American free speech in action

Post by dank
starwars wrote...

Phelps and his clowns upset Soldiers family at the funeral of their son.
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/102607phelps.htm

Phelps and his loons should be put out of business with lawsuits and civil
suits.

Lawsuits over what? No one is harmed, no property is damaged, and
this law will eventually be ruled unconstitutional.
America stands for freedom of speech, no matter how offensive.

In a public forum. The issue is freedom of speech vs. privacy rights.
There exists no right for me to come into your home, office, or other
private space to protest or otherwise cause a disturbance. The issue
before the court is whether or not an in-progress funeral constitutes a
private space. I believe that the vast majority of people would say that it
does, and that is the direction in which the court ruled. We'll see what
happnes in appeals, of course, but I doubt that the ruling will be
overturned.

No One

2007-11-08 22:09:37 UTC

Post by dank
Oh, and here's an interesting story about offensive forms of protest
out of San Francisco a few weeks ago. There is a group of gay men
who have a club called "The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" and who
attempt to outrage by dressing like catholic nuns with freaky names
like "Sister Delta Goodhand," "Sister Porn Again," etc. The church
has already complained that the group mocks its oh-so-fucking-holy
institutions, but no leftwad group has ever condemned its parody as
bigoted or hateful. Then the group entered a catholic church while
some archpope was there and managed to trick him into giving them
communion.
I actually approve of their protest, I think it was hilarious and
such a clever mockery of catholicism. <snip>

Except it wasn't a protest. The Castro Street Fair was going on that
day and members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were helping
out by collecting donations from people going to the fair, with the
donations going to various non-profit organizations. "Sister Delta
Goodhand" is in real life a devout Catholic who was simply attending
church that morning and was dressed in his costume because there
wasn't time to go home, get dressed, and be at the fair when he was
supposed to be there.

Nobody was offended at the church service - the church is in the
middle of the heavily gay Castro district and the elderly archbishop
was so zoned out that he didn't know what he was looking at anyway.
No surprise - at his age he probably had done enough of these
ceremonies that he can do them while 90% asleep.

Of course, a lot of people don't know any of that because they get
their news from nitwits like Bill O'Reilly, who had a cow and made
up the "news" about this incident.

BTW, there are groups of Christians who picket gay pride parades and
use megaphones to shout whatever hatefilled message won't fit on their
signs. No left-wing group has complained about them. The people who
really want to shut people up are the right wingers....and the Catholic
Church, which curiously once demanded that San Francisco not allow the
Sisters or Perpetual Indulgence to hold a block party on Easter
Sunday (which some bureaucrat at city hall had already approved,
probably without even having a clue as to what it was.)

Delila

2007-11-08 22:49:46 UTC

Phelps and his clowns upset Soldiers family at the funeral of their son.
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/102607phelps.htm

Phelps and his loons should be put out of business with lawsuits and civil
suits.

Lawsuits over what? No one is harmed, no property is damaged, and
this law will eventually be ruled unconstitutional.
America stands for freedom of speech, no matter how offensive.

I disagree. As much as I advocate free speech, the line has to be drawn
somewhere. This is hate speech of the worst order. How dare these lunatic
brainwashed idiot add insult to injury and ruin the funeral of Iraqi war
veterans? Why can't they at least be confined to 'free speech zones' like
they always do to people who don't support Bush whenever he gives a speech?
Did you know in some colleges they're now restricting free speech?

D.

Scruffy McScruffovitch

2007-11-09 00:21:34 UTC

Phelps and his clowns upset Soldiers family at the funeral of
their son. http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/102607phelps.htm

Phelps and his loons should be put out of business with lawsuits and civil
suits.

Lawsuits over what? No one is harmed, no property is damaged, and
this law will eventually be ruled unconstitutional.
America stands for freedom of speech, no matter how offensive.

I disagree. As much as I advocate free speech, the line has to be
drawn somewhere. This is hate speech of the worst order.

Under our laws, even hate speech has to be tolerated in a public forum.
The issue is, and remains, is an in-progress funeral a public, or a private
space? This court ruled that it is a private space, which I, and probably
the vast majority of people would agree.

Post by Delila
How dare
these lunatic brainwashed idiot add insult to injury and ruin the
funeral of Iraqi war veterans? Why can't they at least be confined to
'free speech zones' like they always do to people who don't support
Bush whenever he gives a speech? Did you know in some colleges
they're now restricting free speech?
D.

--
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong
enough to take away everything you have."

Thomas Jefferson

flower of romance

2007-11-10 17:44:54 UTC

Phelps and his clowns upset Soldiers family at the funeral of
their son. http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/102607phelps.htm

Phelps and his loons should be put out of business with lawsuits and civil
suits.

Lawsuits over what? No one is harmed, no property is damaged, and
this law will eventually be ruled unconstitutional.
America stands for freedom of speech, no matter how offensive.

I disagree. As much as I advocate free speech, the line has to be
drawn somewhere. This is hate speech of the worst order.

Under our laws, even hate speech has to be tolerated in a public forum.
The issue is, and remains, is an in-progress funeral a public, or a
private space? This court ruled that it is a private space, which I, and
probably the vast majority of people would agree.

Many get round it by claiming it's a private organisation. This gives them
scope to get fascist all they want, or so they beleive.

--
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong
enough to take away everything you have."
Thomas Jefferson

Scruffy McScruffovitch

2007-11-10 19:10:45 UTC

Post by flower of romance

Phelps and his clowns upset Soldiers family at the funeral of
their son. http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/102607phelps.htm

Phelps and his loons should be put out of business with lawsuits and civil
suits.

Lawsuits over what? No one is harmed, no property is damaged, and
this law will eventually be ruled unconstitutional.
America stands for freedom of speech, no matter how offensive.

I disagree. As much as I advocate free speech, the line has to be
drawn somewhere. This is hate speech of the worst order.

Under our laws, even hate speech has to be tolerated in a public
forum. The issue is, and remains, is an in-progress funeral a
public, or a private space? This court ruled that it is a private
space, which I, and probably the vast majority of people would agree.

Many get round it by claiming it's a private organisation.

It doesn't matter if they are a private organization, they still have no
right to invade others privacy.

This gives

Post by flower of romance
them scope to get fascist all they want, or so they beleive.

Post by Delila
How dare
these lunatic brainwashed idiot add insult to injury and ruin the
funeral of Iraqi war veterans? Why can't they at least be confined
to 'free speech zones' like they always do to people who don't
support Bush whenever he gives a speech? Did you know in some
colleges they're now restricting free speech?
D.

--
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong
enough to take away everything you have."
Thomas Jefferson

--
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong
enough to take away everything you have."

Thomas Jefferson

flower of romance

2007-11-10 20:48:35 UTC

Post by flower of romance

Phelps and his clowns upset Soldiers family at the funeral of
their son. http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/102607phelps.htm

Phelps and his loons should be put out of business with lawsuits and civil
suits.

Lawsuits over what? No one is harmed, no property is damaged, and
this law will eventually be ruled unconstitutional.
America stands for freedom of speech, no matter how offensive.

I disagree. As much as I advocate free speech, the line has to be
drawn somewhere. This is hate speech of the worst order.

Under our laws, even hate speech has to be tolerated in a public
forum. The issue is, and remains, is an in-progress funeral a
public, or a private space? This court ruled that it is a private
space, which I, and probably the vast majority of people would agree.

Many get round it by claiming it's a private organisation.

It doesn't matter if they are a private organization, they still have no
right to invade others privacy.

I concur but they play one people's ignorance. So typical. A society that
allegidly support freedom of speech but really the people can't wait to find
a way to get fascist.

Post by Scruffy McScruffovitch
This gives

Post by flower of romance
them scope to get fascist all they want, or so they beleive.

Post by Delila
How dare
these lunatic brainwashed idiot add insult to injury and ruin the
funeral of Iraqi war veterans? Why can't they at least be confined
to 'free speech zones' like they always do to people who don't
support Bush whenever he gives a speech? Did you know in some
colleges they're now restricting free speech?
D.

--
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong
enough to take away everything you have."
Thomas Jefferson

Tani Jantsang©

2007-11-09 15:26:37 UTC

Phelps and his clowns upset Soldiers family at the funeral of their son.
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/102607phelps.htm

Phelps and his loons should be put out of business with lawsuits and civil
suits.

Lawsuits over what? No one is harmed, no property is damaged, and
this law will eventually be ruled unconstitutional.

He was a soldier. It was at a funeral, which is a private affair. Posting
articles about the soldier and his lifestyle, so long as they are true and
not libelous, is covered under free speech. Harassing people at a funeral
is harassment. The intent IS to cause harm, emotional harm.

Post by dank
America stands for freedom of speech, no matter how offensive.

And people have a right to have private affairs, such as funerals, and be
unharassed by outsiders.

Post by Delila
I disagree. As much as I advocate free speech, the line has to be drawn
somewhere. This is hate speech of the worst order. How dare these lunatic
brainwashed idiot add insult to injury and ruin the funeral of Iraqi war
veterans?

Agree. I'm against the war too, but I think what Pelosi did is bordering on
treason. She insulted Turkey - our ally. I'm against the war, but I think
mocking out soldiers that died there is an abomination. No matter what
anyone thinks about the war, soldiers BELIEVE they are defending us at
home - and they are laying down their lives for that belief. I say the
soldiers are deceived. Not the point. A person that imagines I'm drowning
when it's probably impossible for me TO drown due to buoyancy - who risks
his or her life to "save my life" might be mistaken as to my needing any
saving - but the point is, they THOUGHT I did, and made that effort. That
kind of person is not to be mocked.

Why can't they at least be confined to 'free speech zones' like

Post by Delila
they always do to people who don't support Bush whenever he gives a
speech? Did you know in some colleges they're now restricting free speech?

Colleges are notorious as PC thought cop places - and that is 100% against
free speech and flow of free ideas. Even scientists that have the facts
about the planet warming up, are being silenced and/or threatened. You
know, this is just such a HATEFUL human tendency to do that. But harassing
a family at a funeral is also hateful. It's not exactly free speech. Its
intent is to cause the family harm and distress.

Post by Delila
D.

flower of romance

2007-11-10 17:47:09 UTC