Thursday, December 01, 2005

Censorship: How the government OWN3D us all

The FCC never fails to amaze me with their blatant defiance of our blood-ransomed right to free speech. Where did they get the term "acceptable for community standards" out of this black-and-white decree?:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

According to Dictionary.com, to abridge means to "reduce in scope while retaining essential elements". It seems to me the fathers made it very clear that in no way shall the government step on the freedom of the press, or anyone's right to speak or broadcast whatever they wish.

In practice, this might be debatable if we were talking about public broadcast media, subsidized by tax money. Instead, we're talking about cable television, which all customers must pay per month to view. Basically, we've got the FCC now telling Comedy Central, telling South Park (and others) what they can and can't show to an audience of paying customers. If that's not evil enough for you, I'll leave you with a Patrick Henry quote to wake you up to the severity of it:

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."

-Partick Henry, to the Virginia Convention of June 5, 1788

As always, I'll remind you that a revolution of ideas will likely suffice, but we need to combat this usurpation of Constitutional Rights with whatever means are necessary. Our freedom, and our very lives depend on it. Our ancestors fought King George's mighty Redcoat Army in places like Lexington, Concorde, and Valley Forge in order to secure these freedoms for future generations of free Americans. It is a sad day when the very government we installed to protect ourselves has grown into such a monster that it feels it can control the freedoms of the citizens it derives its power from. We can honor the sacrifice of all our patriots of both the pen and the sword by protecting these sacred rights, and not allowing some non-elected buerocrat in Washington to decide what ideas we may consume.

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