October 31, 2009
It was nice to hear Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton say on October 26, "I strongly disagree" with Islamic countries seeking to censor free speech worldwide by making defamation of religion a crime under international law.
But watch what the Obama administration does, not just what it says. I'm not talking about its attacks on Fox News. I'm talking about a little-publicized...
May 26, 2007
Consider three criminal cases.
No. 1: Christopher Newsom and his girlfriend, Channon Christian, both students at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, were carjacked while on a dinner date in January, repeatedly raped (both of them), tortured, and killed. His burned body was found near a railroad track. Hers was stuffed into a trash can. Five suspects have been charged. The crimes were...
May 1, 2007
Consider three criminal cases.
No. 1: Christopher Newsom and his girlfriend, Channon Christian, both students at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, were carjacked while on a dinner date in January, repeatedly raped (both of them), tortured, and killed. His burned body was found near a railroad track. Hers was stuffed into a trash can. Five suspects have been charged. The crimes were...
September 16, 2000
Almost two-thirds of voters respond negatively when asked what they would think of a candidate who voted against "strengthening the prosecution of violent hate crimes motivated by prejudice against race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation."
March 4, 2000
The victim was black and unarmed; his assailants, four white cops. The publicity was intense. Public outrage was boiling. The state courts moved the trial out of the racially divided city, where convictions seemed likely, to a quieter, whiter town. And the jury's verdict-not a single conviction-spread rage through much of the black community.
January 1, 1990
When Sen. Jesse Helms last year proposed restrictions on government support for offensive speech, liberals quickly branded him a Neanderthal right-wing censor.
But what about those liberals with censorial tendencies of their own? Are they Neanderthals, too-or some other, more sensitive, species?
It was Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican, who pushed through the Senate last summer a ban on...
