Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism.
Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards banquet, said a "different set of rules" may be needed to reduce terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and get out their message.
Gingrich spoke to about 400 state and local power brokers last night at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment award dinner, which fêtes people and organizations that stand up for freedom of speech.
I had to look up "fêtes" to make sure the meaning, as I read it, in the context of the last paragraph above was correct.
French, from feste, n.:
- to honor (a person) or commemorate (an event) with a fête (feted) : ENTERTAIN when the circus came to town ... he would welcome the train in the railway yards, fête the performers
One has to wonder how this organization reacted to Gingrich's comments. He is defiantly not standing up for freedom of speech.
Gingrich is also affirming just how dumb the GOP is when it comes to understanding the Internet. They do not understand that any law or restriction under American law can apply only within the USA and not to the Internet as a whole. The Internet is global and not in the control of any one state.
Gingrich and the GOP also miss on another account......
I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking. It cannot be so easily discovered if you allow him to remain silent and look wise, but if you let him speak, the secret is out and the world knows that he is a fool. So it is by the exposure of folly that it is defeated; not by the seclusion of folly, and in this free air of free speech men get into that sort of communication with one another which constitutes the basis of all common achievement.
WOODROW WILSON, “That Quick Comradeship of Letters,” address at the Institute of France, Paris, May 10, 1919
Freedom of speech provides the greatest protection against all evils, INTERNAL and external. If they are really concerned about terrorists' ability to use the Internet to "recruit and get out their message" they need to look in the mirror and ask why they cannot use the Internet to get out their message and counteract terrorists. I've got a oft used phrase that applies, "Dumb & Dumber."
No comments:
Post a Comment