Nobody is quicker to stifle freedom of speech than Leftists. Try saying "homosexuals are from the Devil" almost anywhere (but particularly on college and university premises) and you will be in big trouble. In Canada you can even go to jail for it. But, when conservatives object to obscenities directed at them by Leftists, freedom of speech is suddenly rediscovered. The press excerpt below tells you what actually happened. Read further in the article to hear about the Leftist protests:
"Southwest Airlines earlier this week booted a Washington woman off a flight in Reno after she refused to cover up a T-shirt some considered to be in poor taste. The cotton T in question played off the comedy film "Meet the Fockers," and featured black-and-white pictures of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice alongside the movie's title - with a strategically misplaced vowel.... And in the Southwest case, it was fellow passengers who objected to the T-shirt. Beth Harbin, a spokeswoman for the airline, said Thursday that it was not a case of stifling criticism of the president. "It could've been a (T-shirt) of Michael Jackson - it doesn't matter," she said. It simply was, she said, that the language is not "appropriate for Southwest Airlines." ....
While an airline can prohibit passengers from wearing certain types of clothing, only government incursions on free expression are considered a violation of the First Amendment, said Scheer, of the First Amendment coalition. Southwest calls it a "contract of carriage," and Page 10 of the document reads: "Carrier may refuse to transport" passengers whose "clothing is lewd, obscene or patently offensive." "
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So apparently speech that offends Leftists on government-funded property (as most universities and colleges are, at least in part) is rightly suppressed in violation of the first amendment but speech which offends conservatives should NEVER be suppressed -- even when it occurs on private property and the property owners are perfectly within their rights to suppress it. Double standards anyone?
Racist Milk
When they are not condemning our speech, the busybodies of the Left are also busy condemning our food -- usually under the banner of preventing "obesity". The idea that your weight might be your own business cuts no ice with them. Nor does the fact that moderately overweight people on average live longer than slim people hold them up any. This time, however the problem seems to be that milk is both racist and not vegetarian enough. The busybodies have fastened onto the fact that milk can give you indigestion if you are not used to it -- though people of Northern European descent rarely get such indigestion. So it is "racist" not to demonize milk. And it's a perfect excuse to promote a "vegan" diet and vegetarian "alternative" foods too! Press excerpt follows:
"Milk isn't for everyone, according to a new lawsuit demanding that each and every carton sold in Washington carry a warning label for people who are unable to tolerate it. Filed yesterday in D.C. Superior Court by an organization that promotes vegetarian diets, the suit charges that Giant, Safeway and other milk retailers have failed to warn lactose-intolerant consumers of the risks of drinking milk. At a morning news conference, where the coffee was lightened with soy milk, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine accused doctors and the dairy companies of failing to address the problem of lactose intolerance, particularly among people of African, Asian and Hispanic descent. Blacks, Asians and Hispanics are much more likely to have low levels of the enzyme needed to break down lactose, the predominant sugar in milk. As many as 75 percent of African Americans and 90 percent of Asian Americans are lactose intolerant, according to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse.
But two national experts say the gastrointestinal problems that can result are far less prevalent than the lawsuit claims and are hardly the basis for a warning label. "This is not a health hazard," said Richard J. Grand, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School who has studied lactose for about 30 years. "It's made out to be a health problem, but it isn't." People who have low levels of lactase -- the enzyme that breaks down lactose -- but want to consume milk products can adapt, Grand said. Introducing milk in modest, managed amounts over several weeks typically builds the capacity to break down lactose, he said"
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So the latest campaign makes two lots of wackos happy at once: The food freaks and those who see racism under every bed.
The Incorrectness of Adam Smith
Scottish intellectual Adam Smith is universally acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of economics. His idea that free markets work like an "invisible hand" to ensure the supply of goods and services without any need for someone regulating them is constantly quoted to this day. So it is no wonder that Leftists who think that the government should control everything loathe Smith. As this news excerpt shows:
"If anyone deserves permanent recognition for a lasting contribution to the improvement of humanity it is Adam Smith. But to a band of leftist students in Smith's hometown of Kirkcaldy (pronounced "kercoddy"), this is the last thing that should be done. Two merged colleges located in Kirkcaldy, Adam Smith's birthplace in eastern Scotland, were recently renamed after the town's most famous figure. But the new name, Adam Smith College, has not sat well with 30 radical students who refused to call their campus club the Adam Smith Students' Association. According to the Sunday edition of The Scotsman, as far as these student activists are concerned, "Adam Smith's name is linked to exploitation and greed" and with "socioeconomic policies that work against the people.""
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I suppose all-powerful governments such as those of the old Soviet Union ensure the best interests of the people? Seeing that Russia itself has abandoned the Soviet system, you'd have to be a Leftist fruitcake to believe it. But mental maturity is not to be expected of student radicals, I guess.
