Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	8/19/2005

Friedman proposes State Department Blacklist on Free Speech

I know this is a month late. It slipped through my filters in the heat of the CAFTA battle.

ABSTRACT - Thomas L Friedman Op-Ed column on terrorism says hate spreaders assume they are talking only to their own, but when their words are spotlighted, they often feel pressure to retract, defend or explain them; says State Dept should issue lists of Top 10 hatemongers, those who advocate acts of terror, Top 10 excuse makers, those who blame imperialism, Zionism, or war in Iraq for acts of terror, and Top 10 truth tellers, those Arab or Muslim intellectuals, clerics or columnists who publish essays calling in fellow Muslims to deal with the cancer in their midst; says words matter.

Sure seems like Friedman is willing to go down the slippery slope. A State Department program to blacklist people who abuse free speech? First they start with a top 10 list. But of course like American Idol, they will need to start with more to end up with ten. Then it expands from there and before you know it there is a whole new branch of Homeland Security data mining for "those not with us who must be against us."

8:42:11 PM

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Libertarian Party of North Carolina - NOT RIP

Fiesty Libertarian Party members of North Carolina do not crumple under the pressure of the State Government. Instead they fight back with legislation and and lawsuits.

The Hearld Sun spins it a different way.

3:53:50 PM

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