I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

— Evelyn Beatrice Hall writing as S. G. Tallentyre
The Friends of Voltaire

Freedom of Speech, let ‘em take it from me
Next they’ll take it from you, then what you gonna do?
Let ‘em censor books, let ’em censor art
PMRC, this is where the witch hunt starts.
You’ll censor what we see, we read, we hear, we learn
The books will burn
You better think it out
We should be able to say anything, our lungs were meant to shout
Say what we feel, yell out what’s real
Even though it may not bring mass appeal
Your opinion is yours, my opinion is mine
If you don’t like what I’m sayin’? Fine
But don’t close it, always keep an open mind
A man who fails to listen is blind
We only got one right left in the world today
Let me have it or throw The Constitution away.

— Ice-T
“Freedom of Speech”

1.

The House of Representatives just voted to pass a bill that would amend the Constitution in order to ban flag burning. Chances for the bill’s passage seem dicier in the Senate, but who knows—the damn thing might pass. All someone has to do is invoke the theoretical wishes of those that died on 9/11 and watch the Yeas float across the Senate floor like so many ashes on that ill-fated day in NYC.

What the Hell is this proposed Constitutional change (and the eventual legislation defining punishment) supposed to accomplish? Why is it necessary? Does it not conflict with the First Amendment? I can understand the symbolism of burning a flag being inflammatory (no pun intended), but why remove that particular expression from protected speech?

2.

Meanwhile, a Democratic Senator is chastened by his colleagues across the aisle, esp. Majority Leader Bill Frist, into apologizing for reading into the Senate record a report from an FBI agent who was observing our government’s not-so-flattering handling of a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. Evidently, calling into question the actions of American soldiers — or any Americans for that matter — is verboten, especially if it reminds those present that, while we aren’t Nazis or followers of Stalin, we are human and are not immune from doing evil deeds.

The worst part of this is that the quote that put the Senator in question (Dick Durbin, dubbed Turbin Durbin by those witty guys over at Power Line) in hot water with the 101^st^ Fighting Keyboarders was, in my opinion, not bad at all:

When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here—I almost hesitate to put them in the record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:

On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more. On one occasion, the air conditioning had been turned down so far and the temperature was so cold in the room, that the barefooted detainee was shaking with cold…. On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the detainee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.

The hue and cry on the right was tremendous, so Durbin apologized. Nevermind the bulk of what he said was factual. Nevermind that he put forth a brilliant truth: that these actions, had they been read out of context would have been assigned to someone — anyone — other than Americans. And yet, these were Americans.

3.

There are plenty of examples of political t-shirts (both friendly to the Left and Right) which are in bad taste. Nevertheless, it sickens my heart to think that there are people who really would buy these shirts and wear them with pride.

Next up: Power Line will offer shirts which say “The Geneva Convention is for Pussies”. Wheee!

I know, I can hear you saying: “But wait, aren’t you undermining your argument? Do you want to censor those who made this shirt? It’s their right!”

Yes, it is their right. This is protected speech. And even thought it may offend me, I’d rather live in a country where ideas can be discussed freely without the Government deciding what I can and cannot say. It’s a double-edged sword, this Freedom, but life is far better with it than without it.

Appendix

Some related links to read for today, in no particular order: Patrick, Teresa, Finnegan, and Fred.