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FREE SPEECHERS PREVIOUSLY SILENT
A couple of observations on free speech from Ross Fitzgerald:
What an amazing couple of weeks. For the first time in my life I find myself offering unconditional and heartfelt support to the pronouncements by George Pell and the Pope. Well, it wasn’t so much for what they said but for the fact they said it in the face of fulmination and fatwa from a rival religious group ...
Why ... is it that virtually all the law reformers squealing about the loss of free speech under Philip Ruddock’s anti-terror and anti-hate laws did not speak up for free speech a decade or two ago when governments really started to muzzle people for reasons of political correctness?
Why? Possibly because the squealing law reformers were supportive of such muzzling. Leave it to an Ohio Mitsubishi dealership to fly the flag for freedom!
Priceless car ad! Leave it to Ohioans.
Asma Mobin-Uddin said she is concerned the ad’s tone and imagery are “mocking and disrespectful to many different areas. One is Islamic faith and Islamic culture.”
The ad ridicules jihadist terrorists. Is Ms. Mobin-Uddin saying that’s part of Islamic faith and culture? It seems she is.
He’s right. The left failed on feminism, and now they’re failing on another of their touchstones, free speech. As Fitzgerald says, there’s silence on the Indonesian moves to ban porn (and their idea of what constitutes “porn” is very broad); there’s silence on Newspaper’s rights to publish satirical cartoons; silence on the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie for criticising the Mullahs of Iran; silence on the death of Theo van Gogh; the list goes on.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 09 24 at 10:17 PM • permalinkActually, he didn’t say all that… I got carried away and added lots of other stuff.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 09 24 at 10:17 PM • permalinkDave,
I’m sure he would have said everything you did, if he had the wit to think of it.Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 09 24 at 10:44 PM • permalinkDoes the latest Mitsubishi come with a Red Cross sunroof? I wonder how many Mahdis Per Gallon it gets?
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 09 24 at 11:39 PM • permalinkIt’s a little hypocritical of Fitzgerald to snork on about PC censoring freedom of speech- after all he’s a lefty academic, and sometime advisor to well-known defender of freedom of expression* Peter Beattie.
“Progressive” humantities adademics such as Fitzy were exactly the diphits who invented the whole political correctness/postmodernist bollocks that stifles debate, clogs the judicial system and produces illiterates; I had the bastard for some long forgotten subject years ago, and what a load of steaming socialist shite it was- the actual contents were voided by my synapses within seconds of handing in the final paper.
*As long as you don’t express yourself with tobacco, or tip off the meeja about homicidal medical practitioners in state hospitals.
It’s often more subtle than erroneous squealing about free speech. Like the report about US aid to Afghanistan getting the critical treatment on 7.30 report.
“They built a highway but did not use Afghans.” Oh, really? A company recently completed the M7 around western Sydney and did not use existing concrete suppliers - because they did not have the huge capacity required - so they set up their own operation.
This is the supposedly “critical” and “free press” who swooned over Richard Branson’s recent announcement to (as the press heard it) “donate” money to alternative energy and greenhouse gas reduction industries.
I have read his book, and listened to him speak when interviewed on this subject - it sounded a lot more like “we will INVEST in alternative energy and greenhouse gas reduction industries” to me. He is in business after all, and knows how to get publicity for that end.
But our media stooges did not apply their critical faculties to that episode.#10 Shouldn’t they do that for Ramadan instead? But you can only drive them after dark.
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 09 25 at 09:44 AM • permalinkYa wanna talk PC? I was working with insecticide today, and my right hand on the Koran, I swear the label said, “for use against worker termites and winged reproductive specimens.”
Apparently it’s insensitive to call them queens anymore. Must have have something to do with the Very Small Penguins…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 09 25 at 08:59 PM • permalink
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Mr Fitzgerald forgets that free speech is constitutionally protected in the US. His intentions are good, free speech is precious but he cannot help but imply that although he supports the right of Catholics to oppose Jihad, he really is only doing it to support a principle. Patronising journalist don’t win converts.