Archive for December, 2007
Friday, December 14th, 2007 | Posted in Politics | No Comments »
In NBC vs. Freedoms Watch, we told you the story of NBC President of Research Alan Wutzel and General Counsel Rick Cotton’s decision to refuse to air a patriotic thank-you message to the troops from the kind folks at Freedoms Watch.
And yes, Freedoms Watch was offering to pay in full for the advertisement.
Well, your pressure worked and NBC has worked. The NBC execs may not be any more pro-freedom than they were last week, but they are now better informed as to the immense power of the American people — their stockholders and their customers.
NBC has revised and reinterpreted its guidelines and has agreed to air the holiday thank-you to the troops, at their usual advertisement rates.
And now, I would resume watching NBC, if they were producing any television worth watching.
Friday, December 14th, 2007 | Posted in Politics | No Comments »
The U.S. government is giving the Afghan government, at no cost, sixty thousand M16 rifles.
The rifles will take six months to deliver, at a rate of ten thousand rifles a month.
Afghanistan’s army currently has a troop strength of only 57,000 soldiers. However, persistent attacks on the civilian population from Islamist terrorists has caused the Afghan government to commit to raising troops strength to 70,000 soldiers by March with an eventual goal of 200,000 soldiers.
The U.S. government is giving away sixty thousand M16’s at the same time as they are restricting my Constitutional rights to purchase one of these same rifles.
It’s a damned shame that our national government is not as protective of our freedom as their are of other peoples freedom.
Friday, December 14th, 2007 | Posted in Politics | No Comments »
The administration of Penn State took hard steps recently to protect freedom of expression and to reinforce the understanding that college students are customers — not the children of school administrators.
Two individuals who are also Penn State students were photographed in Halloween costumes where they portrayed Virginia Tech students who had been murdered by Seung-Hui Cho.
The costumes were tasteless and offensive, especially considering how recent the murders were. However, the costumes are also protected speech under our cherished First Amendment.
Moreover, it is not an acceptable role for the college to “discipline” its customers for activities outside the scope of their education. The college is government-funded, it is not a free enterprise.
Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers stated that the students will not face school discipline because it would violate their free-speech rights.
The Penn State administration sent a formal letter of apology to the Virginia Tech school administration.
This type of mature, sensible, and forward-thinking behavior is unfortunately rare at our nations colleges. We applaud the administration of Penn State for making the right decisions under pressure.