Wednesday, July 21, 2004
The Right Wingers are starting to really piss me off....
Apparently the right to a political opionion belongs only to the Right Wing masses - and amazing bad behaviour is not only okay but encouraged when practice by the Right Wing hordes. I am ASHAMED of you all!!!! Apparently you feel that you are the only ones who have a right to the 1st Amendment too. Try again folks - It is Liberty and Justice for ALL - NOT just Right Wing Extreme Conservatives.
And if you are asking what set this off, the crowd reaction to Linda Rondstadt and her believing in her right to express her political beliefs at her concerts. Fie on you that think offensive public behaviour will make anyone with differing beliefs will change them in the face of hooliganism?
For more details, check this out.
Whether or not you want to believe in Michael Moore's movie (btw - there are plenty of articles from newspaper ACROSS the country - not to mention TV news stories that reflect the same image as this movie. Like Clinton before him, Bush is NOT perfect, and it is ridiculous to even elude that this is so, much less assume it. At least with Clinton we were well assured he had the intellect to assume his role as a world leader - I have yet to see solid evidence that this is so in our current President Bush. I see someone who cannot look someone in the eye (watch as how his eyes dart about in an uncontrolled manner when he is doing briefings) and someone who had shown deliberate disrespect to others around him (his penchant for patting bald heads and using others clothes as eyeglass wipes), not to mention his willful chosing NOT to face other ethnic groups, such as his chosing NOT to speak at the NAACP convention four years running -something not done by ANY other president, Republican or Democrat. I am not impressed. Show me something impressive done by Dubya that was not carefully staged by his handlers and I might change my mind, but I am highly sceptical that you can.
And if you are asking what set this off, the crowd reaction to Linda Rondstadt and her believing in her right to express her political beliefs at her concerts. Fie on you that think offensive public behaviour will make anyone with differing beliefs will change them in the face of hooliganism?
For more details, check this out.
Whether or not you want to believe in Michael Moore's movie (btw - there are plenty of articles from newspaper ACROSS the country - not to mention TV news stories that reflect the same image as this movie. Like Clinton before him, Bush is NOT perfect, and it is ridiculous to even elude that this is so, much less assume it. At least with Clinton we were well assured he had the intellect to assume his role as a world leader - I have yet to see solid evidence that this is so in our current President Bush. I see someone who cannot look someone in the eye (watch as how his eyes dart about in an uncontrolled manner when he is doing briefings) and someone who had shown deliberate disrespect to others around him (his penchant for patting bald heads and using others clothes as eyeglass wipes), not to mention his willful chosing NOT to face other ethnic groups, such as his chosing NOT to speak at the NAACP convention four years running -something not done by ANY other president, Republican or Democrat. I am not impressed. Show me something impressive done by Dubya that was not carefully staged by his handlers and I might change my mind, but I am highly sceptical that you can.
Comments:
Lil:
Nothing is going to change your mind. I don't plan to try.
Of course Linda Ronstadt has the right to express her opinions wherever she wants to. And anyone who hears those expressions has the same right to react to her expression of her opinions in whatever peaceful way he/she wants to.
Jerry Fallwell has the right to express his views however and wherever he wants to. People have the right to react in any peaceful manner to his utterances.
Same goes for everybody. Your right to free expression of political opinion is guaranteed to be protected from legal restrictions by the First Amendment. But that Amendment to the Constitution does not restrict other citizens from expressing any views they might hold either in favor or or opposed to your opinion as expressed by you whenever you put them out there.
In a societal - not a legal - context, here is what the First Amendment guarantees:
1. Everyone is guaranteed to hear/see/read/encounter some form of expression that they disagree with sometime in their lifetime.
2. Everyone is guaranteed to be mightily offended by someone's expression of opinions at some point.
3. Everytime someone is confronted with some viewpoint that is either disagreeable and/or offensive and that person reacts by wishing for or advocating some form of restriction, the First Amendment is there to protect everyone - including the person seeking the restriction.
[climbing down from the soapbox now]
Space Ace
Nothing is going to change your mind. I don't plan to try.
Of course Linda Ronstadt has the right to express her opinions wherever she wants to. And anyone who hears those expressions has the same right to react to her expression of her opinions in whatever peaceful way he/she wants to.
Jerry Fallwell has the right to express his views however and wherever he wants to. People have the right to react in any peaceful manner to his utterances.
Same goes for everybody. Your right to free expression of political opinion is guaranteed to be protected from legal restrictions by the First Amendment. But that Amendment to the Constitution does not restrict other citizens from expressing any views they might hold either in favor or or opposed to your opinion as expressed by you whenever you put them out there.
In a societal - not a legal - context, here is what the First Amendment guarantees:
1. Everyone is guaranteed to hear/see/read/encounter some form of expression that they disagree with sometime in their lifetime.
2. Everyone is guaranteed to be mightily offended by someone's expression of opinions at some point.
3. Everytime someone is confronted with some viewpoint that is either disagreeable and/or offensive and that person reacts by wishing for or advocating some form of restriction, the First Amendment is there to protect everyone - including the person seeking the restriction.
[climbing down from the soapbox now]
Space Ace
# posted by 
: 2:55 PM
: 2:55 PM
Hey ! You get no argument from me on Free Speech. I just don't think outrageous and destructive behaviour in public is attractive on either side. And Why in Heaven's Name anyone thinks that it is okay is beyond me! I will accept boos (not happy about them but can understand how the passion of the moment can affect one), but throwing things and being destructive is childish, immature, infantile (i.e. behaviour I would expect from my four year old but NOT from anyone beyond the age of 7 - and even that is showing lack of decent parental training.) But lets look at this - Anyone who has been a fan, or at least had a slight knowledge of Linda Rondstadt knows that she sits firmly on the Left Side of Things Political, and why in the world anyone would be surprised that she might possibly act as per her wont and KNOWN personality smacks of idiocy. That would like expecting water to NOT be wet, and then go plunging into a pool, and THEN throw a hissy fit because you came out soggier than a half-drowned cat!!!!!
Okay - that is beyond idiocy - it has moved into the realm of moronic and imbecilic.
I watched the 4th of July parade from the window at work - it was HEAVY into the realm of the Repubilican Party, with lots of whoops and happy hollers for the Bush party banners (and other republicans), with snide laughter to accompany the few Democratic Party (to include a loan Kerry car ;->) - but I figured 'why throw oil on the flames' as it certainly wouldn't make anyone feel better if I boo'd at every Bush display (okay - I admit it - I was heartily tempted) and it certainly would have made a lot of folks feel very very bad - NOT with what the celebration of the birth of our Country should be imbued.
What did those folks (and any others on EITHER side of the battle) really gain by their bad behaviour other than derision and disgust. They certainly didn't make their point any more clear. Now.. They certainly had a right to boo, AND to walk out to show their displeasure or disagreement. But it should have started AND ended there. The continuing acceleration of obnoxious and abyssmal behaviour on the sides of all affected parties, and decline of socially acceptable responses to situations makes me think that perhaps we have even more to fear from ourselves than from any terrorists who wishes to attack us. We are doing more to undermine our country, our community, our standing in the world and our solidity as compatriots than any number of heinous and horrendous attacks.
It makes me sad.
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Okay - that is beyond idiocy - it has moved into the realm of moronic and imbecilic.
I watched the 4th of July parade from the window at work - it was HEAVY into the realm of the Repubilican Party, with lots of whoops and happy hollers for the Bush party banners (and other republicans), with snide laughter to accompany the few Democratic Party (to include a loan Kerry car ;->) - but I figured 'why throw oil on the flames' as it certainly wouldn't make anyone feel better if I boo'd at every Bush display (okay - I admit it - I was heartily tempted) and it certainly would have made a lot of folks feel very very bad - NOT with what the celebration of the birth of our Country should be imbued.
What did those folks (and any others on EITHER side of the battle) really gain by their bad behaviour other than derision and disgust. They certainly didn't make their point any more clear. Now.. They certainly had a right to boo, AND to walk out to show their displeasure or disagreement. But it should have started AND ended there. The continuing acceleration of obnoxious and abyssmal behaviour on the sides of all affected parties, and decline of socially acceptable responses to situations makes me think that perhaps we have even more to fear from ourselves than from any terrorists who wishes to attack us. We are doing more to undermine our country, our community, our standing in the world and our solidity as compatriots than any number of heinous and horrendous attacks.
It makes me sad.
