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Health & Fitness

Oh No, The Sky Is Falling...

Anyone who says our Freedom of Speech is being taken away is lying

The latest version of this popular children's myth is, of course, that "Progressives" want to take away your right to free speech. And when I realized what the hand-wringing was actually all about, I laughed so hard and suddenly that my martini shot out of my nose and onto my brand new, 27 inch Apple Cinema display.  

I don't know if you've ever shot gin out of your nose at 9:20 in the morning, but it burns fiercely.  Of course, I called Apple right away and they sent out a brand new display.  Folks, when you pay the piper and buy quality, they will replace it for most common things free of charge; plus it's called a "display" rather than a "monitor."  

Freedom of Speech is important only if the populace understands what the words actually mean; a goodly amount of you went "huh?" over the distinction between "display" and "monitor." It's not your fault.  We teach you to read well enough to summarize; we don't teach you to read well enough to analyze.  This is, by the way, on purpose.

Oh sure, those of us who are rich enough, or lucky enough, to receive a private education are taught how to read thoroughly.  There's an actual term for this: "mature readers."  And, of course, there are "immature readers."  Those are the folks who can tell you the plot of Madame Bovary , but not what that particular novel teaches us about being human. 

Lately the right has counted on this fact about our country in their frivolous flights of fancy, such as Obama wants to take away your guns and how Senator Feinstein wants to limit your First Amendment rights.  

Neither is true. Here's why: a bill is fundamentally different than a law.  A bill is like the scene in the Western where Dean Martin holds his hat up above the rock and it promptly gets shot out of his hand.  And, no, I am not going to explain that, so if you're lost quit reading and go do something you understand like washing your car. 

The larger distinction to understand is this:  freedom is a wild thing that can't be controlled.  In a free society you can get up in the morning, shower, drink coffee and then go teach kids to be productive members of the society. You can also get up in the morning, shoot heroin, and engage in strange demonic sex practices with members of both genders.  Freedom leaves that completely up to you; a fact which, on a personal level, has never made me uncomfortable, but it does make those who cling to the Puritan notions sweat, twitch, and fail their arms like mentally ill, homeless people on Fifth Avenue.

So, we have "curbs" to all our freedoms.  

Senator Feinstein foolishly favors curbing the First Amendment when it comes to organizations like Wikileaks.  She favors doing that because they will make her job harder and harder until, ultimately, they make her job impossible. So in actuality, she doesn't want to curtail your ability to say what you want.  Just those people who work for Wikileaks are in her gun sights.  She does want, however, to curtail your ability to receive information. And that is dangerous to the notion of freedom.  

This fact about Feinstein alone has angered the "Progressives," liberals, and other members of the left like me.  In the same way that teaching you how to read well enough to barely summarize a text angers us. 

Senator Feinstein and her fellow conservative Democrats (read Dixie-crats) still haven't grasped why they call it the "World Wide Web." From what I can gather the conversative Republicans (read Tea-Party Members) are even more clueless. Just read any "conservative" blog if you need an example of what I mean.
 
Look folks, the internet is the most subversive thing I've ever seen in my life. It's far more subversive than teaching people how to actually analyze something.  Why do you think I hopped on it the minute I could?  And I hopped on before the "World Wide Web" existed. The usenet groups were wonderful back then; wow, exchanging ideas with people all over the planet and our government can't stop it.  It took my breath away.
 
And now, given the web, it's even easier to exchange ideas with people from anywhere.  Today it's not just limited to government and academics; any idiot with a modem and a six-pack of beer can create a web site and say anything.  No wonder Senator Diane Feinstein is upset.  Talk about freedom of speech!

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