Broadsheeter Andrew says: " Your behavior offends me, so you must be punished. How dare you breastfeed in public, or believe in evolution, or love disco music? Your sexual practices, weird religious beliefs, choice of shirts -- whatever it is, the fact that you are doing it bothers me, so it must be stopped! Especially if there's any chance that the "children" might be harmed. "

What a pile of bullshit - it's the left, remember, that implemented speech codes and hate speech legislation, not to mention the concept of hate crimes - here's a kid on a plane wearing a shirt that says "Fuck this place" - pure hate speech, pure obscenity (it certainly was not a religious, sexual or fashion belief)- and while it wouldn't bother me, I'm not one of those folks who would kick a kid out of college for ridiculing the sacrements of the true left (gays, people of color, women's rights). Is Leonard sincere? If the shirt had said "Fuck The Jews" or "Dykes Don't Know Dick" would he be so cute? I doubt it. It's either all or nothing, and we know where the left stands on this argument!

PS - I always thought Leonard a bit fay, but I thought Broadsheet was for women writers!

Funny thing, I had been thinking along the same lines. I recently lived in Italy for 7 months and upon my return to the States, I was overwhelmed, dismayed, alarmed; not sure which of these is the right word; to find that it seemed most important to bend everyone to your will. Props to you if you pushed and got your way. Believe the way I do or else. And the tacking of terrorism threats onto virtually any behavior has reached absurd heights. Moral high ground? We've lost sight of what that means.

I think it's become pretty clear that the age of laissez-faire has come and gone.

Jeffrey must not like restrictions against "hate speech" since they make it harder for him to insult people's sexuality. He still managed to make an effort.

It has always been the self righteous right who has fought against free speech. They have fought against any words they don't like, ideas that do not support their limited religious views, and any criticism against their leaders- political or religious. They were also the first people to suggest suicide to a president- remember "Kevorkian for White House Doctor" bumper stickers? Neither hypocrisy nor evolution is taught in red state I imagine.

The girl's shirt was in bad taste, and was probably a bit offensive. Did it require a man to act like a teacher's pet who has spotted somebody passing notes in class? I don't think so. That man surely could feel all self-righteous and superior in front of his wife for the entire flight, which was probably what his fragile ego needed. Of course, she probably thought he was acting like an idiot.

¡

This is the clencher:

If someone's behavior offends you, they deserve to be punished. That's it! That's what wrong about the sanctimonious tattletales.

Way to finally label that what it is.

I agree with you and Mr Leonard on the necessity of free speech and tolerance.

YES, Mr. Leonard. I couldn't agree more and couldn't have said it better. Unfortunately, most people lack the testosterone to tell such sanctimonious prigs to sit down, shut up, and mind their own business.

Arrgh. It's not about hate speech, it's about sanctimonious, self-righteous, hall-monitor-type behavior, as Mr. Leonard called it. And isn't it a bit archaic to automatically question his sexuality in a derogatory manner when you disagree with what you think is his point?

Back to the article, I wonder what makes some people so sure that they are qualified and entitled to parent other peoples' children in situations like this.

I personally would take "fay" as a compliment. And I am also pretty suspicious of someone who critizes a man for contributing to Broadsheet. Way to ghettoize "women's" issues, jeffrey.

Jeffrey, if you'd read the inaugural post on Broadsheet, you'd see that the blog was meant from the beginning to be posted to by both women and men who love women.

The fact that you call them women's issues - as if anything effecting half the population doesn't effect all of us - as if every man doesn't have a mother or a sister, a wife or a niece - makes YOU the ghettoizer - I'm just here to ridicule you!

I called Leonard fay (apologies for hurt feelings) to prove the point that "hate speech" means different things to different people - you don't like me calling Leonard gay and some asshole on a plane doesn't like a teenager broadcasting the word FUCK. While some here have blamed the right as impingers of free speech, the left is far more guilty - from pie throwers and event disrupters, to newspaper stealers and speech code implementers, to girlcotters and hate crime legislators - and what I've seen is a conservative supreme court uphold flag burning freedom and other issues of free speech - it was the left who wanted to shut down a website calling for the execution of abortion doctors - it was the rightist supreme court who told them to fuck off...

Thank you, Andrew Leonard, for putting it so clearly. I am sick of people enforcing their small-minded views on everyone else, especially in the guise of protecting children. Obscene T-shirts aren't hurting children in this country -- it's lack of health care, imperial wars, and a burgeoning deficit that are compromising their future.

Hey, if you had had a marker you could have written "Fuck this place" on your own shirt.

I think the idea of using a marker to write the teen-ager's inscription on one's own t-shirt in such a situation is brilliant.

I'm thinking I want a T-shirt with "Your behavior offends me, so you must be punished" with some sort of wry symbol (or maybe a red circle and slash).

I gather that, after hearing about the t-shirt, the captain did nothing--good for him or her. Just as the teenager had a right to wear the shirt, the angry man had a right to express his disapproval (in an orderly way) to the flight attendant. In the end it seemed to have all worked out well; so what's the problem?

The thing that makes this incident so uninteresting is that fact that the t-shirt really wasn't that offensive. What does it mean to fuck "this place" anyway? Is the place the plane itself (which is really more of a thing than a place)? Is it the land under the plane (in which case she's proposing to fuck, in sequence, all of the states between New York and California)? Is it the high-altitude air that the plane is flying in?

It would have been more interesting if the t-shirt had recommended fucking a person rather than "this place". What if the t-shirt had read, "Fuck the guy in seat 23D"? Would he have been justified in complaining then?