Speaking Freely

First off, I would like to point everyone to an outstanding article written by Brian C. Anderson in the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com. Titled, "Shut Up, They Explained", the piece details how 'campaign-finance reform' can be disastrous to new-media bloggers and on-line pundits. The article goes into how the regulatory language of the law may subject blogs to campaign-finance regulations. This is an item that should concern our friends on the left as well as the right, but the right wing stands more to lose. According to the WSJ, blogs and online political sites like FreeRepublic.com or DemocraticUnderground.com would not be considered the 'press'. Additionally, the article expounds on how some left-wing congressmen want to re-introduce the Fairness Doctrine, a law that requires that radio and television stations provide equal time to opposing views. The Fairness Doctrine was a regulation that was removed during the Reagan Administration. Like the Fourth Amendment in Kelo and the Second Amendment, the justices on the supreme court are probably too smart to understand the plain language of the Constitution so they have upheld these restrictions on political speech, something that I hope the Roberts / Alito / Scalia / Thomas court might overturn.

In other news, the hoplophobic Brits strike again. In the Newspaper Index blog, we learn of another attempt to impose world-wide gun control through that paragon of efficiency and uncorruptability, the United Nations:

Amnesty International UK is to send spoof weapons catalogues through the post and email inboxes to highlight the shocking ease with which weapons can be bought. The pressure group is launching a campaign to raise awareness of the need for an international arms trade treaty to create legally binding arms controls and to regulate the sale of guns. The UK campaign includes a glossy mail order ’small arms catalogue’ from the fictitious Teleshop company featuring models posing with machine guns and automatic pistols. An email campaign will surprise internet users with fake special offers for weapons, while a roadshow tour of shopping centres across the UK will be manned by fake salespeople demonstrating the ease with which an AK47 machine gun can be assembled and fired.

A provocative cinema ad, which will be shown across the UK for the next four weeks, will take the form of a spoof teleshopping channel promotion. In it, sales presenters are seen talking up the firepower and reliability of the AK47 as a young boy demonstrates how the gun is so easy to use that even a child can fire it. Buyers will even be offered ammunition thrown in free when they place their order.

A Teleshop presenter talks up the reliability of the AK47

They even made a movie about it. I'm sure more UN gun control will eradicate tyrants and warfare world-wide. Koffi Annan was quoted as saying, "When guns are banned only Kojo and I will have guns!". We already know that crime has plummeted in Britain since they have all but banned privately owned firearms. I hear that there hasn't been any gun crime at all so far this year.

Lastly, Henry M. Bowles III, a senior at Northwestern wrote a smarmy piece about how smart people shouldn't be in the military. The most odious paragraph:

Protesting military recruiters on campus, so long as they ban open gays from joining, is admirable. But there’s a more permanent reason to keep the military away from our brightest students. Young males are easily manipulated during the period of their lives when they exist outside the female domain, after the mother and before the wife. They are above all eager to demonstrate masculinity. With its promises of order, fraternity and cohesion, the military taps into this angst. A real tragedy occurs when a young man, susceptible to the military’s appeal and nonetheless intelligent and creative, signs up to become cannon fodder. He’ll probably leave the military alive, but he’ll have been irreversibly molded, less inclined to dissent. Less intelligent people are better equipped for most military positions, and have far less to lose.

Henry M. Bowles III is a Medill senior. He can be reached at: h-bowles@northwestern.edu. I wrote him a nice letter.