Re: F for First Amendment
 

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Didn't the principal get the memo? Free speech is all about a person's right to publicly endorse one ideology over another.

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Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It almost any high school, it's well within the Principle's rights and responsibilities to take actions which maintain a stable learning environment.

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Assaulted from both the Left and the Right, that damn concept of free speech looks a bit wobbly on its legs and ready to fall.

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Freedom of speech has never been stronger in America or the rest of the world. For basic anecdotal evidence, look at your computer monitor.

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Except for some of the fallout from the J Jackson boob incident as far as some media is concerned. TV and Radio, that is. It's not quite as free as it once was. It's turning into a joke to some degree.

b

Re: F for First Amendment
 

What are you talking about? You have complete freedom of speech on the radio providing you are the CEO of ClearChannel.

Re: F for First Amendment
 

Pffffttt
 

That's nothing by comparison, Cyrus.

In North Korea, citizens don't have access to the internet or even to outside news media. No CNN. No nothing, except North Korean government news.

In Myanmar, owning a modem without government permission is (or was, I read this more than a year or two ago) a capital offense.

Re: Whatta lot of bloggers
 

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The suggestion that America is in favor of democracy period is quite laughable. America favors democratic regimes that support its policies - period. If it takes a dictator to get a friendly regime, so be it.

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This is exactly correct.



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No, it isn't correct.

It may have been correct in decades past, or more likely, was partially correct. Now however the U.S. realizes that the best way to ensure stability in troubled and developing regions throughout the world is democracy. This is a policy shift, or more correctly, greater emphasis, come about due in part to the war on terror. The times they are a changin'.

Re: Whatta lot of bloggers
 

And what democracies have really cracked down on instability?

While the United States is right, most of the Middle East and Africa are nowhere near the point where they can democratize without excessive force to hold it together. They are fractured, factioned socities which were chopped up arbitrarily by Europe. Until a nation's members identify themselves by that group first, democracy will fail.

The United States wants a democracy that agrees with it. While historically democracies have agreed with democracies, the proliferation of that form of government mean that in a world of scarce resources, capitalistic cooperation alone won't stave off conflict. We're already seeing the signs of this with the Oil-for-Food scandal and the European opposition to the Iraq war.

Use a hankie
 

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In North Korea, citizens don't have access to the internet or even to outside news media. No CNN. No nothing, except North Korean government news.

In Myanmar, owning a modem without government permission is (or was, I read this more than a year or two ago) a capital offense.

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I was not disagreeing.

Mine was not a post about the plight of freedom in autocratic or dictatorial regimes. This was supposed to be a thread about the assault on free speech currently perpetrated in the United States - ostensibly the paladin of those freedoms, "home and abroad".

But this thread is already been hijacked by arguments like "The others are doing worse". Same old, same old.

For every 100 people hacking at the plant of evil only.......
 

......only one person hacks at the roots.

The students still have free speech.
They are completely free to post anti-Bush propaganda outside of school. They can give anti-Bush flyers to fellow students (except doing class time). They can spout ant-Bush rhetoric to their fellow students. The difference is they do NOT have the right to use public property for their personal use without permission from the school.

The last BIG assault on free speech was the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Law. AKA: Your not allowed to say anything bad about an incumbant politician 60 days before an election. John McCain is an unprincipled idiot. I think his Vietnam POW experience fried his brain.

Re: Use a hankie
 

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But this thread is already been hijacked by arguments like "The others are doing worse". Same old, same old.

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Considering relative performance is the only good way we have of measuring such things, I can't imagine why that might be.

Re: F for First Amendment
 

Amendment I - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I see no violation of this in what the school did.