Free speech rapidly declining in the world

You’ve probably seen the leaked Wikileaks documents where Bob Gates said that “Russian democracy has disappeared and the government was an oligarchy run by the security services”  (here). OK,  you probably didn’t need a leaked document  for an assessment that’s already well established. But Russia isn’t the only place where free speech is dead or withering. It’s happening in the West as well, including this country, where, among other reasons, the intoxication of trying to incorporate Islamzation into its multiculturally fabricated society is creating a dictatorship of language that would do Orwell’s 1984 novel proud. Free speech is increasingly seen as hate speech, especially along religious lines where downright medieval apostasy law is gaining support. Unlike Winston from 1984, however, free speech advocates aren’t caving in. To get a good compendium of what governments are doing to limit speech, and of what individuals are doing to protest this infringement, check out The International Free Press Society site.

Flash: a Grand Banana Republic university endorses Free Speech (no, I am NOT kidding)

I can hear the bells ringing. It’s the ringing audacity of hope. The University of Virginia eliminates totalitarian speech codes. You heard me. I know you don’t believe it, I mean you’re a student living in the darkenss of your Big Brother campus and you think this is just cruel teasing…well, knave, I am not kidding. A university in the bowels of the Grand Banana Republic has actually gone First Amendment. Here (The Fire).

In other fatwa news…

Here.

Another country loses it free speech…

Most of us now know the trial of Geert Wilders going on in Holland–he dared speak of the totalitarian nature of Islam–but how many of you know about the case of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, an Austrian woman who faces the possibility of three years in prison in  Austria for delivering a lecture on the Islamic threat to liberty. Read a short synopsis of this incredible story here (Big Peace).

Update: I always hate to be the bearer of good news that disrupts my grotesquely pessimistic and cynical view of the world  but there is this: “The first hurdle has been won in the heresy trial of Geert Wilders. Islamic supremacists have failed in their relentless attack on free men. It isva good day for freedom lovers the world over…” Here (Atlas Shrugs)

Redefining free speech

“…Breyer essentially said that since the internet makes it possible for news to travel instantly across the planet, the world is made much more dangerous by people simply express themselves in ways to which others may react violently. Therefore, courts should reinterpret America’s core values in light of the ‘global’ community. Breyer seems to argue for courts to redefine free speech by taking into account whom the courts think may be offended by the speech…” Here (Clear Thinking).

As Americaca descends into 1984ism Germany honors free speech

German Chancellor Angela Merkel to honor free speech by giving press award to Mohammad cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard. Finally another politically incorrect Western leader emerges (Nicolas Sarkozy is the other). Below is my favorite photo of the Chancellor:

Cleavage of freedom

Update: Merkel says Muslims should conform to German values. Here.