Category Archives: Free Speech

Free Speech Series 4 Episode 1 | I #39;m Ed Miliband, Ask Me Anything | 12th March
Ed Miliband faces an audience of voters for an unscripted hour of tough questions.

By: The Great British

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Free Speech Series 4 Episode 1 | I'm Ed Miliband, Ask Me Anything | 12th March - Video

FREE SPEECH ZONE s08e09 (3-7-15)
ALL three parts of "The Real News Network #39;s" "How Guns Made The Civil-Rights Movement Possible". Changed from "9/11 was an INSIDE JOB", to commemorate the in...

By: 251omega

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FREE SPEECH ZONE s08e09 (3-7-15) - Video

When student government representatives at the University of California, Irvine voted to ban all flags including the American one from their tiny office, they thought they had found a solution to a battle over freedom of speech that began when someone first tacked a U.S. flag to the wall in January. The flag had been at the center of an increasingly bitter game of cat-and-mouse, with some students taking it down repeatedly and others replacing it in the dark of night.

Last week, six student legislative council members passed a resolution banning all flags from their office space, saying the U.S. flag could be viewed as hate speech because some consider it a symbol of colonialism and imperialism. The executive cabinet of the Associated Students organization vetoed the legislation two days later but it was too late.

The vote prompted a furor: Taxpayers protested on the campus plaza, the school was bombarded with angry comments on its social media sites and one state lawmaker proposed a constitutional amendment that would prohibit state-funded colleges and universities from banning the U.S. flag on campus. On Thursday, student government meetings were canceled for the second day in a row because of an unspecified threat.

The debate resonated on the ethnically and religiously diverse suburban campus south of Los Angeles, where tensions over freedom of speech have taken the national stage several times before. For years, Jewish students and members of the Muslim Student Union have sparred in a dispute that came to a head in 2011, when 10 Muslim students were arrested and prosecuted for disrupting a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren. In 2007, federal civil rights investigators looked into complaints of anti-Semitic speeches given at the university by invited Muslim speakers, but they found the comments were directed as Israeli policies, not Jewish students.

"It's the nature of young minds questioning and activism at a young age. I think people notice it at UCI more because they think, 'Oh, that's the quiet conservative campus in the middle of Orange County.' But the reality is the students are from all over the place and they're testing out their ideas just like they are at any other campus," said Cathy Lawhon, university spokeswoman. About 14 percent of the university's nearly 30,000 students are from other countries.

The tension between Muslim and Jewish undergraduates has calmed recently, and President Barack Obama gave the university commencement speech last spring. So current students said they were dismayed to be in the national spotlight again on freedom of speech issues.

Daniel Kellogg, a fourth-year cognitive sciences major, wore a muscle shirt emblazoned with the American flag as he walked across campus to drop off a term paper. The attention was unsettling, he said, particularly since UC Irvine was being portrayed nationally as a hotbed of anti-American fervor because of the actions of six students.

"We have a lot of international students, and I could see how somebody could possibly be uncomfortable by a gigantic flag in the middle of the common area. But at the same time, this is the United States, and they should just get used to that," Kellogg said.

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Flag Flap at California School Raises Free Speech Debate

ANTI RADICALIZATION the NWO Word for 2015! ISIS Hoax used to target FREE SPEECH!
By freeradiorevolution https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJU1WePfDWE.

By: Jenn Openyoureyes

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ANTI RADICALIZATION the NWO Word for 2015! ISIS Hoax used to target FREE SPEECH! - Video

A sampling of recent editorials from Colorado newspapers:

The Gazette, March 10, on defending free speech:

Suppose a member of the Westboro Baptist Church walks into a bakery demanding a cake that features the organizations infamous slogan God Hates (Gays). The baker refuses. She will sell the man cake but will not design an obnoxious message.

Most would sympathize with the baker. In a country protected by free speech, no one should be forced to write, say or otherwise depict something the person deems offensive. Free speech means freedom to express what we desire. It also means the government cannot force us to express anything - whether it is popular or unpopular.

We cannot discriminate against a black person or Muslim in a place of business. For that, our country has become an oasis of liberty in an international environment abundant with slavery and discrimination. But a business owner cannot be forced to pledge agreement with or opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Expression is different than the sale of a good, service or commodity. Most newspapers would sell an ad to any religious extremist. Few would produce an ad that denounces a chosen demographic as infidels. We are allowed to discriminate against messages deemed inappropriate.

Though our hypothetical cake shop dilemma depicts an extreme, something similar happened in Colorado recently. Bill Jack of Castle Rock asked three Denver-area bakery owners to create Bible-shaped cakes and adorn each with a scripture opposing homosexuality. The bakers refused, and Jack filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Colorados civil rights statutes forbid discrimination on a basis of creed. Jacks creed involves opposition to homosexual relationships.

Jacks requests for anti-gay expressions came after two men asked the owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop in Lakewood to create a cake celebrating their marriage in another state. The baker, Jack Phillips, politely declined. He offered to sell them cakes and any other products but said his religious convictions precluded him from creating an expression that celebrates same-sex marriage. Whether one disagrees with Phillips should have no bearing on his First Amendment rights to free expression and exercise of religion.

The men complained to the Civil Rights Commission. The commission ordered Phillips to create whatever expressions same-sex couples demand. He must file quarterly compliance reports for the next two years and re-educate his staff that Colorados Anti-Discrimination Act means that artists must endorse all views.

That means pro-choice activists must design cakes that denounce abortion. Pro-life bakers must create expressions celebrating Roe v. Wade. Endless conundrums come to mind.

A person forced by a state commission to endorse or denounce same-sex relationships has no freedom of speech. She has only the obligation to say what the state demands.

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Colorado Editorial Roundup

I wonder what our founders would have thought of this:

Last fall, FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) mailed warning letters to more than 300 public colleges and universities that maintain unconstitutional speech codes explaining that their institution could be sued if it continued to ignore legal obligations under the First Amendment (Students Sue Dixie State U. Over Free Speech Zone, Censorship of Bush, Obama, Che Flyers, thefire.org, March 4).

I continue to be concerned with increasing the protection of free speech not only in colleges and universities because I dont want subsequent generations to become fearful of using this fundamental right of all Americans.

FIRE is the only organization ceaselessly working to keep free speech alive on campuses, from which many of our future voters, legislators and teachers will emerge.

Currently, the group is at work on a lawsuit filed by students at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, which you may never have heard of.

The lawsuit alleges that Dixie State refused to approve promotional flyers produced by the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) student group that featured images negatively portraying Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.

Why?

Because school policy does not permit students to disparage or mock individuals.

Greg Lukianoff, the president of FIRE, rails against the universitys ridiculous policies, which go so far as to forbid any poster in a residence hall that students or administrators claim creates an uncomfortable environment.

This in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

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As Free Speech Is So Often Punished, How Worried Are You?

Free Speech at Texas State University
About 100 students rallied around the Fighting Stallions in 1969 in a silent and nonviolent anti-war protest despite warnings from university officials to no...

By: theuniversitystar

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Free Speech at Texas State University - Video

Net Neutrality Is a Trojan Horse For Free Speech Regulation
The No Agenda Show - http://bit.ly/NoAgendaNews.

By: NewsComplex

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Net Neutrality Is a Trojan Horse For Free Speech Regulation - Video

Alexey Shved @ Denver - Highlights
http://obglobal.net/board/1/knicks-forum JOIN US! Best Knicks site out there. Free speech, lazy moderators. http://newyorkjetsglobal.proboards.com/ Jets Fans! Best Jets Forum on the web right here.

By: The Knicks Channel - OBG

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Alexey Shved @ Denver - Highlights - Video

Bellevue City Council addresses free speech issue Monday
The Bellevue City Council heard its residents loud and clear Monday night about a free speech issue. Subscribe to KETV on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1emyaD5 Get more Omaha news:...

By: KETV NewsWatch 7

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Bellevue City Council addresses free speech issue Monday - Video