Silence? Pshaw!
As an experiment in free-wheeling democracy, scams, porn, and information-war, the public version of the internet is a little over 15 years old. As a welcome tool for the powers that be, old-media, and power-mongers, let’s face it: a free web is the enemy. Ordinary peasants like you and me with info, connections, Googling facts, and making blogs and websites on any possible topic? Troublesome. Uppity.
Whatever China and is for or against is usually a good way of measuring things, as long as you swap the plusses and minusses to get things right-side up.
God & Jesus & Christianity? Bad. Roman Christianity? Very bad. Internet? Bad. Free speech? Really bad. Peasant slavery? Good. Prison/ re-education camps? Good. Sponsoring terrorism? Good. Oil & Jihad? Good. Democratic freedoms? Very very bad.
Blub, Blub, Blub
Well, word comes from one of the former bastions of common-sense in the world, Australia, that they want to get onside with the bad guys (yes, they recently voted socialist).
“The Australian Government has announced that they will be joining China as one of the few countries globally that broadly censor the internet.”
Oh joy, oh bliss.
The hard liberal-left, the UNocracy, the EUSSR, the Human Rights Commission types, Islamo-fascists, Communists, and tyrants of all stripes really find that freedom as magnified by busy folks on the internet is a total hassle. It interrupts the message; it’s really irritating — in short, it TOTALLY harshes the mellow of our betters. FreeSpeechery? Pah!
Of course, “By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good” is a blind madness, not true sanity to be imposed on all, as T.S. Eliot warned:
They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
But the man that is shall shadow
The man that pretends to be.
Those who try and do to others for their own good, according to their own will and powers, are dehumanized dehumanizers. The 20th century should serve as warning enough to would-be totalitarians: it doesn’t work, the truth will out, and democracy is a system to protect us from the evil of the one or the few imposing their good intentions on the rest of us.
Not Quietly
In any case, if the lights are starting to go out on the free web, let’s rage and fight against the dying of the light, and make the maximum good mischief we can while opportunity affords. After all, the foundation of Western civilization is not the power of rulers or the whims of bureaucrats, but the eternal light shining from the broken tomb, an undefeatable victory.
Even if we’re not sure about faith, we can act as if we do, and fight for the right with a hope and confidence and character that worldly power cannot understand or destroy.
Noli nothis permittere te terere! *
Binks
~ WHAT’S THAT? You want a little whole lot more joy in your life? Then join FreeMarkSteyn reader John M., who recently and generously sent along Defying Rome, Michael Yon’s Moment of Truth In Iraq, along with Andrew McCarthy’s new Willful Blindness to the BinkBunker/ WebElf HQ. Join the joy! Share the crazy-extreme satisfaction of knowing that you personally are aiding and abetting the edutainment of the Binks, his own self! Say thanks today with a little something to your fave blogger of all things FreeSpeechy …. (amazon.com)
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Steyn
~ IN BOOKSTORES NOW! AMERICA ALONE IN PAPERBACK — “Mark’s back on the Canadian hit parade. Oh, and the Steyn/Socks showdown made the US airwaves on yesterday’s Dennis Miller show. Tomorrow morning, Steyn will go mano a pinkyringed mano with Canadian Islamic Congress mouthpiece Faisal Joseph, live on the John Oakley show (see box at right for details). And don’t forget you can order your personally autographed copy of Mark’s bestselling hate crime exclusively from the Steyn Store.” …. (Various)
~ HUGGYBEAR ON THE AIR! “On Wednesday morning at 8am Eastern, Mark goes head to head with Canadian Islamic Congress lawyer Faisal Joseph live on The John Oakley Show at AM640 in Toronto” …. (640toronto.com)
~ CANADA vs FREE SPEECH: “THIS IS SO MUSLIM” — Barbara Hall as Chief Imam. Plus: The Justice Minister speaks, and the disingenuous Socks …. (steynonline)
~ WEASELS in Seattle stick up for Mark Steyn …. (marginalizedactiondinosaur)
~ STEYN CONTRA SOCKS? Dennis Miller’s paging Steve Paikin …. (fivefeetoffury)
~ HATS OF HATE! “Attention Infidels! Here’s the info to get your very own Steyn-approved Infidel hat. Hats will be $20.00 each plus shipping. There will be at least $10.00 of profit to go to the defense fund at that price.” …. (girlontheright.com, 5fof)
Ezra Levant
~ EZRA LEVANT the feds for relying on rather out of date left wing American legal scholarship for which he is to be commended …. (jaycurrie)
FreeSpeechiness
“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.”
– Louis D. Brandeis, Olmstead vs. United States, 1928
~ UPCOMING EVENT! Toronto Lunch & Learn at the U of T Faculty Club. Speaker: John Thompson, The Mackenzie Institute* ‘Terror, Radical Islam and Free Speech’ — Thursday May 15, 12:30 PM …. (fivefeetoffury)
~ POPE REMINDS Spouses of their “Responsibility To Generate New Children” …. (lifesitenews.com)
~ DEBORAH GYAPONG— The draconian government defence of hate speech laws; The inbuilt tendency to scapegoat; Most Canadians would rather have a Muslim political leader; BBC correspondent recognizes important but paradoxical truths; The government’s support of Subsection 13 (1) …. (deborahgyapong.blog)
~ PUNDITA: “Have a banana, Justice Minister Nicholson” …. (pundita.blog)
~ SOCON.CA on Warman vs. Lemire– “Let’s Make A Deal” …. (socon.ca)
~ LETTER TO THE ED— “Free speech or blackmail?” …. (nationalpost)
~ SUBMITTING TO LEVIATHAN: Christian Ministry drops code of conduct after losing Human Rights case. In other news, Canadian Jewish Congress forced to hire neo-nazis; Muslim mosques forced to hire infidels. Freedom of Religion kidnapped, beaten, raped, tossed in a ditch from a moving car, left to die …. (fivefeetoffury, lsn)
~ TAKING ON THE brains-trust: “Where they burn books”; Alexander Tsesis: a sound debunking…so why does the Department of Justice Canada cite this guy again? …. (blazingcatfur.blog)
~ FREESPEECHERS? The moral equivalent of hiding Nazis in your attic during WW2; Rob Breakenridge on the latest Muslim cartoon “outrage”; and “Sorry, that should read “SOME (crazy, pushy, idiot) Muslims.” Better?” …. (fivefeetoffury)
~ THERE’S A NEW PRO-STEYN Facebook thing up, apparently full of young rebels ‘gainst the hard-won blessings of Trudeaupianism. Take a Look …. (fFaceBook)
~ EN FRANCAIS— Liberté d’expression: Campagne pour la libération du cyberdissident égyptien Kareem Amer. “Kareem Amer critiquait l’islam sur son blogue. Il a été condamné à la prison pour avoir incité à la haine de l’islam. Une campagne de Reporters sans frontières pour soutenir sa libération est en cours. On peut s’attendre que la gauche, les commissions des droits au Canada, Louise Arbour et Ban Ki Moon ne soutiendront pas ce cyberdissident “islamophobe”. Il est temps qu’ils se posent des questions sur les valeurs qu’ils défendent.” 12 mai, par Annie Lessard, Marc Lebuis …. (pointdebasculecanada.ca)
~ WHO NEEDS FREE SPEECH ANYWAY? Paul Martin did say you can cherry pick charter rights …. (MaD)
~ LETTER to A-G re: Freedom of Speech …. (blazingcatfur.blog)
~ WHO CARES IF THEY WEAR you down with legal fees time off work etc.; Why you get a criminal code 319 charge for a section 13 human rights offence, even if all the charges for hate crimes will be dropped …. (marginalizedactiondinosaur)
~ BREAKENRIDGE TAKES ON Federal Minister of (In)Justice; and “Calgary Herald Column – Wither Freedom of the Press?” …. (am770chqr)
~ RELIGIOUS intolerance and hate that the MSM’s support …. (MaD)
~ R.A.G.E. MEDIA Supports Free Speech in Canada! “Support Free Speech In Canada” …. (blazingcatfur.blog, 5fof)
~ SHOTGUN BLOG— “Who’s defending political speech in Alberta?” …. (shotgun)
~ CELESTIAL JUNK— “Your “Progressive” Future… is here, when United Nations bureaucrats can tell you whether or not you may build a bridge” …. (cjunk.blog)
~ SHIRE NETWORK news podcast: “Podcast salutes America’s Favorite Mom” …. (shirenetworknews)
~ VIA LAWISCOOL: “Freedom of hate speech” by Soroush Seifi …. (lawiscool.com)
~ ADVERTISING FOR ATHEISM— Video: The Worshipping of the Giant Puppets …. (lgf)
~ DEMOCRACY? Feh! We’re SOCIALISTS! “NDP tells Senate to shut up” …. (rjjago)
~ GLOBAL WARMENING— Chaiten volcano has offered up some spectacular photographs …. (cjunk.blog)
Jihad, Terror & 7th Century Fun
~ ROBERT SPENCER: “In FrontPage today, I discuss a premier stealth jihad weapon: the death threat card” …. (jihadwatch)
~ IMAGINE.. NO JEWS! “Islamist blogger Shaukat Khawja really, really doesn’t like Jews — so much so, in fact, that he would rather that Theodor Herzl’s proposal that all Jews convert (or be converted) to Christianity had gone through back in its day” …. (timeimmortal)
~ ZIONIST PLOT! ‘Female Schindler’ Irene Sendler, who allegedly saved presumed thousands of supposedly Jewish theoretical children, dies …. (atlasshrugs2000)
~ TOLERANT JORDAN: Man Charged With Honor Killing, Drowned Sister in Dead Sea …. (Wz)
~ THE WHAT-NOW? “Palestinian Holcaust”? UC Irvine’s Blood Libel on the Jews. This is an outrage …. (atlasshrugs2000, frontpagemag)
~ PAGING SYED SOHARWARDY— Pakistanis Protest in Support of Hezbollah …. (Wz)
~ THE US LEFT BLAMES U.S. FOR LEBANON JIHAD— The pro-Islamic Left loves story-time …. (atlasshrugs2000)
~ DUST MY BROOM on Tarek Fatah’s new book– “Chasing the Mirage – online” …. (dustmybroom)
~ ANDREW BOSTOM— “Misunderstanding Islamic Antisemitism: Looking to history can provide some answers” …. (frontpagemag)
~ DEM PUZZLING SAUDIS: We Must Stop Iran From Turning Lebanon Into an Islamic State …. <font Wz
~ FUN WITH Islamist Lawfare …. (blazingcatfur.blog)
~ ADORABLE Radical Islamist to Speak at Ohio College …. (Wz)
~ LEFTY HATE for stupid old Jews Israel: “The Protocols of the Daily Kos” …. (lgf)
~ FOOD FOR THOUGHT— “At its worst, Christianity makes compromises with the pagan heritage of its converts, which is why Sicilian Catholics killed for honor until recently; at its best, Islam embodies this pagan heritage, which is why it cannot rid itself of barbarism today.” …. (fivefeetoffury)
~ VIA MALKIN— See no jihad, hear no jihad, speak no jihad; State Department Outreach to Terror Groups; The Government’s Jihad on Jihad …. (Various)
~ GEAR UP THE MOBS; call the printer.. oh, and the kabob caterer– “Salman Rushdie Favored to Win UK’s Top Literary Award” …. (Wz)
~ WAHHABIS Sentence Man to 150 Lashes for Unchaperoned Meeting With Woman …. (Wz)
~ BAREFOOT, PREGGERS, IN A BURKA— India: Study Finds Muslim Women Intentionally Kept Illiterate …. (Wz)
Israel’s Independence on Video
A Swift Sunrise 