Quick Roundup 40

Freedom of Speech Blogging

Boy! Get preoccupied for a couple of days and all sharia breaks loose....

(1) My fellow Objectivists were heavily involved in some intellectual activism regarding the appalling cowardice shown by the administration of NYU, which kowtowed to demands by Moslem students to censor an ARI-sponsored freedom of speech event called "Unveiling the Danish Cartoons."

Read all about it at Noodle Food and Thrutch. Amit Ghate of Thrutch has a couple of other interesting posts related to the matter as well, "Coverage of the NYU Event" and "Reconciling NYU and Borders". Update: NYU responds to the effect that if the Moslems just keep up their violent ways, they'll never have to worry about anything "offensive" being said about their religion at NYU. Pathetic.

(2) And then my fellow submariners have been standing up for the freedom of speech of an active duty submariner, Rob Schumacher, who now has navy lawyers investigating him because someone didn't like his blog and reported him. The consensus is that this will blow over, but for whoever reported him, I have two questions: "Do you really think the members of our armed services cannot speak their minds as private citizens? And, more to the point: Why are you demoralizing our men in a time of war?"

Perhaps the wrong man is being investigated.

TABC: Drunk on Power?

Via email, I learned that the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is getting ready to send undercover agents into bars to hunt for drunks.

Yeah that TABC.

(HT: Myrhaf)

Frivolous Lawsuit against Anti-CAIR Dismissed

This is very good news.

A $1.35 million libel suit filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) against Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR (ACAIR), who called CAIR a "terrorist front organization," that was "founded by Hamas supporters," and was working to "make radical Islam the dominant religion in the United States," has been dismissed with prejudice. According to ACAIR' Mr. Whitehead, who posts at www.anti-cair-net.org, "I am pleased to report the CAIR lawsuit has been dismissed after the parties reached a mutually agreeable settlement."

Terms of the settlement are confidential. However, no apology was issued, no retraction or corrections made, and the statements that triggered CAIR's suit remain on the ACAIR website. [link added]

Cox and Forkum have a good cartoon and roundup on CAIR's legal jihad here.

A Study in Contrasts

There's an old tasteless joke to the effect that the perfect woman would be 3'6", deaf, dumb, blind, have a flat head, and own a pub. Oh. And I almost forgot: toothless and big-eared.

Now, there's a place to get one, and they'll sometimes even throw in a tablecloth!

I have good domestic skills including cooking, cleaning,sewing, and raising farm animals. I'm an excellent conversationalist, of course only if you want me to be. Very subservient! ACT NOW!

Now why is it that most people -- especially so many of those supposedly interested in the rights of women -- would find the joke above more offensive than the notion -- taken seriously and drummed into the skulls of countless women the world over -- that a woman should immolate herself for a man by sacrificing her mind? At least the first, crass as it is, is only a joke.

Is it because it's easier to scold someone who should know better than it is to stand up to a barbarian?

The West needs to recalibrate in a hurry. (HT: Isaac Schroedinger and Ace of Spades HQ)

Weld Stumbles out of the Gate

The New York Sun editorializes on a tax cut proposal that is even more badly-presented than normal.

When we heard that Governor Weld was proposing eliminating the state income tax for those making less than $75,000 a year, we asked whether that would eliminate all state income tax for everyone on their first $75,000 in income or whether the tax break would apply just to those earning less than $75,000. The initial answer we received was that it was the former, which struck as a terrifically bold tax cut on the model of the growth-oriented income tax cuts that President Bush implemented after taking office. Call it the Good Start tax plan. But an aide to Mr. Weld, who is running as a Republican for governor of New York, later clarified that it is the second, meaning that Mr. Weld's tax-cutting program is off to a bad start. Call it the Bad Start tax plan.

It's bad enough that Republicans aren't challenging the idea at the root of taxation -- that the state can expropriate the property of its citizens by force -- but it's even worse when someone like Weld caves further to the notion that the rich somehow deserve to be taxed more than the poor.

-- CAV