January 21st, 2008
You are currently browsing the articles from Jay Currie written on January 21st, 2008.
Dutch diplomats are already trying to pre-empt international reaction. ‘It is difficult to anticipate the content of the film, but freedom of expression doesn’t mean the right to offend,’ said Maxime Verhagen, the Foreign Minister, who was in Madrid to attend the Alliance of Civilisations, an international forum aimed at reducing tensions between the Islamic world and the West. In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other towns with large Muslim populations, imams say they have needed to ‘calm down’ growing anger in their communities. guardian via jammiewearingfool
“but freedom of expression doesn’t mean the right to offend”. It does actually. Actual free speech means there will be things said which are offensive to some people.
The alternative is to have what amounts to “licenced” speech. Licenced speech is rather like the situation on the London stage. Until 1968 the Lord Chamberlain had the authority to censor live theatre in England. If you want to get a feel for what licencing in the hand of government looks like here is the Wikipedia entry:
Under the Licensing Act 1737 (10 Geo.II, c. 28), the Lord Chamberlain was granted the ability to vet the performance of any new plays: he could prevent any new play, or any modification to an existing play, from being performed for any reason, and was not required to justify his decision. New plays were required to be submitted to the Lord Chamberlain for a licence before they could be performed, and theatre owners could be prosecuted for staging a play (or part of a play) that had not received prior approval. A licence, once granted, could be also withdrawn. The Licensing Act 1737 also limited spoken drama to the patent theatres, originally only the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London. The regime was relaxed slightly by the Theatrical Representations Act 1788, under which local magistrates were permitted to license occasional performances for periods of up to 60 days.
The Theatres Act 1843 restricted the powers of the Lord Chamberlain, so that he could only prohibit the performance of plays where he was of the opinion that “it is fitting for the preservation of good manners, decorum or of the public peace so to do”. It also gave additional powers to local authorities to license theatres, breaking the monopoly of the patent theatres and encouraging the development of popular theatrical entertainments, such as saloon theatres attached to public houses and music halls. wikipedia
Note: good manners counted right along with the public peace.
The censors - and we are finding out just who those people are - want, in effect, to licence speech. The chilling effect of the easily offended means that it will now take a good deal of courage to disagree with the happy clapping view of jihad or to suggest that a Catholic newspaper might be within its rights to oppose same sex marriage.
If these people manage to win the Ezra fight or the Steyn matter you have to ask yourself how long it will be before Ministers of the Canadian crown say something very much like the sorry Dutch Foreign Minister. And one can hardly wait for the sing song voices of liberal fascists demanding that magazines and, heck, blogs be licenced lest they say something “inappropriate or, worse, offensive.”
Written by jay on January 21st, 2008 with 7 comments.
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People living in the Gaza Strip held a candlelight march Sunday evening to protest the closure of their main power plant Sunday, due to a fuel shortage….
Defence Minister Ehud Barak halted shipments to Gaza after Hamas renewed rocket attacks against the town of Sderot in southern Israel last week.
About a third of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents were expected to be affected by the shutdown. Hours after the blackout, Hamas said five patients died because of the cutoff of electricity in hospitals but it couldn’t be confirmed independently. cbc
Hamas really are slow learners. The other two thirds of Gazians could be in the dark shortly as their electricity comes directly from Israel.
I can’t imagine that the fuel shutdown comes as any great surprise. It was difficult to imagine how the Palis could be any worse off than they were under the Troll of Ramallah TM but there is a positive Palestinian genius for self inflicted suffering.
Here’s a hint, stop firing rockets into Israel and your lives will get a lot better.
Written by jay on January 21st, 2008 with no comments.
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I understand that a number of haters - two in particular - have gleefully relied upon Messrs. Lemire and Klatt as sources to viciously defame a good man.
Would you regard two notorious supporters of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups as “experts” in anything? Of course not. Only a hateful fool would do such a thing. the liar warren kinsella *
Strangley, the liar Kinsella does not for an instant deny that Warman was sock puppeting bigotry. “Defame” is an interesting choice of words. I regularly call the liar Kinsella a liar because I have the evidence sitting on my well backed up harddrives that he lied. It is certainly defamatory. It is also true. When the liar Kinsella accuses people of defaming Richard Warman he implies that what they are saying is not true; but, in fact, it may both defame what little character this shrimp has and be completely true. Which Warren knows and which he is using to mount a defense of the little creep.
But the really fun part is that the liar Kinsella would not know a principled argument if it ran over him…twice. I don’t have to agree with, like or even know Lemire to be interested in the evidence he has found of Richard Warman spewing racist, sexist filth about a black, female Canadian Senator. This “good man” has, apparently, written material which would make even Robert McClelland blanch. Exposing this sock puppet bigot and the Human Rights Commission which enables him is vitally important to anyone who values free expression in Canada. Repellent as I find much of the material that Lemire has helped to put up on the net, the bigger picture is about stopping Warman’s vicious abuse of the CHRC system and investigating the extent to which the CHRC has enabled that abuse.
“Good men” don’t lie. Simple concept Warren. You should try it.
* Yes, I have violated my general policy of shunning the liar Kinsella. If he is willing to go to smear overdrive to defend a racist little man like Richard Warman he needs to be called on it and that means actually linking to the liar’s revolting site.
Written by jay on January 21st, 2008 with 12 comments.
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Not content with having the Canadian Human Rights Commission act as his own, private, shakedown agency, the easily offended Richard Warman has, apparently, taken to posting vile, racist, remarks under a now traced phony name. I am not going republish this filth on my blog but go over to Free Dominion for the details.
Three observations: first, this is profoundly corrupt. Fake posts written by a serial complainant who then complains about the fake post should be enough to prompt a full scale, judicial, inquiry into the CHRC. How many other bigot-bots has Richard Warman fired into forums and comment sections and then complained about. At a minimum every one of Richard Warman’s complaints to the CHRC - and he has won all of them - should be re-investigated for fraud.
Part of that judicial inquiry should focus on how complicit the CHRC or its staff have been in this Richard Warman fraud and any others which may have occurred.
Second, Richard Warman is a lawyer. As such he is not supposed to be defrauding quasi-judicial bodies such as the CHRC. As this story gains traction it will be interesting to see if, for example, the proprietors of Free Dominion, ask the Benchers of the Law Society of Upper Canada to investigate.
Third, the losing parties in Richard Warman CHRC complaints would be well advised to seek legal advice as to the possibility of re-opening their complaint and/or looking to real courts for damages against Richard Warman and the CHRC.
Frankly, what little credibility the CHRC had has just been shredded. If the Tories had any stones they would shut the Commission down pending the outcome of a really hardcore, judicial, investigation of Richard Warman’s fraud.
Written by jay on January 21st, 2008 with 13 comments.
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