Too Much To Dream

They risked economic retaliation! Oh, the humanity!

So the DCs (or a member thereof) saying they're ashamed that Dubya is from Texas is "free and open debate," but someone saying that they think the DCs are doofuses is "making them feel un-American"?

And given that the only reason anyone cares about, or heard, the DCs' complaint is because of their economically-lucrative celebrity, why should that not be at stake when they say things that people dislike?

I mean, it would be nice if people separated art from the artist, but when the artist insists on insinuating him/herself into realms outside their art, it seems to me fair game.

So what if Al Gore were President? Would he be pressing for a law making it a "hate crime" for people to advocate the not-buying of Dixie Chicks CDs?

Al Gore will never be President, so we'll never know for sure...but there are certainly other Democrats who think the same way.

This, among similar comments, shows a fundamental aspect of modern leftism: the lack of acceptance of responsibility.

Freedom means the freedom to decide who to support and who to associate with. Freedom means that people are free to, for example, support Bob Dylan in his efforts to free a wrongfully imprisoned man, or to boycott the Montgomery bus system to force it to end its racist policies, or to support Ben and Jerry's ice cream because they give profits to various charities, or to not support the Dixie Chicks because one of them said she was "ashamed" of the President being a Texan. All of that is freedom, telling the public what they should do would infringe on that freedom.

These people do not want freedom, they want a world without consequences.

And, as I said elsewhere, Al didn't seem to think that other musicians deserve the right to free speech while Tipper was threatening to get legislation passed if the record companies didn't issue warning labels.

It's thanks to Tipper that I could turn to my mother, with whom I was shopping, and say, "Mom, is it okay for me to buy this Tool CD?", thus making even the dull-eyed teenager behind the cash register laugh.

But it isn't really funny. Why, according to Al, it's suppression of speech. An outrage! Someone should do something!

During the 2000 election I told every metal fan that I knew that Gore and his addict wife were responsible for their not being able to buy metal CDs when they were young. Most probably didnt vote Bush, but at least they didn't vote Gore either. I wrote a paper on the PMRC in uni, what a bunch of fascist twits they were.

Watching John Denver, Dee Snider and Frank Zappa on the same side was just freaking classic. The look on those morons faces when Dee was not a total knuckle-dragger was classic. He took a lot of the panel totally by surprise.

Ah... fond memories... of totally nonplussed senators having rings run around them by a guy with blond hair down to his ass. Those days had their moments...

Also, don't forget that Gore's running mate in 2000 was Joe Lieberman, who continues to push for heavy regulation of the video game industry with regard to games containing violence, "mature" dialog, "controversial" themes, etc. Not precisely the best friends of free speech either one.