|
Free Speech 
Wed Mar 09, 2011 at 04:20:29 AM MST
|
|
Got a simple little story for you today of a multinational corporation that wants to build a great big cement plant in North Carolina really, really, bad, and the local opposition to what appears to be a corrupt and distorted decision process.
Two local activists in particular have drawn the ire of Titan Cement, the Grecian corporation who seeks to build the plant-and because the Company doesn't like what the activists have been saying about what the impact of that plant will likely be or how the deal's going down...they're suing Kayne Darrell and Dr. David Hill, residents of North Carolina's New Hanover County, and the two folks who are doing the complaining the Company dislikes the most.
The Company further claims that they were slandered and defamed by the damaging statements that were uttered by the two at a county commissioners' meeting and that they have lost goodwill and the chance to do business with certain parties as a result of these statements.
But what if everything the Defendants said was not only true...but provably so-and the Company was, maybe...just looking to shut people up by sending teams of lawyers after them?
As I said, it's a simple story today-but it's a good one.
|
|
There's More...
:: (3
Comments, 1319 words in story)
|
|
Thu Dec 09, 2010 at 07:35:01 AM MST
|
|
It is a hard thing to have a pluralistic society. It requires a certain level of tolerance for those who don't seem to be able to restrain themselves to the idea of polite society. Since we all, from time to time, break those constraints it is understood that the price of our forgiveness for doing so is being willing to forgive those who do the same. The problem with this construction is that there are those that will abuse the privilege, and frankly right under the First Amendment to make tiered and tasteless point.
This is what the assholes at Westboro Baptist Church are going to do at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards. The splinter sect of publicity hogs led by Fred Phelps is famous (I think that should be infamous, don't you?) for going to funerals of service members and standing there with their "God Hates Fags" signs. They even had the unmitigated gall to go to Mathew Shepard's funeral and protest there (Shepard for those who don't remember was beaten and then left to hang on a fence by two men who didn't like gays).
|
|
There's More...
:: (0
Comments, 911 words in story)
|
|
Tue Aug 17, 2010 at 06:16:34 AM MST
|
|
For 28 weeks in late 2008 and 2009 I wrote a series on the Constitution. It grew out of a realization that while I knew a couple of the Amendments I had never really read the whole thing. Worse I had never taken the time to think about it in part and as a whole. If you're interested you can find the last one here, and there are links to all 27 of the others. The point is not the series but what I learned from doing it.
There seems to be a failure by many of our fellow citizens to understand that the Constitution is not a Chinese Buffet where you can go straight for the sweet and sour chicken but leave off the bean sprouts. Our Constitution is more of a tapestry, where if you pull out one string that offends you the whole thing is weakened.
|
|
There's More...
:: (5
Comments, 1253 words in story)
|
|
Tue Jun 22, 2010 at 06:18:21 AM MST
|
|
Yesterday was a bad day for the First Amendment. The Roberts Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the material support law was, under the strict scrutiny test, constitutional. At issue was whether human rights groups can provide educational services to groups designated as terrorist without being in legal danger themselves. The High Court found that there was sufficient State interest in this area to limit free speech protections and limit them severely.
The Center For Constitutional Rights (CCR) were part of the legal team that brought the suit. They argued that the definitions of "material support" were overly broad and vague. Some of the words at issue were "expert advice", "training", "service" and personnel". These words can cover a lot of situations that have nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with bringing terrorist groups into the political process and ending their terrorist activities.
|
|
There's More...
:: (0
Comments, 955 words in story)
|
|
Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 06:43:30 AM MST
|
|
A couple of days ago someone pointed out that I had two differing views on a topic in the same post. It came from my need to give some credence to the ideas that disagree with mine, but it is not the only time I find myself in conflict with myself. Take the situation with the incredibly vile and to my mind utterly worthless members of Westboro Baptist Church. These are the malignant and maleficent idiots that protest at military funerals with signs that say such warm and fluffy things as "Semper Fi Fags" and "God Hates You". They are protesting what they see as the over acceptance of homosexuality in America. They believe that God is punished the United States with 9/11 for our tolerance of our gay citizens.
|
|
There's More...
:: (3
Comments, 1182 words in story)
|
|
|
|
Squarestate.net is owned by Open Communications Colorado, LLC. and is not responsible for the opinions expressed outside of our own.
|
|
SquareState.net is owned by Open Communications Colorado, LLC
