Limiting Our Freedom, Just in Case

 The First Amendment to the US Constitution is written as follows:

"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."

The First Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791 and while its wording refers to prohibitions regarding the US Congress from enacting laws that would challenge our freedom of speech, in 1925 the Supreme Court used Gitlow v. New York to also prohibit the state legislature from dong the same.  

Of course, there are exceptions to our freedom of speech and this makes sense.  We cannot legally say things that incite crime or use "fighting words" that could lead to violence.  The First Amendment doesn't allow for child pornography nor seditious speech, but even with the latter, it must be clear that this would be a danger to our country--military secret disclosure falls into this category.  And there are other forms of speech that are not necessarily permitted, like public employee speech.

But there is nothing in our US Constitution that prohibits us from speaking out about religious beliefs, or our opinions regarding pretty much anything.  This would include the use of art in this expression.  We have, for example, artists doing renditions of Jesus covered in urine, Mary engaged in sexual behavior, and so on.  Then there's the Danish cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, who created a cartoon of Muhammad that shows him wearing a bomb in his turban.  You probably remember the controversy it raised and Westergaard's life was threatened by irate Muslims who look for things to get irate over.  He continues to receive death threats and murder attempts and is under ongoing police protection from the religion of peace.

Most disturbingly is the attempt of our current administration to pass anti-blasphemy laws which would forbid the freedom to speak out against Islam, but probably not deter this from speaking out against Christianity or Judaism.  They say it's the squeaky wheel that gets oiled, but in this case, it's the crazies that get pacified.  It seems like we, as a nation, have amnesia--at least liberals do--we have forgotten those images of the building crashing down.  We have forgotten the "birds" jumping from those buildings to escape the flames.  We have tolerated those who are intolerant of us and that is simply suicidal and stupid.  We have a president who bows to an Islamic king, and who now wants to stop Americans from exercising their freedoms.

I find it hard to understand how anyone in this country could actually vote for Obama, except for the fact that the leftist media controls the message.  But the leftist media is losing ground to the blogs, the social media, Fox News, and word of mouth.  It's about time.

My latest novel, Jihad Joe, is about Islamic terrorism and suspense.  In it I challenge the precepts of the religion through my protagonist, Zed Nill, a journalist, captured by terrorists and who is destined to be killed if the American President refuses to release three Gitmo prisoners.  Of course, American policy demands we never give in to terrorists, and for Zed, the clock is ticking.

Jihad Joe Soft Cover       

click here for ebook version  

My other blog New York Canuck

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