I'm not a fan of impeaching U.S. Presidents for unimportant crimes—or worse, imagined crimes—but if a Democratic Congress ever impeaches George Bush, I would be highly amused if they got him for flag desecration. Public Defender Dude has more to say. Alright, it's a bad idea...but there's a certain cosmic sense of justice to it. … [Read more...] about High Crimes and…
Free Speech
The Wardrobe Malfunction That Would Not Die!
Can you believe this shit is still going on? WASHINGTON - Federal regulators will stick by their decision to slap CBS with a $550,000 fine for the Janet Jackson flash at the 2004 Super Bowl. But that's not all! They also plan new sanctions against Fox, NBC and CBS TV stations or affiliates for violating decency standards, according to people familiar with the matter. The … [Read more...] about The Wardrobe Malfunction That Would Not Die!
Censorship of Google in China
Google's recent launch of the Chinese Google service is attracting a lot of attention because Google has agreed to censor the results in accord with Chinese law. I feel about this the same way I did when Microsoft censored its blogs: In China, the only alternative to censored service is no service at all. I think that even partial service is better than none, because the … [Read more...] about Censorship of Google in China
Community Standards
The Volokh Conspiracy has a post about the Google subpoena, and a comment by someone using the name DEGOP has this to say about the definition of pornography: "Prevailing community standards" is the only test worth a darn. We abandon it at our peril. The problem is that community standards in San Francisco are a lot worse than they are in, say, Kansas. Therefore, on the … [Read more...] about Community Standards
It’s Always the Bastards
Marathon Pundit points to a Daily Herald story that says Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn is proposing a suspiciously censorial law prohibiting protest within 300 feet of a funeral. As is typical of most proposed censorship, Quinn's bill is in response to some bastard who is using freedom of speech to say ugly things. Specifically, this bill is in response to the … [Read more...] about It’s Always the Bastards