“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations . . . can never effect a reform.”
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Author: Redactor
One hallmark of a free society is the legal right to make fun of our leaders. Several times per week I engage in ridicule as well as argument against the folks who think they know what they are doing when they attempt to rule us.
We should wear this freedom to ridicule like a badge.
Iranians, alas, can’t say the same.
Mahmoud Shokraye was tried and found guilty for insulting Nameye Amir, a member of parliament. Shokraye drew a mildly funny caricature of Amir, in a colorful post-Nastian style (the kind most major papers now fall back on), and for his trouble got 25 lashes.
Heroically, a number of cartoonists have upped the ante and created even less flattering caricatures, as you can see at the Cartoon Blog. (I sample some of them, here.) Amir got more than he bargained for. I hope it stings — more than 25 lashes’ worth.
There are several lessons to draw from this.
First, “taking offense” is not the basis of any legal action. Or any violent action. In the west, we’re centuries away from duels and other deadly fights of “honor.” The Islamic east is, alas, still embedded in old honor cultures. The faster they can shuffle off that obsession and move to a rule of law, instead, the better.
Second, as Thomas Jefferson put it, governments should fear the people, not the other way around. That’s part of what it means to live in a free society.
Politicians who don’t like it are free to seek a less public job. Really.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
On May 14, 1607, Jamestown, Virginia, was settled as the first English colony in the future United States.
On May 14, 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention began to assemble in Philadelphia to confront changes to the Article of Confederation. Though the convention was supposed to begin on May 14, it had to be pushed back until May 25, when a sufficient quorum of the participating states had arrived.
On May 14, 1961, a Freedom Riders bus was fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protesters beaten by an angry mob.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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Townhall: The elephant, crazy like a fox?
Over at Townhall.com you can find an exploration of a familiar theme:
Media bias? It is not always hidden. The media bias against balancing budgets and paying off public debt is pretty out-in-the-open, these days.
The elephant, crazy like a fox?
Paul Jacob • May 13, 2012
Republicans are under attack from the highest towers of official Washington — the gnashing of chattering-class teeth now even more pronounced following Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock’s decisive victory over 36-year incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dick Lugar.
Two weeks ago, even before Mourdock’s triumph, the Washington Post published a column, entitled, “Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.” Authors Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute are the resident scholars (read: apologists) of our nation’s capital or, as Post columnist Ezra Klein described them, “the two most respected, committed scholars — and defenders — of the U.S. Congress.”
That serves as both hoity-toity street cred for the national political class and, considering congressional approval ratings, an ugly black-eye before the American people.
“We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years,” wrote Mann and Ornstein, “and never have we seen them this dysfunctional,” adding, in phony non-partisanship, “Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”
“Our advice to the press,” the pair generously offered, “Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views.” Put in layman’s terms: “When you do your reporting, slap a finger or five on the scale. Tell people to vote for the Democrat.”
What else can be done? Apparently, Republicans cause gridlock. Especially conservative Republicans…
to continue, read the full column.
You can read last week’s column, here.
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Winston Churchill
“I would say to the House as I said to those who have joined this government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.
“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs — Victory in spite of all terror — Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.”
On May 13, 1846, in a blatant attempt to grab territory, the United States declared war on Mexico beginning the Mexican-American War.
On May 13, 1940, Germany invaded France as the German army crosses the Meuse and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” speech to the House of Commons.
On May 13, 1954, Chinese students demonstrated against the British government’s decision to make young men, ages 18 to 20, do part-time military service. The students were unwilling to defend a foreign government which, during World War II, deserted Singapore.
On May 13, 1960, hundreds of University of California at Berkeley students protested the campus visit by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Thirty-one students are arrested and the Free Speech Movement was born.
Brian Doherty, author of a new book on Ron Paul, talks about Ron Paul’s transpartisan political movement:
A very concise and yet broad view of what the congressman from Texas has been up to, what he believes, and his significance in contemporary political debate.
On May 12, 1780, Americans suffer their worst defeat of the revolution with the unconditional surrender of Major General Benjamin Lincoln to British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton and his army of 10,000 at Charleston, South Carolina. Having suffered the humiliation of surrendering to the British at Charleston, Major General Lincoln was able to turn the tables and accept Cornwallis’ ceremonial surrender to General George Washington at Yorktown on October 20.
On May 12, 1949, the Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.
On May 12, 1963, Bob Dylan walked out on The Ed Sullivan Show, after being told he cannot sing, “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues,” a satirical talking-blues number poking at the ultra-conservative John Birch Society.
On May 12, 2003, fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers stop business in the Texas Legislature by going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican congressional redistricting plan.
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Bob Dylan from “Blowin’ in the Wind”
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.