Kevin Dayhoff The Tentacle: SCOTUS Westboro Decision - A Victory for Free Speech?

March 4, 2011

A Victory for Free Speech?

Kevin E. Dayhoff  http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=4265

By a vote of 8-1, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a long awaited decision Wednesday over the collision of free speech, common sense and decency and our right to privacy in the case of Albert Snyder v. Fred W. Phelps, Sr., and the Westboro Baptist Church.

The Supreme Court ruled against the father of Westminster native Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, whose March 10, 2006, funeral was picketed by members of the Kansas-based church. Corporal Snyder was 20 years-old when he died March 3, 2006, in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

The irony abounds that the Westboro band of graceless sociopaths have chosen over the years to disparage and heap emotional abuse on families at the funerals of the very men and women in uniform, who have died defending the right of these creeps to exercise their right to free speech.

The controversy that initiated the test of the limits of free speech began shortly after Snyder’s death. In a paroxysmal milieu, the Snyder family is an otherwise unlikely fulcrum for all this drama... http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=4265

http://www.thetentacle.com/ShowArticle.cfm?mydocid=4265  http://tinyurl.com/4obs953

http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/2011/03/kevin-dayhoff-tentacle-scotus-westboro.html

Labels: Dayhoff Media The Tentacle, Dayhoff Writing Essays, Free Speech, Free Speech Protesters, Iraq War CCo Cpl Snyder Kia 2mar06, US Constitution 01 Amendment, Westboro Baptist Church

http://tinyurl.com/4obs953
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Missing atheist sign found in Washington state By Mallory Simon CNN

Missing atheist sign found in Washington state By Mallory Simon CNN

Fri December 5, 2008

For those of us who are aggressive protectors of the right to free speech, we have to wonder what it is that the atheists wish to accomplish...

Having said that, I understand that intent is certainly not an arbiter of the expression of free speech. However, manipulating some obscure interpretation of equal opportunity in order to attack Christmas, is certainly a unique approach to attempting to be compelling and persuasive about one’s cause…

Story Highlights

NEW: Placard from Washington state Capitol found in a ditch, radio station says

Atheists' place placard was next to Nativity scene in Olympia, Washington, building

Sign calls religion a myth that "hardens hearts and enslaves minds"

Some residents, Christian groups say atheists attacking celebration of Jesus' birth

Don't Miss: iReport.com: Over-the-top holiday displays?

(CNN) -- An atheist sign criticizing Christianity that was erected alongside a Nativity scene was taken from the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, on Friday and later found in a ditch.

An employee from country radio station KMPS-FM in Seattle told CNN the sign was dropped off at the station by someone who found it in a ditch.

"I thought it would be safe," Freedom From Religion Foundation co-founder Annie Laurie Gaylor told CNN earlier Friday. "It's always a shock when your sign is censored or stolen or mutilated. It's not something you get used to."

The sign, which celebrates the winter solstice, has had some residents and Christian organizations calling atheists Scrooges because they said it was attacking the celebration of Jesus Christ's birth.

"Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds," the sign from the Freedom From Religion Foundation says in part.

The sign, which was at the Legislative Building at 6:30 a.m. PT, was gone by 7:30 a.m., Gaylor said.

[…]

The scene in Washington state is not unfamiliar. Barker has had signs in Madison, Wisconsin, for 13 years. The placard is often turned around so the message can't be seen, and one year, someone threw acid on it, forcing the group to encase it in Plexiglas.

In Washington, D.C., the American Humanist Association began a bus ad campaign this month questioning belief in God.

"Why believe in a God?" the advertisement asks. "Just be good for goodness sake."

That ad has caused the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to field hundreds of complaints, the group said, but it has heard just as much positive feedback, said Fred Edwords, the association's spokesman.

Edwords said the ad campaign, which features a shrugging Santa Claus, was not meant to attack Christmas but rather to reach out to an untapped audience.

[…]

Read the entire article here: Missing atheist sign found in Washington state By Mallory Simon CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/05/atheists.christmas/?iref=mpstoryview

20081205 Missing atheist sign found in Washington state

Merry Christmas from the Left Red White and Impeach

Merry Christmas from the Left Red White and Impeach

December 2, 2008

Apparently the left dos not rest for the holidays.

For those of us who feel passionately about the right to free speech, we also understand that it comes with responsibilities.

Memo: I’d love to see the elite media’s reaction if something like this were to occur during the presidency of Barack Obama.

Hat Tip: Don Surber: “Maturity” “Ornament maker does something inappropriate. The White House refuses to retaliate.”

Read on, according to “Christmas Colors for the White House: Red, White and Impeach,” By The Reliable Source December 2, 2008:

[…]

Laura Bush asked members of Congress to pick local painters to decorate ornaments for this year's 20-foot Fraser fir in the Blue Room. The globes (to be unveiled by the first lady tomorrow) are supposed to showcase something special about each congressional district. Washington state's Rep. Jim McDermott contacted a local arts organization, which asked Lawrence, a collage artist, to create the local entry.

"I was at first nauseated, then realized it was an opportunity," said Lawrence, 55, who frequently combines politics and satire in her work and saw this as the perfect way "to highlight Jim McDermott because he's a hero of mine."

The nine-inch ball is covered with swirly red and white stripes -- and, in tiny glued-on text, salutes the Democratic congressman's support for a resolution to impeach President Bush.

See a picture of it here.

Sally McDonough, the first lady's press secretary, said yesterday that hundreds of ornaments were submitted for display and there were no plans to pull Lawrence's artwork or her invitation. But, she said, "it really is too bad. I haven't seen the ornament, but I would hope that no one would take this as an opportunity to be divisive and partisan. There is a time and place for everything, and I don't think this is either."

Read the entire account here: “Christmas Colors for the White House: Red, White and Impeach”

And be sure to read Don Surber’s post also: “Maturity”

And be sure to read all the comments...

Commenter “dhender999aolcom” said: “When Deborah Lawrence arrives in the White House she will be treated graciously by her hosts, because that is the nature of George W and Laura Bush…”

“olukemi": said: “I applaud Deborah Lawrence for her courage in celebrating her equally forthright Congressman. Freedom of speech does not take a rest on Christmas. Happy Holidays to all!”

Then in a flourish of the holiday spirit, “editwest” wrote: “To dehender999@aol.com: ‘Gracious’ people do not steal elections, subvert the Rule of Law and the judiciary and the Department of Justice, attack and occupy sovereign states for imperialist goals, profit from the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, order the death/maiming of tens of thousands of our own troops in a war of naked aggression forged in lies, loot the treasury and destroy the futures of America's children, channel fortunes to cronies, attack the Constitution and its protections against tyranny, destroy America's position in world opinion, and so much more. Gracious people don't do these things. Thugs and ghouls do.”

Nice.

Oh Merry Christmas

20081202 Merry Christmas from the left Red White and Impeach