31 May 2005

The Anti-Idiotarian Sir George and I agree that this is bad...

...but for somewhat different reasons:
John Conyers [is] bending over for Islam. He introduced a resolution forbidding disrespect of the Qu'ran, this in a country where it's ok to burn the flag.
Sir George seems to object to this mostly on tactical grounds; forcing legislators to vote on this will either result in an abridgement of free speech (in which case it should get struck down on First Amendment grounds), or it'll enable Muslim demagogues to paint the House as being anti-Islam.

While I think he's right about that, my major objection is ideological, in that speech should remain as free as possible. I have no desire to burn anyone's flag, but I don't think flag-burning should be banned any more than I think that hate speech should be banned. I say let the bigots stand up and be seen for what they are.