Re: CHAT: OFF: RANT: OFFENSIVE: TAN: CHAT: Re: Ebonic Christmas

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000, Paul Bennett wrote:

> I am fed up to the back teeth of the modern Liberal media (I'm
> using the word Liberal (capital-{L}) in its commonly-understood
> american sense, as opposed to the commonly-understood american
> meaning of the word Conservative), especially in America, telling
> people they dare not so much as breathe lest it offend somebody,
> be it a man, woman, black, white, young, old, jewish, muslim, etc,
> etc, etc.
buzz buzz buzz.  Can the right even *think* without buzzwords?

Let's be bright enough, if we can, to draw a distinction between *legal
rights of free speech* and being an asshole.  I have a right to say
whatever I like as long as it's not libelous or slanderous, and as long as
it does not directly endanger anyone.  In other words, I have an absolute
legal right to be a complete asshole.  I *furthermore* have the right to
point out when other people have been complete assholes, and ask that they
apologize.

We're not ammending the constitution here -- we're just saying
that the poem was offensive.