Bill Donahue has offended me on a regular basis. He has not responded to any demands that he apologize.

Therefore, I find his demand for an apology from Ms. Griffith for merely 'offending' other people to be hypocritical in the extreme.

In a free society, people will offend other people. Grow up, Bill.

The urge to control free expression by groups who claim to be living in a free society smells an awful lot like a nation who tries to promote democracy by use of force. Seems like the same brain-wave to me. The recent article about the possible difference in brain structure between progressives and neoconservatives seems to fit here. You really do have to be mentally rigid enough to compartmentalize your thoughts to create contradictions of this level.

cliff

What about attacks on Judaism?

What about attacks on Judaism?

What about them?

So Glenn, you've sunk to equating free speech with death threats and rioting? The Catholics and conservatives are entitled to speak their piece whether you like it or not, and nowhere did I see either group issue death threats or riot in the streets like Muslims did over the cartoons.

This is yet another example of why you're never going to be taken seriously. For anyone to willfully ignore that difference, malicious intent is required.

is Kathy Griffin for standing up for my actual freedoms in this country against un-American superstitious fascists like Bill Donahue.

So Glenn, you've sunk to equating free speech with death threats and rioting? The Catholics and conservatives are entitled to speak their piece whether you like it or not, and nowhere did I see either group issue death threats or riot in the streets like Muslims did over the cartoons.

This is yet another example of why you're never going to be taken seriously. For anyone to willfully ignore that difference, malicious intent is required.

Me, in the post:

The threat is obviously greater when violence and rioting are used as tools to compel censorship of "blasphemous" material, but Catholic League pressure tactics which achieve the same result are also the enemy of free expression.

According to Shooter, I "ignored" a difference that I explicitly addressed.

And, of course, the difference is non-existent. Terrence McNally's play was cancelled after the playhouse received bomb threats, but the "Opus" cartoons were cancelled without any violence at all.

It's a good thing for a comment section to have dissenting views. But they ougth to rise to a certain level before they are addressed, otherwise, they do nothing but degrade the quality of the comment section.

Marty Lederman recently shut his comment section down due to one such commenter, who used to comment here before he was banned. He now regularly inveighs against addressing that commenter except in those extremely rare cases where a worthwhile point is made. I think that is good advice here.

Don't usually do this, Glenn, but you have word 'censorsing' in the subtitle on the main Salon page.

Like your story, keep on giving them hell!

The Right-Wing Authoritarians, including Bill Donahue, are not, repeat NOT, "christians" in any sense of the word.

They are not conservatives.

They are not even Republicans.

And they are absolutely, positively not Americans.

They are Authoritarians, whose only religion is the vicious Authoritarianism of the Old Testament, whose only politics is Authoritarianism, whose only culture is Authoritarianism, whose only domestic policy is dog-eat-dog Authoritarianism, whose only foreign policy is Authoritarian Imperialism, whose only legitimate government is Authoritarian Dictatorship.

Other hallmarks of the Authoritarian are pathological hypocrisy (as in demanding the death penalty for abortionists while flying your daughter to New York for a safe, private abortion) and raging homophobia to cover a life on the down-low.

Attacks on Authoritarians as being un-christian, un-conservative, un-American or even un-republican don't work because they are none of those things.

Attack them for being what they are: Authoritarians, who really do hate and despite our freedoms.

I am asking this question in good faith. I personally am not offended by verbal attacks on religion of any sort. But can we pick and choose which religions may be denigrated and which ones may not?

Mr. Greenwald, but really I don't think we should judge these things until Gen. Petraeus delivers his report in September.

So Glenn, you've sunk to equating free speech with death threats and rioting?

Learn to read.

The Catholics and conservatives are entitled to speak their piece whether you like it or not,

True.

and nowhere did I see either group issue death threats or riot in the streets like Muslims did over the cartoons.

Irrelevant.

This is yet another example of why you're never going to be taken seriously.

Uh, guy, many people much smarter than you take Glenn seriously.

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If I remember correctly, you wanted that muhammed cartoon reprinted to stick it to the muslims with our free speech, right?

So what possible objection could you have here? Is caving to advertising monies somehow more moral than caving to fear of physical attacks in your opinion?

I am asking this question in good faith. I personally am not offended by verbal attacks on religion of any sort. But can we pick and choose which religions may be denigrated and which ones may not?

The whole point of the post is that one cannot.

Donohue should be more outraged at true believers who thank God or Jesus because they won some stupid trophy. Isn't it blasphemous for someone to state that Jesus had a hand in such mundane events as a People's Choice Award? Griffin is merely satirizing the idiotic self-centeredness of celebrities who actually believe a deity would concern him or herself with whether or not a sitcom actor brings home a piece of hardware for his bookshelf.

Just wanted to point out that Irvine is the heart of Orange County which is overwelmingly Republican. I don't know if that was a factor in the conservatives success at getting rid of Chemerinsky, but it seems possible. It is also worth noting that this area is also the home of Saddleback (mega)Church which tends to sometimes forget it is a Religious institution and not a Republican field office. They can muster quite a bit of pressure when they want to by pointing their loyal members in the desired direction.