WebSitesOfNote

Freedom of Speech: "In Austria a man was just sentenced to three years in jail for writing a book denying the Holocaust.  That’s wrong.  Doesn’t matter that he’s wrong.  Doesn’t matter that he’s an anti-Semite.  Doesn’t matter that, as a Jew, I find this offensive.  He has a right to freedom of speech.  If he doesn’t have the right to deny the Holocaust, then the mullahs are right: no one should have a right to offend them either. The right of free speech, ironically, extends to criticizing free speech.  Muslims have a right to demonstrate peacefully against both the fact that the West allows publication of cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammed and/or against the cartoons themselves (not the same thing).  Everyone has a right to try to convince someone else NOT to say something; everyone has a right to object to what someone else says; what no one has a right to do is to stop someone else from saying what they want to say (with certain obvious exceptions like intentional libel, yelling “fire” in a crowded theater, and perjury). Many years ago there was a controversy over flag burning in the US.  We were at a Guy Fawkes bonfire on a beach (in the US).  Some jerk (my point of view) put an American flag on the fire.  I left "