest salaries on both the Houston Texans and the...

There is spin on everything these days, so why not political correctness. As I come to find out, political correctness is not really about what we should call certain segments of the population, Political correctness is really about how we discuss politics in certain circles. Those trends change as those circles change. A large part of us moving forward as a nation is being able to move beyond socially accepted norms. One can determine this...

<br />From Huffington Post. ...