Monday, May 15, 2006

The Return of "Thought Crimes" in Japan

An upcoming law in Japan:

"The proposed statute is a vaguely worded, two-sentence amendment to an existing law. It defines "conspiracy" as an agreement, whether overt or tacit, fanciful or earnest, between two or more people that might be construed as planning to violate any statute for which the minimum sentence is four years or more".

Source


"might be construed as planning" sure is pretty broad. Japanese lawyers think that almost any disgruntled talk could be caught by it, regardless of what people did or did not do. And the agreement with someone does not even have to be in words! It can be "tacit".




Senator McCain Disrespects the First Amendment

"I would rather have a clean government than one where First Amendment rights are being respected"

Yep. That's what he said. There's a link here where you can hear him saying it.

The idea that the First Amendment and clean government are at odds is brain-dead, of course. First Amendment rights are the best guarantee of clean government! McCain is just a RINO who, like Leftists, wants no limitations on his power to regulate.

And the crazy thing is that he admits in the same speech that his attempts to regulate so far have been a failure!




Racism may not be Discussed

If someone says that what a supermarket stocks shows racial bias are you allowed to disagree? Not if you are a student at heavily Leftist Syracuse University in New York you are not.

Don't believe it? Go here and read how it happened. In reply to the racist supermarket claim, a student said: "Just because a grocery store doesn't have an aisle of fried chicken, cornbread, and watermelon doesn't mean they are racist". If you think that's a reasonable comment you would be right but where the student went wrong was in saying just WHAT foods might be eaten by a certain racial group. You are not allowed to mention that -- and the student was punished accordingly.

It's a sort of Catch 22 situation, of course: You are not allowed to mention anything that would be evidence for what you are saying.

The most amusing thing about the whole affair, however, is what one of the professors said: "There is a hesitance in people to discuss difficult and divisive issues like racism". I wonder why?

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