"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

[grin1]

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.

One of my favorites involves freedom in general but it applies to speech as much any anything else.


Abraham Lincoln

Originally Posted by: wpr 

To me it means freedom from the abuses of state power. It is a right as against state action.

And its presence in the Constitution to me says that the Founders knew that the greatest threat to the freedom was state power itself. That they knew governments default to equating criticism with treason, and would rather risk allowing sedition rather than restrain speech that criticizes.

I'm old fashioned.

Originally Posted by: Wade 

Said the president who suspended habeas corpus.

Originally Posted by: Wade