Category Archives: Legal

Freedom, Group Identification, and Consequences

Church and State, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Culture, Doublespeak, Dumbasses and Authoritarians, Free Speech, Freedom, Freedom of Association, Government Regulation, Individual Rights, Legal, Liberty, Political Correctness, Religious Liberty, Strategies For Advancing Liberty, Supreme Court, Theory and Ideas

To anyone trying to make the Cliven Bundy issue, or the Donald Sterling issue, or the Brendan Eich issue about freedom of speech…

…PLEASE STOP…

They are unrelated, and MOSTLY irrelevant, to free speech.

None are a question of freedom of speech.

All three are a question of bad PR and violating contract terms.

These idiots are not victims of oppression… at least as far as speech goes.

“Well, that’s just your perspective… this is mine”

No… You can have your own opinions, you cannot have your own facts.

This is not an opinion or a perspective, it is a fact. In making this argument, you are entirely and completely incorrect, in both fact and in principle…

That’s not so bad… it’s OK to be wrong… everyone is wrong about many things, every day.

What IS so bad, and why you must be corrected, is that by passionately advocating such a patently false viewpoint, and making weak and specious arguments to support it, you weaken the very important ACTUAL battle to restore and maintain free speech.

Using bad arguments for your cause HURTS your cause, it does not help it.

There are some very serious threats to free speech in this country, particularly on college campuses and in schools. There are supreme court cases in this session, and coming up addressing these issues right now… and the picture is decidedly mixed.

    We are dangerously close to criminalizing, or at least accepting some kind of official sanction, on “hate speech” in this country. We already HAVE criminalized “suspect motivations”, through “hate crime” law.
    The Government is spying on and intimidating reporters, with the DOJ going after those it perceives as enemies.
    Witnesses are being suppressed out of fear of government retaliation.
    The IRS has gone after conservative political groups, simply for being conservative.
    We have enacted insane regulations about who can say what, when, and with how much and whose money, when it comes to politics and elections.

These are HUGE REAL PROBLEMS.

By equating things which are not about rights and freedoms, to things which are, you weaken rights and freedoms, and make them more difficult to defend.

Freedom of speech means you have the right to say as you damn well please and the government can’t stop you or punish you for it (except in some very strictly limited ways).

It doesn’t mean that private persons or organizations have to publish you, support you, employ you, associate with you, provide you with a forum or an audience, or listen to you.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence.

If you can’t back everything you say, and accept the consequences, then perhaps your problem is not one of lack of freedom, but of lack of courage.

“But… but… political correctness… thought police… BAD”

Yes.

I never said that political correctness WASN’T a chilling force on freedom of speech and even freedom of conscience… Of course it is.

…But that is not the same as government using force against you because of it (though with “hate speech” and things like campus “speech codes”, we have to be very careful of that).

The problem with believing in freedom is that you have to believe in it for everyone, including people you don’t like, or whose ideas you don’t like, or who do bad things with it.

Private individuals and organizations can choose who they wish to associate with freely, and who they wish to support or oppose freely (or at least they are supposed to be able to).

That means both things and people that you like, and things and people that you don’t.

That means you can be fired for expressing yourself. It means you can be fired for your political and social views. It means you can be fired for your private behavior. It means you can lose your customers, your money, your reputation…

In fact, everything but your life, and your freedom.

A free society means we have to put up with that.

We don’t have to like it, but we DO have to put up with it.

And many of us actually have very little problem with it… so long as it’s aligned with THEIR personal beliefs.

Frankly, I don’t see very many “social conservatives” complaining very much when it’s “progressives”, gays, atheists, muslims, “perverts” etc… who experience negative consequences for their beliefs (admittedly, that is certainly not true of all. Some do decry all of this as suppression of free speech and freedom of conscience).

Most “social conservatives” aren’t complaining when church groups or conservative groups try to get certain things banned, or removed from libraries or schools, or have teachers, or school administrators, or abortion providers fired…

…because you don’t like their ideas or how they express them.

…Really, most anyone who you would identify as the enemy, or the “other side” or whatever other outgroup identification it may be…. seems it’s ok to you if THEY have to live with the consequences of their choices, actions, and words…

Most of you are only complaining when it’s happening to those you identify as YOUR ingroup, or for people whose opinions and ideas you agree with.

Again, not always, not everyone… but most.

The same of course is true of “the other side”… starting to see the point yet?

So really… What you’re asking for is not “freedom of speech”, it’s “freedom of speech that you like”, and freedom FROM both speech, and consequence that you don’t.

That’s not freedom. That exactly the same as “the other side”… you just like the opinions better.

Chris Byrne
I am a cynically romantic optimistic pessimist. I am neither liberal, nor conservative. I am a (somewhat disgruntled) muscular minarchist… something like a constructive anarchist.

Basically what that means, is that I believe, all things being equal, responsible adults should be able to do whatever the hell they want to do, so long as nobody’s getting hurt, who isn’t paying extra

http://anarchangel.blogspot.com

The Problem With Freedom…

Culture, Freedom of Association, Human Rights, Individual Rights, Keep and Bear Arms, Legal, Liberty, Politics, Property Rights, Theory and Ideas

Here’s the problem with supporting liberty and freedom… You have to support peoples liberty and freedom to be assholes and idiots.

I think discriminating against gays or blacks or anyone else for some arbitrary characteristic that doesn’t harm you is fucking idiotic, and proof that you are a total asshole.

However, I think you should be free to associate with, or exclude, anyone you want to from your private property, or private business.

Why?

Because that’s what freedom of conscience, and true property rights are.

The right to associate with those you wish, and not associate with those you do not, is inherent to freedom of conscience.

The right of exclusion IS one of the three fundamental rights of private property (the others being the rights to use and dispose of the property as you see fit, and the right to the outputs, proceeds, and benefits accrued on or by the property).

Arbitrary discrimination by private businesses is wrong, stupid, offensive, and just bad business.

But it shouldn’t be illegal.

Note: At least not for truly private businesses.

There is an argument to be made that public corporations, because of the legal protections they receive from the government, and their “public ownership” through equities; should not be allowed to discriminate. Some even argue that by obtaining a business license, a business can be prohibited from discrimination.

Unless such prohibition is written into the law for licensure of these businesses, or for the foundation and governance of a company, I disagree with this argument (and I have issues with the concept of making anti-discrimination part of the law, again on the grounds above), but there is at least a basis for it.

Oh and for those of you who think this is just about gays… it applies equally to guns. I think that businesses that exclude lawful bearers of arms from their premises are idiots, and that it’s bad business… but its THEIR property, and they have the right to exclude me if they want to.

The GOVERNMENT should NEVER be allowed to discriminate, nor should any public utility, or any organization with a lawful monopoly. Any organization with which interaction is mandatory, or their power over you is involuntary, can never be allowed to discriminate.

Private individuals, and private property though, can never be prohibited from doing so… at least if we value and wish to preserve freedom and liberty (and in this country, frequently and unfortunately, we do not).

Freedom of conscience though, is a wonderful thing… They get to discriminate. Guess what, so do you. You can choose not to patronize their business. You can organize all your friends… and the entire world if everyone else is so inclined… to not patronize that business.

That’s freedom for ya…

Oh and by the by, these laws currently proceeding in several states explicitly legally authorizing business to refuse to serve people on the basis of their sexual orientation, are part of the blowback I predicted would result from the current strategy many in the gay rights movement have of “suing our way to normalcy”…

“Dammit, if they don’t want to make my same sex wedding cake, I’ll SUE”.

Or worse “We’ll get married in Massachusetts, and then move to Kansas and sue for them to recognize our marriage”.

Many lied saying that would never happen. Many more well intentioned supporters honestly believed the lie, and repeated it.

When I raise this issue with my liberal friends, they often say that I am being ridiculous.

It HAS been happening, from the first legally recognized same sex marriages in this country.

It’s a bad strategy, and it has and will continue to backfire.

Chris Byrne
I am a cynically romantic optimistic pessimist. I am neither liberal, nor conservative. I am a (somewhat disgruntled) muscular minarchist… something like a constructive anarchist.

Basically what that means, is that I believe, all things being equal, responsible adults should be able to do whatever the hell they want to do, so long as nobody’s getting hurt, who isn’t paying extra

http://anarchangel.blogspot.com

LAPD Officers Fire Shots at Innocent People; Taxpayers Punished

Crime and Punishment, Dumbasses and Authoritarians, Government Ethics, Government Incompetence, Government Waste, Legal, Police Watch, Security

Remember the LAPD shooting incident that occurred during their manhunt for Christopher Dorner just over one year ago? The one in which eight LAPD officers fired 103 shots into a vehicle that kinda sorta looked like the one Dorner was believed to be driving but turned out to be two women delivering newspapers without making any threatening moves to justify using deadly force whatsoever?

Though fortunately, both women survived, these eight cops would surely be charged criminally or at the very least never be allowed to work for law enforcement ever again…right? Maybe, maybe not (I have read conflicting reports). Some may be terminated while others may be retrained.

But the very idea that these cops should ever be allowed to have a concealed carry weapons permit (CCW) let alone patrol the streets as police officers is absurd and irresponsible. As outrageous as this determination is, there was actually an effort to clear the officers of any wrongdoing (These cops were dealing with a very stressful situation, after all). Thankfully, Chief Charlie Beck told the Police Commission that the officers should be found in violation of LAPD policy (I should hope this would violate LAPD policy!) at the very least.

The victims of this shooting/attempted murder will be compensated at the tune of $4.2 million plus an additional $40,000 to replace the vehicle at taxpayer expense. Certainly this is the very least the City of Los Angeles could do.

Any time one of these events happen, I can’t help but wonder, what would happen to a normal person who behaved this way? What would be the reaction if eight individuals sans the government issued costumes fired shots into a vehicle because they were feeling threatened by someone and resulted in the exact same outcome?

I think it is very safe to say that all eight would be doing hard time at San Quentin and would be paying damages to the women with their own money. It’s also safe to say that none of the 8 would ever be allowed to own a firearm in the future or allowed to vote if they lived long enough to get out of prison.

And rightfully so.

The government issued costumes should not protect individuals from an irresponsible, criminal act such as this. But unless and until we hold local governments and local law enforcement accountable, these criminal acts will continue and we will continue to foot the bill.

Stephen Littau
http://fpffressminds.blogspot.com/

Liberty Rock: “Spike in My Veins” by Korn

Civil Liberties, Conspiracy Theories, Corruption, Culture, Democrats, Hope n' Change, Hubris, Human Rights, Independents, Legal, Libertarians, Liberty, Liberty Rock, Media, Multimedia, Police Watch, Politics, Republicans, Security, Sex, Technology, The Surveillance State, War on Terror

This is a great, important, video. I hope you will enjoy this. I have some additional thoughts about this video and this subject posted here.

We are the ones taking all the pain
Falling on our faces
They don’t care anyway
Anyway, now
You’re the one that makes me feel like I’m alive
You’re the one that pushes me all the time
All the time, now

We are hard and grey
Always fate, to do what they say
Calling me deranged
Feeling power, I must take its place some way

Never gonna run away
Seeking out the path
But the pain always gets in the way
Slowly watch me die
I’m insane, so dangerous
Don’t you dare get in my way
Throwing in the towel
Got me strained, so betrayed
Get the fuck out of my way
Looking at my thoughts, I take my time
Pounding all these spikes in my veins

We are the ones reaching out in vain
Trying to solve our problems
They won’t go away, go away now
You’re the one that makes me feel like I’m alive
You’re the one that pushes me all the time
All the time, now

We are hard and grey
Always fate to do what they say
Calling me deranged
Feeling power, I must take its place some way

Never gonna run away
Seeking out my path
But the pain always gets in the way
Slowly watch me die
I’m insane, so dangerous
Don’t you dare get in my way
Throwing in the towel
Got me strained, so betrayed
Get the fuck out of my way
Looking at my thoughts, I take my time
Pounding all these spikes in my veins

Pounding all these spikes in my veins
Pounding all these spikes in my veins
Pounding all these spikes in my veins

Never gonna run away
Seeking out my path
But the pain always gets in the way
Slowly watch me die
I’m insane, so dangerous
Don’t you dare get in my way
Throwing in the towel
Got me strained, so betrayed
Get the fuck out of my way
Looking at my thoughts, I take my time
Pounding all these spikes in my veins

Pounding all these spikes in my veins
Pounding all these spikes in my veins
Pounding all these spikes in my veins
Pounding all these spikes in my veins
Pounding all these spikes in my veins
Looking at my thoughts, I take my time
Pounding all these spikes in my veins

Stephen Littau
http://fpffressminds.blogspot.com/

BOOK REVIEW: The United States of Paranoia

Book Reviews, Conspiracy Theories, Constitution, Corruption, Culture, Founding Fathers, Government Ethics, Government Incompetence, Government Transparency, History, Hubris, Legal, Media, Politics, Privacy, Recovered from the Memory Hole, Reviews, Security, The Bill Of Rights, The Nanny State, The Surveillance State, Theory and Ideas

Conspiracy theories are only believed by people on the fringe of American politics? Not so says Reason’s Jesse Walker in his latest book: The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory. Walker argues quite the opposite in his opening chapter: “The Paranoid Style is American Politics”:

By the time this book is over, I should hope it will be clear that when I say virtually everyone is capable of paranoid thinking, I really do mean virtually everyone, including you, me, and the founding fathers. As the sixties scare about the radical Right demonstrates, it is even possible to be paranoid about paranoids. (p. 24)

For those who are hoping that this is another book in which the author’s goal is to prove or disprove any particular conspiracy theory, Walker makes is clear that this is not what this book is about (for the most part). He also makes a point to acknowledge that some conspiracies have been proven true (ex: Watergate among these, see Chapter 7 for more examples), “At the very moment you are reading this, someone somewhere is probably trying to bribe a politician. The world is filled with plots both petty and grand…” (p.21). Instead telling the reader what to believe, Walker tells a history about what people have believed on this continent from colonial times to now and how these beliefs have shaped the political debate and very the culture itself.

Among the earliest examples of American conspiracies shaping politics and culture resulted in the infamous Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600’s. According to the belief at the time, witches conspired together and with the Devil to bring evil to the land. Disease and other misfortunes the colonists suffered were believed to be the direct result of these alleged Satanic rituals. Men and women were accused, tried, and executed with little or no evidence. The legacy of Salem continues today. When some public official is accused with wrongdoing, credibly or not, the accused and his or her defenders inevitably will call the proceedings a “witch hunt.”

Soon after the colonies won their independence from Great Britain and became the United States of America, the citizenry turned its distrust of power inward. Who could be trusted to lead this new nation and how could the people keep another tyrant or a cabal of tyrants from taking control? As it turns out, many of these fears were quite legitimate. Not everyone was satisfied with the Articles of Confederation. There were actual conspiracies afoot to overthrow existing system under the AOC in which the several states had most of the power while the national government had little. An attempted military coup called the “Newburgh Conspiracy” was stopped when George Washington convinced his fellow soldiers that overthrowing the government by force was not the right way to go about changing the political system.

» Read more

Stephen Littau
http://fpffressminds.blogspot.com/
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