Tammy Bruce: Freedom of Speech Archives

Freedom of Speech Archives

A Tale of Two Editors

A post by Maynard

Here's another peek at the blatant self-hating double-standard that permeates the academic landscape.

The student editor of the Colorado State University newspaper was admonished Thursday for the paper's use of an obscenity in an editorial about President Bush but David McSwane will be allowed to keep his job.

Okay, fair enough. Some university papers glory in their verbal vitriol and angry rhetoric. This may be tasteless or vulgar at times, but we give the media a lot of leeway in this country. We take our First Amendment rights seriously (and I wish we'd do the same for the Second Amendment — but that's another topic). Can you ever remember a case of anyone at a student paper losing his position for editorial excess?

Hmmm, now that I mention it, last year the editor of The Daily Illini at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was summarily dismissed after publishing the notorious Mohammed cartoons. This was, you'll recall, the biggest news story in the world for a time, and the mainstream media displayed uncharacteristic sensitivity in omitting the essential details of what the story was really all about. The media, which is so brave when it comes to exposing anything negative about America (think about, for example, prison photos from Abu Ghraib, or classified details of covert anti-terrorism operations, or artistic ordure like "Piss Christ") suddenly started worrying about offending people.

The fired Illini editor, Acton Gordon, describes his experience here.

Hot Air Posts My O'Reilly Segment

UPDATE: Apparently the Hot Air post is only aportion of the interview. Hutsutraw from the MySpace page has been kind enough to post the entire 5+ minute segment at YouTube, which I have embeddedhere. Thank you Darlene.

***

Thanks to Ian at Hot Air for making the video available. I think the subject matter--the ability of Americans to have a legitimately honest media and the freedom to speak one's mind without being targeted for annihilation by the New Gestapo--is of special importance. All of us rely on being able to express opinions and ideas that may contradict the status quo, challenge authority or the ruling class. Inevitably, those actions will offend someone, either through sloppy remarks or ideas being labeled 'offensive' because they confront power at the source.

This renewed attack on talk radio specifically has never been about 'decency' or minorities being 'offended,' it's about one thing--the use of those arguments as slogans in an attempt to get Americans to 'buy in' to the idea that a Gestapo is needed to protect us from ourselves.

Europeans bought that argument in the 30s and 40s. Are we willing to go down that same road? I think not.

Thanks Ian for the coverage.

This weekend: Iran's Holocaust Denial Conference

A post by Maynard

On December 10 and 11, 67 "scholars" and "researchers" from 30 countries will gather in Iran for the purpose of questioning whether the Holocaust occurred. The conference, sponsored by the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies, was initiated by President Ahmadinejad, who has said that the killing of millions of Jews by the Nazi regime during World War II was a "myth" and "exaggerated".

Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi categorically rejects the charge of anti-Semitism, pointing to the existence of Iran's 25,000 Jews as evidence of a tolerant society. He says the conference seeks to "provide an opportunity for scholars to offer their opinions in freedom."

The "freedom of speech" argument raises an interesting question, since Mohammadi is asserting a fundamental Western principle. Of course, it's grossly hypocritical to play the "freedom card" when you represent a society that assassinates anyone who "blasphemes". And in Germany and other parts of Europe, it's illegal to deny the Holocaust; the European right to freedom of speech is not as strong as in America. But the main point is that denying the Holocaust isn't an opinion; it's a lie. This doesn't mean we need to silence the liars, but the distinction clarifies our task. It's why our universities don't participate in Holocaust denial inquiries, just as a math department wouldn't hire a professor who alleges that two plus two equals three. The principle of freedom of speech might be applied to a conference that debated whether the Holocaust was a bad thing or a good thing, because that would constitute an opinion. A conference that denies a Holocaust occurred is merely a monstrous freak show.

These are the people for whom the Jimmy Carters of the world excoriated George W. Bush for daring to refer to them as evil. The moral inversion boggles the mind.

About those 25,000 Iranian Jews: For the record, Jews have lived in Iran since Biblical times. (Persia appears in various Bible chapters; for example the Book of Esther). In 1948, the Jewish population or Iran was about 100,000. Oppression and persecution drove most Jews out of the country since then. Currently, it's difficult to obtain permission to travel, and the government won't allow all members of a Jewish family to travel abroad at the same time, effectively blocking further Jewish emigration.

News Corp Cancels OJ Book and TV Interview

But the question remains, does he still get the 3.5 million dollars? And my favorite declaration by a friend left on my voicemail about the cancellation: "Tammy! Fox Killed OJ!"

News Corp. Cancels O.J. Simpson Book and TV Special

News Corp., the parent company of book publisher HarperCollins and the FOX network, has canceled publication of the O.J. Simpson book and television special "If I Did It."

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson."

While I prefer to have the marketplace reject a project, whether it be a book or a TV show, by not buying or not watching, it is nice to see Mr. Murdoch take this stand, even if it would have been better for him to have realized this was "ill considered" before the deals were made.

British Schoolgirl Arrested for Speaking English

A post by Maynard

Yet another incident of political correctness gone mad. A 14-year-old schoolgirl was arrested after asking her teacher to assign her to a different discussion group, since the five kids in her group didn't speak English. So the school isolated the girl and the police came and hauled her off to the hoosegow.

In this case, the girl was released without charges. But sometimes children are prosecuted. Last year, a 10-year-old boy got into a playground argument with another boy and called him a "Paki" and "bin Laden", and prosecution went ahead until a district judge threw the case out.

The good news is the British police don't consider racism an emergency. Here's the official police page for reporting "hate crimes", "hate incidents", "racist incidents", "homophobic incidents", "transphobic incidents", "faith-related incidents", "sectarian incidents", and "disablist incidents". Did we miss anything?

This reminds me of the children's section ("intended for kindergarten through 5th grade") of the DoJ web page under Bill Clinton's Attorney General, Janet Reno:

A message from the Attorney General: In these stories, kids like you have to deal with the prejudice of their family members. We all have relatives and friends that came to this country from other lands. Some chose to come, and some did not. Unfortunately, some people — even our relatives — can forget how difficult it is to come to a new country, learn a new language and make new friends.

When someone makes jokes about people, or labels people, because of where they come from, the color of their skin, their religion, or gender, it is both a hurtful act and a hateful act. If this happens in your home, you might try talking to your parents, teacher, religious leader, counselor, or other adult with whom you feel comfortable.

In other words, when in doubt, renounce your parents to the authorities.

Posted by Maynard · October 16, 2006 01:12 AM · Permalink · Comments (0)
Freedom of Speech | Maynard Post | Political Correctness

Thugs Shut Down Minuteman Speech at Columbia University

A post by Maynard

Once again, organized leftist violence has ended a college "conservative" event. This time it was Jim Gilchrist and Marvin Stewart of the Minuteman Project who had been invited by the Columbia College Republicans to speak. The well-orchestrated assault and melee was captured on video; you can see it at this Power Line page. The New York Sun reported the incident, with this follow-up editorial.

Speaking of follow-ups, the Columbia Republicans are not going to be silenced by violence. The latest Sun article informs us that next week's speakers will be reformed Palestinian terrorists Walid Shoebat and Zachariah Anani, and reformed Nazi Hilmar von Campe. Will the thugs return to shut down these traitors to the glorious causes of Nazism and terrorism? One wonders...

As one of the Columbia Republicans so eloquently notes at the end of the video linked above, "conservatives" simply don't stoop to this level of thuggery. It's events like this that, even when I'm less than ecstatic over Republican leadership, make me want to get as far away from Democrats as possible. Will the Democrat leadership rise up and unequivocally condemn their brownshirts? Don't hold your breath. DNC Chairman Howard Dean uses his platform to make demagogic declarations about how Republicans are "evil" and "have never made an honest living in their lives." That's the kind of talk the gives people implicit permission to get angry and then "act out" their anger. I won't say that no Republican ever resorts to this kind of hatemongering, but when it happens, it's rarer and lower in the ranks.

Posted by Maynard · October 6, 2006 02:44 AM · Permalink · Comments (8)
Death of Right and Wrong | Freedom of Speech | Leftists | Maynard Post

The Berlin Opera Cancellation and the Politics of Fear

A post by Maynard

Now this is an interesting story, and it's noteworthy because it's not just another tale of big, bad Islamists. Rather, it tells us (the West, that is) something about ourselves.

The show in question is a presentation of Mozart's Idomeneo, King of Crete, and it concerns the aftermath of the Trojan War. The opera as originally written by Mozart would not have offended anyone except maybe worshippers of Neptune (the pagan god, not the planet). But the director, Hans Neuenfels, is an artistic soul who decided what was needed was an epilogue involving the severed heads of various deities, including Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha, and — you guessed it! — Mohammed.

The police received an anonymous phone call from a woman who was concerned that this opera might offend Muslims. The rest is history.

Note that there was no indication that the upcoming presentation had raised a blip on the radar of the Muslim community. The cancellation was purely a precaution in anticipation of expected trouble. You see how we've entered an era of self-censorship. This is particularly nefarious because it's often a relatively invisible thing. If we're ready to quietly re-orient our lives so as to avoid giving any potential offence, however innocent, to the thugs of the world, then what have we become?

On the flip side of the coin, it sounds like the director has gone out of his way to render Mozart offensive to religious people, and this sort of thing deserves a ripple of protest. I'd be happy to protest it if it were to come to my town. But I think we (the good guys, that is) all understand that the culture war is a battle of hearts and minds, and must be won by persuasion and not by intimidation and violence.

So the ironic summary is that in this case, the Islamists haven't done a thing, and we merely see an example of the West grappling between its two unhealthy urges: Extreme political correctness and cowardice on one hand, and in-your-face degenerate offensiveness on the other. Is it too much to hope that both of these extremes will strangle each other and let the rest of us sane and decent people get on with our lives?

Rank Leftist Fascism at Ohio State

In my new book, "The New American Revolution," I explain how fascism can only spring from the Left; it is a framework that starts as an argument to elevate the oppressed, yet its true goal is to indoctrinate first its followers, and then everyone else, into accepting punishment of those who do not conform to the leftist worldview. This control and destruction of dissent is the foundation of fascism. It must be so, as the only way the Left survives is if it is able to condemn and silence its critics.

A case in point is brought to us by Ace of Spades with his exposure of some Ohio State University professors bringing a sexual harassment suit against a librarian. And why is this? Because the librarian sexually harassed them? Not quite. Librarian Scott Savage is facing that investigation because he recommended four books that do not conform to the leftist message, for a Freshman reading list. I kid you not.

And who are the offending authors and their books? The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye’or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum.

The Alliance Defense Fund is on the case. Here's a bit of their report:

OSU librarian slapped with “sexual harassment” charge for recommending conservative books for freshmen

Officials at the Ohio State University are investigating an OSU Mansfield librarian for “sexual harassment” after he recommended four conservative books for a freshman reading program. ADF has demanded that OSU cease its frivolous investigation, yet the university is pressing forward, claiming that it takes the charges “seriously.”

“Universities are one of the most hostile places for Christians and conservatives in America,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David French, who heads ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom. “It is shameful that OSU would investigate a Christian librarian for simply recommending books that are at odds with the prevailing politics of the university.”

Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield’s First Year Reading Experience Committee. The four books he suggested were The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye’or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum. Savage made the recommendations after other committee members had suggested a series of books with a left-wing perspective, by authors such as Jimmy Carter and Maria Shriver.

Savage was put under “investigation” by OSU’s Office of Human Resources after three professors filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment against him, saying that the book suggestions made them feel “unsafe.” The complaint came after the OSU Mansfield faculty voted without dissent to file charges against Savage. The faculty later voted to allow the individual professors to file charges. [...]

Sexual harassment has been and remains a problem at schools and in the workforce. I personally have experienced it and sued because of it. At the same time, this is not the first time the left has co-opted an issue and twisted it--using new law and awareness not to empower victims, but to punish those who do not pay allegiance to their worldview.

It is a disgusting situation, and every authentic feminist at Ohio State should be outraged that sexual harassment awareness has been hijacked and turned into a fascist weapon to silence a variety of ideas. Like the now casual everyday abuse of the accusation of racism by the Black Gestapo against those who dare to challenge the status quo, this tactic makes a mockery of sexual harassment itself. It also exposes how those who claim to be feminist, and today's leftists in general, have indeed turned the corner as they embody the rot of fascist theory.

Shame on them and may they fail at every turn. And may librarian Scott Savage prevail with the assistance of the ADF.

And before you jump to conclusions that it was women who filed the complaint, apparently not. Volokh points out that it's gay men who feel 'harassed' because Kupelian's "The Marketing of Evil" is supposedly anti-gay, and consequently creates a "hostile environment" simply because it exists. Volokh expands.

Now my phrase "Gay Gestapo" becomes even more clear, doesn't it?

« Close It

Did Comedy Central Censor Last Night's South Park?

The Volokh Conspiracy thinks so. (HT Pajamas). I think so, too. If you didn't see it, Volokh has all the details.

Reader Allah (I'm so honored!) notes that Michelle has more, including clips.

Posted by Tammy · April 13, 2006 09:55 AM · Permalink · Comments (6) · TrackBack (0)
Freedom of Speech | Religion | Television | War on Radical Islam

Guests Today on Tammy Radio

What a great guy--Jay Stephenson over at Stop the ACLU joined us to talk about his blog and his excellent commitment to stopping the scourge of the ACLU. For all of you who want to put that energy you have into doing something good for this country, stopping the ACLU should be at the top of your list. John's work and webpage gives you all a great homebase for facing down the enemy among us. Do visit his site regularly, and do what you can to put a nail in the coffin of the ACLU.

We also had with us Kevin Libin, Executive Editor of Canada's Western Standard. They're being sued by an Islamist because they dared to print the Dreaded Mo' Cartoons. Jihad Watch has their coverage, and go directly to the Western Standard for more information. And here is their blog page about it as well. While this nuisance suit won't cost the Islamist anything, the defenders of free thought and a free press at the WS do have to hire an attorney to fight this thing. Show them Americans stands should-to-shoulder with them with your financial support (I'll be donating today) and perhaps even a subscription or two :)

And last but not least, Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project provided an update of their current border protection project, and all the additional efforts and projects they have in the Homeland making sure you can activate and your voice is heard in the issue of illegal immigration. I know all of u have grown increasingly frustrated with what we've seen emerge during this debate--the true face of the "reconquista" movement has emerged and it must be fought. In addition to calling your senators about the immigration debate at 202-224-3121, check in with the Minutemen to see what else you can do to defend our nation from this invasion.

Posted by Tammy · April 3, 2006 12:23 PM · Permalink · Comments (5) · TrackBack (0)
Freedom of Speech | Religion | War on Radical Islam

Interview with Danish PM Rasmusen

The Vikings are lucky they have him. I'm very impressed with this interview presented by Agora. I think you will be, too. (HT Snarksmith). Here's a snippet.

The World According to Fogh

"People die during violent demonstrations in Pakistan, and places rarely heard of. And with typical self-centered narcissism, in Denmark it is interpreted as a matter of Danish immigration policy and Danish integration policy. Noone even knows about these things in the streets of Pakistan - to be frank, I think this kind of criticism is beyond the pale," says Anders Fogh Rasmussen of the domestic debate. [...]

"We have been facing forces - I have called them uncontrollable, but apart from that they are forces we are not used to handle politically. This was very much orchestrated by religious forces. In our society, politics and religion are kept separate. In the kinds of societies we are dealing with, religion is what gives direction to all thoughts and to the societies as a whole. That has made this a task of special difficulty. The immediate lesson we have learned is that foreign politics is no longer only about government-level negotiations. We have had to try to communicate with the people of the Moslem countries because the governments of those countries no longer were in a position to exercise control. That proved to be a very demanding task, because their knowledge of how our society works is non-existent, making our explanations seem hollow. The obvious example is that the Arab Street doesn’t understand that a head of state doesn’t have the power to shut down a newspaper, because they are used to it being otherwise."

Posted by Tammy · March 3, 2006 09:40 AM · Permalink · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0)
Freedom of Speech | Internationalism | War on Radical Islam

Rally in New York for Denmark on Friday

See the Snarksmith righthand sidebar (HT RLS):

There is no way that a city like New York should neglect to stand up for free speech, democracy and secular cosmopolitan values. So I am pleased to inform you that the rally for Solidarity With Denmark is indeed on for this week.

It will be held outside the Danish consulate at One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 885 Second Avenue, on FRIDAY, MARCH 3RD, FROM 12:00 PM TO 1:00 PM. (A fitting an emulation of the hugely successful D.C. version.)

I've been in touch with the consul-general himself, and he has graciously welcomed us. I promised the event would be as civilized and dignified as this noble cause demands, and in order to obviate a city permit, please note that NO electronically amplified sound equipment or bullhorns may be used. But signs and placards -- the cleverer the better -- are of course highly encouraged. Relevant cheeses, plastic toy building blocks and Shakespeare allusions also kosher...

Posted by Tammy · March 2, 2006 03:45 PM · Permalink · Comments (0) · TrackBack (0)
Freedom of Speech