OT : Free speech in the U.S.A.

Free speech gives everyone a voice including people who's views you don't agree with. That's the beauty of it. Although some things are not protected (telling fire in a crowded theatre, etc) you can speak your mind on issues even if they are contradictory to popular belief.

I've always felt that protesting at anyone's funeral is abhorrent.

I agree

I don't agree with what they did but they have the right to do it under free speech. I personally think they are dbags.

Free speech doesn't mean you can say whatever you want anywhere you want. For example, if someone rents a convention hall, funeral home, church, etc, they can restrict access. Protesters who disrupt private events are breaking the law, not exercising free speech. Take out a newspaper ad or rent your own space if you want to speak out.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. These loudmouth bullies are irritating but every time they open their mouth they expose themselves as the bigots and frauds that they really are. The best was to combat their behavior is to ignore them, I think the real problem is that too much coverage is given to these idiots.

I think funerals should be considered private events without the right for free speech to the general public, unless the main people involved make an exception.

I think protesting at funerals is almost as bad as shooting up people.

Personally, I hope to live my life in such a way that the Westboro Baptist Church pickets my funeral! Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness...

youtube.com

OT: for those of you keeping tabs... LG's latest FKK Golden Time review is out.

twentyfive +1

Those ignorant shitbags do it just to get attention. Our best revenge is to ignore them for the forgettable attention-whore retards that they are.

Well, we could always ask the pigs to spray the anti-gay protesters with water cannons. I agree that it is in very poor taste to picket at a funeral. Those who know me know that I am a free speech advocate, but there are limits as others here have pointed out.

Sure we have free speech, but it's not protected by me. Fuck those d-bags

I'm pretty much of a free speech absolutist. I loathe the Westboro "Baptist" "Church" d-bags but support their right to protest at funerals. Just ignore them completely and give them no publicity, in the same way that you should ignore trolls on the Internet.

IMO Canada and Europe (including, sadly, the UK, the birthplace of our American freedoms) are sliding down a slippery slope of restrictions on free speech, including the banning of so-called "hate speech". The real test of a person's or society's support for free speech is whether he/she/it tolerates speech that is racially, religiously, or sexually inflammatory.

I think the idea is that the government cannot specifically outlaw your speech because they don't agree with it. But this rule does not apply to any entity except the government.

But as you can see, there are still issues which come up.

I believe that we do need to look and see how other countries which have a differently developed legal system handle this.

SJG

25 said it perfectly

SJG, if by "other countries" you are referring to Canada and most Western European countries that are increasingly obsessed with "hate speech", "hate crimes", etc., what do we with our greater freedom of speech have to learn from them with their lesser freedom of speech? If Germany has a provision in its constitution forbidding denial of the Holocaust, should we? If Canada punishes pastors who refer to homosexual activity as sinful, should we? If Sweden decides next week to punish "climate change deniers" with hefty fines or even imprisonment, should we? My point is that other countries' legal systems shouldn't, in general, serve as models for ours. A country's legal system should arise organically from its history, culture, institutions, etc. and not copied from someone else.

Free speech is on it's last leg in America

The constitution needs a revision and so do our bibles

We need to redistribute the wealth in America and make the classes closer together

We need big government and higher taxes so we can have free health care and free education

Free cinnamon rolls too. :)

If we get big government or a socialist government, then they can just take our entire paycheck and give us rations for everything. One action per family for a tank of gas a month, one ration per family for one lap dance a month, one ration for everything else all for free. That's how things work with socialist countries, everyone gets stuff for free but they take a lot more than you get. If you don't like the thought of only one lap dance over month, or one tank of gas per month per family, then socialism isn't for you. If you like the thought that if you work hard and get paid more and get more for your money without the government taking it away from you, socialism isn't for you.

MrDeuce hit the nail squarely on the head.

The Westboro Baptist Cunts have the right to their opinions, and to the nonviolent, non trespassing expression of those rights.

And the rest of us have the right to express ours of them in the same way.

In a world where the Black Lies Matter people burn, loot and riot in Baltimore and Progressives call it a "protest" I refuse to care if some douche bags protest a funeral for a person who is gay.