Letters to the Editor
polderjongen
Published Letters: 27 Editor's Choice: 1
-
New policy for lobbying firms?
[Read the article: More on Zelikow, the BGR firm and Allawi]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't disclose to your "consultants" who is paying the firm so you can claim not knowing on who's behalf you are lobbying?
-
Title
[Read the article: National Review's new tough guy, Mark Hemingway]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"I love the smell of Aqua Velva in the morning"
"That's my boy"
-
Differences in Time Zones
[Read the article: A bizarre, unsolicited e-mail from Gen. Petraeus' spokesman ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't know if this has been mentioned but any differences in the appearance of Time Zones could be caused by changes in the Daylight Saving Times. Europe changed back to "Winter Time" last night and Iraq last Friday. The US will change to Winter Time coming weekend.
-
Wow. Freudian much?
[Read the article: "We're all fascists now"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Goldberg writes: "classical fascism was masculine and violently oppressive and today's liberalism is feminine and not oppressive but smothering with kindness."
I don't agree with his description of liberalism but does Jonah really think (traditional) mothers are liberal fascists? Was Lucianne a Liberal Fascist? And Johah, by writing this book, is trying to cut his ties with her?
-
Is it that black and white?
[Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]First, it's easy to attack one specific law without addressing the fact that that one specific law exists in a framework. Canada and European countries all have laws that guarantee freedom of expression and association, and freedom of the press. In any framework you will find laws that appear to be at odds with each other. As I understand it (I'm not a legal scholar), both in Canada and in the European countries, hate speech laws are subordinate to those guarantees.
The fact that any law can be abused by its citizens is at first sight no argument against such a law. Any legal system has procedures to correct wrongs.
Second, does the US have laws against defamation, slander, and libel? If so, doesn't that limit free speech as well?
Does the US have laws against harassment, instilling fear, intimidation, or other threatening behaviors? If yes, doesn't that limit free speech as well?
Any State has several functions. One is guaranteeing its citizens freedom of speech and association. Another one is guaranteeing its citizens to feel secure in life and limb. And those two guarantees often are at odds with each other.
-
Common Law vs Codified Civil Law?
[Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't know if this is of significance but isn't it possible that people in the US have a fundamental misunderstanding of European hate speech laws because of its different legal system? US's legal system is based on Common Law where cases are decided also on jurisprudence, whereas Europe's legal system is based on codified Civil Law where jurisprudence doesn't have any legal status.
I often hear criticism in the US about judges "legislating from the bench", I don't hear such criticism here in Europe. Here I sometimes hear that judges ‘instruct’ Legislators to do their homework because a certain case can not be decided because the law does not address that specific problem.
I'm no legal scholar but it appears to me that the existence of European Hate Speech Laws is predicated by such a legal system, while in the US such ‘laws’ are allready existing in Jurisprudentia?
-
"fighting words doctrine" and "imminent danger test"
[Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Anybody in the US who believes that his or her right to free speech is an absolute one should read up on the "Fighting Words Doctrine" and the "Imminent Danger Test".
The situation in the US considering hate speech is far more opaque than in Canada or Europe, it seems to me. Such a situation can lead to self-censorship.
-
Glennzilla
[Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn
Of course you are willing to place such broad faith in your government. That's because you don't have any political views that are likely to be persecuted. As I said before, people whose views fit comfortably within the mainstream rarely care about free expression. For now, it's only your fellow citizens whose freedoms are being limited, so it just provokes a big yawn.
No. What provokes a big yawn is an American know-it-all lecturing about other countries' legal and judicial systems you don't appear to understand. You are interpreting cases from an American perspective based on a few press-reports, which are either biased or extremely weak on details. You are jumping to conclusions.
But what bugs me the most is that you appear to believe that you must act as some kind of savior, having to rescue others from a path downright to tyranny. I have more trust in Canadians and Europeans vigorously monitoring their governments and its laws for any signs of abuses or authoritarianism than I have in Americans.
-
@L.W.M
[Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Considering the giant dump the current "conservative" government has taken on what used to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, a little schadenfreude is to be expected.
Actually, it's older than that. "You'll hear from my lawyer" or "I'll sue you" or "I'll consult my lawyer" or writing Cease and desist letters appear to me to be typical of the American judicial culture. That is using the legal system as an instrument of intimidation. Don't know about Canada but in Europe such use of the courts is rarely used.
-
@Mona
[Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, because Europe especially has such a laudable history of freedom and respect for human rights.
Yes. The Low Countries were havens for free speech long before the term "freedom of speech" was invented.
give the state the power to punish people for their ideas, and you have inherently started down a totalitarian path.
Yes. And that's why we don't have laws punishing people for their ideas.
In your country you have the "fighting words doctrine" and the "imminent threat test" aka "clear and present danger test". These are established through jurisprudence and it limits your socalled free speech. Do not delude yourself that your free speech isn't limited as well.
Jurisprudence and Stare decisis in (Continental) Europe is abosulete meaningless. Europe's legal system is based on Civil Law, your legal system is based on Common Law. There's a fundamental difference. Judges in Europe can't "legislate from the bench" by creating jurisprudence, judges in Europe need to have laws. That's why we have Hate Speech Laws in Europe which in its reach and its scope accomplishes the exact same result as you do with jurisprudence.
-
@L.W.M.
[Read the article: The Noxious Fruits of Hate Speech laws]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Slander and libel laws in Great Britain?
Pfft. Anglo-Saxon. That's not Europe.