Censor This

So now a Muslim cleric has called for the head of the cartoonist [sic, bastard] who dared to draw the face of Mohammed. And like any good extremist, he didn’t even have the story right. There were 12 cartoonists, bubba. Not one.

Just around the corner from me, a Chinese-American was recently beaten in a home invasion. He thinks he was beaten by Chinese agents because he’s associated with Falun Gong and works for a newspaper that’s critical of the Chinese government.

You know, for all the protracted battles over freedom of speech that the USA has hosted in the last 230 years, the First Amendment is still alive and very well. It’s very rare for government at any level to encroach on this basic human right. (Though various governments try occasionally, they hardly ever prevail in the cold, hard light of a courtroom.) Which is one of the reasons I’ve always felt safe to say whatever I went, just about whenever and wherever I want without much fear in this country.

Now, that right is being threatened by outside sources, of all things. By thugs who just can’t stand the thought that we might not believe the same things they do. Maybe that means they feel threatened. If that’s the case, maybe these attacks could be considered a good thing?

I don't know. It honestly scares me.

At least at the far brighter end of the spectrum, we still occasionally get stories like this one. And as long as that happens, at least we're safe from our own government.