by Jeffrey Harding | Oct 21, 2017 | Conservatism, First Amendment, Politics, Trump |
This is not about Game of Thrones, but rather our national anthem. In 2016 when 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick bent his knee during the national anthem it was a protest of a black man against racial injustice in America. It spread from there. Within a month similar protests were seen not only in the NFL but in college sports as well.
That was last season. This football season it became a national issue since Donald Trump waded in with “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out. He’s fired. He’s fired!’”. That played well in Alabama. (more…)
by Jeffrey Harding | Sep 3, 2017 | First Amendment, Politics |
When I was a child I became enamored of coins. I had inherited from my father a few large U.S. one cent copper coins dated from the early 1800s. In those days money was made from copper, silver, and gold. These early coins were beautiful objects. The interesting thing and what is pertinent here is that they were decorated with images of “Liberty”, a female head of various styles, or later, a seated Ms. Liberty. Somewhere on the coin was the word “liberty”. The point being that from 1796 to 1909, there were no presidents on our coins. In 1909 the new copper penny bore the image of Abraham Lincoln which is still with us today. We are now following the examples set by Roman emperors and other despots and rulers who wanted their subjects to know who was in charge. (more…)
by Jeffrey Harding | Jul 18, 2017 | Critical Thinking, First Amendment, Liberals and Progressives, Politics |
A California state senator, Hannah-Beth Jackson, a prominent Progressive, has proposed yet another bill in the California Senate, SB 203, to protect our children from fake news. Jackson, a prolific legislator, introduced the bill because she was “concerned about the recent proliferation of fake news during the Presidential election …” She said,
This legislation is about ensuring we have an informed citizenry. The role of the media and technology is only growing. The skills we teach kids today about critical thinking, the role of media in their lives and how best to interact with social media, fake news and technology will help keep them safe and serve them into adulthood.
Fortunately, her bill, along with a more draconian bill (AB 1104) making it a crime to publish “false or deceptive statements on the Internet about a political candidate or ballot measure”, have been sidelined because of objections from pesky advocates of free speech (like the Electronic Frontier Foundation). Political speech is speech and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees us the right to speak freely no matter how wrong we may be. Politicians are fair game and the courts have given us much leeway to criticize them.
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