More First Amendment Stuff

completely scary story about a jewish family in delaware having to move to another city to escape right-wing christian persecuation.

um, not cool.

some strange shit is happening to free speech and the first amendment in the country. david remnick has a good piece in the new yorker about the bush administration's belief that free inquiry is not a protected right and decidedly not beneficial for democracy.

i think, in all honesty, it's a manifestation of political/social ideology. for instance, a "big R" Republican believes only in preserving the republic -- that is, in preserving a territory that is bounded geographically, culturally, racially, socially, and economically (if you think Republicans believe in actual free trade you're an idiot and a douche). they care about this to the exclusion of all else. what's more, they see the republic as having lost a lot of that boundedness over the years, through court decisions, popular uprisings, immigration, and the like. the press plays a role in this loss for them, because they want to preserve not a bounded republic but democracy, which is, in all reality, counter to the principles upon which any republic can be founded.

the loss of this boundedness is what normal people call DEMOCRACY, fuckers. democrats want to preserve, above all else, democratic principles such as freedom of speech, press, religion, and the like. democrats believe that america as a republic fails to protect all its citizens -- and that america the democracy COULD be doing much more if only republicans weren't idiots.

here's a little illustration of this. there is, circulating amongst members of our armed services, an email with a picture of a bunch of cadets with there heads bowed in prayer. under the picture lies the caption, "what's wrong with this picture?" and a seemingly real quote from an ACLU spokesman saying that it violates the church and state clause and that it must be stopped. the email then attacks the ACLU as godless pussies, basically. the problem? IT'S NOT TRUE. the email is entirely falsified. the ACLU takes absolutely no position on troop prayer because there is no way to determine whether a soldier is bowing his or her head in private reflection or not. so of course it doesn't care. who the hell would?

what this points out is that republicans and conservatives don't care about truth and reality. they care much more about preserving -- or, now, reverting back to -- an idyllic american republic where christianity ruled supreme, minorities knew there place, and the army could kill without anyone really caring.

IT TOOK ME LESS THAN 10 SECONDS TO FIND OUT THAT THE EMAIL WAS ALL LIES. but republicans don't want to learn the truth. they'd rather spout lies and hate. that's why they want to prosecute members of the media -- and in some cases threaten to kill them.

ri-goddamn-diculous.

jews on first though. "jews on first?" great name for an organization! haha!