Is Thinking Obsolete? by Thomas Sowell
While it is not possible to answer all the e-mails and letters from readers, many are thought-provoking, whether those thoughts are positive or negative.
An e-mail from one young man simply asked for the sources of some facts about gun control that were mentioned in a recent column. It is good to check out the facts – especially if you check out the facts on both sides of an issue.
By contrast, another man simply denounced me because of what was said in that column. He did not ask for my sources but simply made contrary assertions, as if his assertions must be correct and therefore mine must be wrong.
He identified himself as a physician, and the claims that he made about guns were claims that had been made years ago in a medical journal – and thoroughly discredited since then. He might have learned that, if we had engaged in a back and forth discussion, but it was clear from his letter that his goal was not debate but denunciation. That is often the case these days.
It is always amazing how many serious issues are not discussed seriously, but instead simply generate assertions and counter-assertions. On television talk shows, people on opposite sides often just try to shout each other down.
“I was expelled from Syracuse University for comments that I posted on Facebook.”
Syracuse University School of Education graduate student Matthew Werenczak was just trying to finish his masters degree early when he decided to take a summer course that involved tutoring at a local middle school. But after a comment he posted on Facebook about an experience he had at the school caught the attention of the Syracuse administration, Werenczak would be lucky if he graduated at all.
On the first day of Werenczak’s tutoring program at Danforth Middle School, he and another Syracuse student were introduced to their students by a member of the Concerned Citizens Action Program (CCAP). They happened to be the only two white people in the room. Shortly after the introduction, in the presence of Werenczak and the other white student teacher, the CCAP member, who is black, said that he thought that the city schools should hire more teachers from historically black colleges.
“This [comment] offended me, as well as the other student teacher in the room,” says Werenczak in FIRE’s latest video. “It just seemed inappropriate considering that the two student teachers happened to be from Syracuse and a not a historically black college.”
So Werenczak took to Facebook to write about the incident.
“Just making sure we’re okay with racism,” wrote Werenczak. “It’s not enough I’m … tutoring in the worst school in the city, I suppose I oughta be black or stay in my own side of town.”
“I was kind of trying to see if my friends or other peers, classmates would have a similar reaction to what I had,” says Werenczak about the reason for his posting the comment.
One reaction Werenczak didn’t see coming was an expulsion from the School of Education for the Facebook comments, which the school described as “unprofessional, offensive, and insensitive.” The school told Werenczak he could avoid expulsion by voluntarily withdrawing, or he could fulfill several requirements in order to gain a chance of “re-admittance.”
When Werenczak fulfilled the requirements and was still not readmitted to the school, he contacted FIRE for help.
“Hours after FIRE took the case public, Syracuse University backed down and I was brought back [into the program] and later graduated.”
For more details on this case, please visit: http://thefire.org/case/887.html
News to Me: Grandpa, Tell Me Again About Freedom
7 March 2013
“Grandpa, did you have more freedom when you were my age?” It was December 11, 2017, my grandson’s twelfth birthday. For as long as he could remember, he had heard us talking about the dangers of Barack Obama’s agenda. Now Obama’s two full terms as president had inflicted their full damage on the nation, and my perceptive grandson somehow knew that things had gotten worse during his lifetime.
“Well,” I said, “for one thing, when I was your age, my parents didn’t have to ask the government for permission to go to the doctor. Now your parents have no choice in the matter. Also, the government didn’t violate our right to religious expression. Under Obamacare, we have no choice but to fund abortion, sex change operations and all sorts of other things we don’t believe in.”
“What else was different back then?”
“Well, gas was about a quarter a gallon, instead of the $9.75 a gallon Obama’s policies have driven it up to. Now we’re all driving around in electric clown cars and paying twelve dollars for a loaf of bread.”
“What about the immigrants? Grandma says Obama gave them something called am…am… ammesty.”
“That’s amnesty, and yes, there’s no question that all our freedoms have been diminished because of it. You see, son, you just can’t reward people for breaking the law without others doing it, too. It’s just human nature.”
“My dad says Obama didn’t defend the country. What did he actually do?”
“Well, he left our borders wide open and slashed our defense budget. He took the greatest military force in the world and turned it into a social experiment by allowing open homosexuals in Army barracks and women in combat. He coddled and supported Islamist governments all over the world. And then people actually wonder why Israel had to attack Iran to keep them from getting a nuclear weapon.”
Read More: http://canadafreepress.com
John Stossel - A Sign Of The Times (by LibertyPen)
Government will abridge free speech when it suits politicians.
More info on liberty issues at http://www.LibertyPen.com
John Stossel - PC Pressure Groups (by LibertyPen)
Patrick J Buchanan joins John to discuss the chilling effect of political correctness on free speech. http://www.LibertyPen.com
Some Great News! - U.S. Supreme Court Let’s St. Louis Protest Sign Stay Put
Score one for Free Speech!
Full article here.
Rand Paul Vows To Block Internet Censorship Bills
Image via Wikipedia
Rand Paul Vows To Block Internet Censorship Bills
Paul continued: “While we support copyright protections, we are also concerned about websites being shut down without their day in court, and making innocent third parties bear the costs of solving someone else’s problems.
“I will not sit idly by while PIPA and SOPA eliminate the constitutionally protected rights to due process and free speech. For these reasons, I have pledged to oppose, filibuster and do everything in my power to stop government censorship of the Internet,” Paul said.
SOPA Makes Strange Bedfellows
davide marney writes “What do 1-800-Contacts, Adidas, Americans for Tax Reform, Comcast, the Country Music Association, Estee Lauder, Ford, Nike and Xerox all have in common? According to OpenCongress.org, they all have specifically endorsed H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act. A total of 158 corporations have signed up in favor of the bill, and only 87 against. $21 Million has been donated to Congressmen who favor the bill, but only $5 Million to those against. Thanks to OpenCongress for these insights. This goes a long way towards explaining why this bill has so much traction, despite all its negative publicity.”Via - Slashdot.org
John Stossel - In Defense Of Free Speech (by LibertyPen)
PROTECT IP Renamed To the E-PARASITE Act
If this bill comes into law. Not only will it censor sites here in the states. It will also try to do it to any feign site. All on the word of the Attorney General. This exuse that would be given. Your infernaging on someones intellectual property. You don’t even have to have proof ether.
What if the establishment did not like a peace a of news someone is reporting? Al they have to claim that person using their intellectual property. That site is now blacked to everyone in the USA. We are becoming like the internet in China.
Heck a company does not even have to complain. It can the goverment its self. Think of Eric Holder. I am sure he does not like all this reporting on Fast and Furious. He could claim that operation was copyrighted. There for no one has the right to say anything about it on the internet.
From Slashdot:
bs0d3 writes “The U.S. House has drafted their version of Protect IP today. They have renamed the bill to “the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act” or the E-PARASITE Act. The new house version of Protect IP is far worse than the Senate bill s.968 and it massively expands the sites that will be covered by the law. While the Senate bill limited its focus to sites that were “dedicated to infringing activities”, the house bill targets “foreign infringing sites” and “has only limited purpose or use other than infringement”. They’re also including an “inducement” claim, any foreign site declared by the Attorney General to be “inducing” infringement, can now be censored by the US. With no adversarial hearing. The bill can be read here.”
- Protect IP Renamed E-PARASITES Act; Would Create The Great Firewall Of America (techdirt.com)
- House takes Senate’s bad Internet censorship bill, tries making it worse (arstechnica.com)
- New Version of PROTECT IP Bill May Target Legal Sites (yro.slashdot.org)
- Group: New Version of PROTECT IP May Target Legal Sites (pcworld.com)
- Michele Bachmann Comes Out Against PROTECT IP | Techdirt (mbcalyn.com)
- 8 Ways To Circumvent the PROTECT-IP Act (yro.slashdot.org)
- PROTECT IP Act called unconstitutional by bipartisan group of law professors (engadget.com)
- PROTECT IP Opponents Claim Upcoming House Version May Hurt Twitter, YouTube, Facebook (techcrunch.com)
- Security Consultants Warn About PROTECT-IP Act (politics.slashdot.org)
- What You Need To Know About the New Copyfight [Copyright] (gizmodo.com)
- DNS Heavyweights Raise Concern Over DNS Filtering (yro.slashdot.org)
- The Protect IP Act: Google’s Eric Schmidt squares off against RIAA and MPAA (engadget.com)
- Google loads up on IP again, buys 1,000 more patents from IBM (engadget.com)
Title:
John Stossel - Campus Speech Codes.
Source:
Uploaded by LibertyPen on Sep 26, 2011
Political correctness has replaced open speech and academic inquiry on college campuses. http://www.LibertyPen.com
Liberty again triumphs
Fantastic day for Ohio University Students For Liberty. The Free Speech Wall (Day 1 of 3) started off very well, Baker Center employees are slightly upset with us about the size of the wall, and nine people signed up!
That the FBI is engaged in a campaign of defamation and intimidation aimed at this website is not at all surprising, and yet I still can’t accept it emotionally. We have done nothing wrong: indeed, it is the FBI which is clearly in the wrong. Their activities in regard to Antiwar.com are of dubious legality, and are an infringement of our rights to free speech and to organize on behalf of our ideas.
Justin Raimondo discovers that the FBI targeted Antiwar.com, compiled a dossier on Raimondo, and deems the website and its activists a threat to “national security.” (via aheram)
Everyone should take a few minutes to read this article. “Disturbing” doesn’t even begin to describe what is going on in the surveillance state that many of us have the misfortune of calling “home.”
(via statehate)
It is vain to fight totalitarianism by adopting totalitarian methods. Freedom can only be won by men unconditionally committed to the principles of freedom. The first requisite for a better social order is the return to unrestricted freedom of thought and speech.
