| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| The fascists of free speech |
| 2006-02-26 |
| By Catherine Seipp A FRIEND OF MINE took his young daughter to visit the famous City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, explaining to her that the place is important because years ago it sold books no other store would — even, perhaps especially, books whose ideas many people found offensive. So, although my friend is no fan of Ward Churchill, the faux Indian and discredited professor who notoriously called 9/11 victims "little Eichmanns," he didn't really mind seeing piles of Churchill's books prominently displayed on a table as he walked in. However, it did occur to him that perhaps the long-delayed English translation of Oriana Fallaci's new book, "The Force of Reason," might finally be available, and that because Fallaci's militant stance against Islamic militants offends so many people, a store committed to selling banned books would be the perfect place to buy it. So he asked a clerk if the new Fallaci book was in yet. "No," snapped the clerk. "We don't carry books by fascists." Rest at link. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #8 When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years - attributed to Mark Twain. |
| Posted by: Grinegum Snerens2450 2006-02-26 20:53 |
| #7 mhw - true! Wisdom comes with experience |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-26 16:58 |
| #6 Some people learn; others just keep getting dumber. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-02-26 16:52 |
| #5 Orianna used to be an anti American leftist. Her old books might still be in that store. |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-02-26 16:45 |
| #4 Some lefties are losing it so much that they can pick up almost any news story and find "fascists" or "fascism" in it. It is their most common invective and they use it to describe anything they don't like. They punctuate their sentences with it to such a point they sound like imbeciles. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-02-26 15:44 |
| #3 Orianna is like 76, and has inoperable cancer, and could still kick that clerk's ass: figuratively, morally, and intellectually |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-02-26 14:13 |
| #2 Why let facts and reason muddie up your worldview? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-02-26 12:17 |
| #1 For the left, freedom of speech has a different meaning. It doesn't mean you are free to say what you believe. It means you are expected to say what others' believe: the officially approved, PC views of other leftists. |
| Posted by: Jules 2006-02-26 12:08 |