Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Hate Crimes

According to this piece in the New York Times, Joe Lieberman has asserted the right to censor the Internet - no, not that the U.S. has the right, which would be dangerous enough, but that he has the right! He has "demanded" that videos he does not like be removed.

The legal issue is whether or not a video or other publication may inspire hatred and violence. Clearly, Joe Lieberman's recent speeches on Iran do exactly that. Given that we all (is this "given"???) accept that crying fire in a crowded theater is unacceptable, the issue becomes one of applying this standard. There seems to be plenty of room for compromise here: if calls for Islamic resistance against American imperialism are to be considered out-of-bounds, then certainly calls for nuclear attack on a non-nuclear country should be even more clearly out-of-bounds.

I'll trade you one hate-filled Islamic militant for one hate-filled neo-con.

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