Free Speech

Bunch of people in PAD's blog (see links at right) talking about freedom of speech, always a hot topic for me. [See: Dixie Chicks speaking out against Bush] In short, PAD is discussing booting people who show up and post just to disrupt things (and not, as some posters have interpreted, people who disagree with the majority).

"...the First Amendment guarantees your right to speak; it makes no guarantees of an audience or a forum."

"...someone's right to swing their fist ends when it hits my nose."

"What is NOT protected whatsoever is false/illegal/misleading commercial speech (no application here), obscenity (not to be confused with pornography) (also no application here because words CANNOT be obscene), libel (possibly depending on who is being berated... PAD = public figure and that is ok, other posters, no), Fighting Words (must be face-to-face so not here), and clear and present danger (again, not here)."

"Free speech doesn't mean you can be disrespectful to anyone you want, but some people have yet to understand this."

"I think it is important to remember that this is NOT a public forum. It is a private forum--Peter's, to be specific--that the public has been invited to."

"I've never regarded restriction of venue to be a restriction on freedom of speech. Anyone on this board is free to say whatever the hell they want, just not necessarily here."

Freedom of speech discussions always remind me of two of my favorite presidential quotes ever:

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else"

and also

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but it is morally treasonable to the American public."
Both by Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States.
And of course, this one:

"In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." by Martin Niemoller.

What's the point, you ask?
Does there have to be one, I answer?
Just posting some food for thought. My thought, since no one else is here (and I'm therefore talking to myself....)