My Rights are Tired

Seldom has the "right to a free press" received such a workout as it's getting with the publication of the "Mohammed cartoons" in Denmark and elsewhere. I think publishing these cartoons was the dopiest idea since William Lloyd Garrison burned the US Constitution in public. Yes, yes, the press has the right to publish satire. But in a purely practical sense, why in the world would you do something like this when you know what the reaction will be? There's even less sense in the re-publishing by other outlets. I have the right to burn an American flag (at least until Scalito and Roberts chime in) but I wouldn't do it in front of the Camp Lejeune Enlisted Men's Club. Here's a rule: don't purposely do things as an academic exercise that end up getting lots of people killed.

Double Standard

WASHINGTON — Cindy Sheehan, mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq, wasn't the only one ejected from the House gallery during the State of the Union address for wearing a T-shirt with a war-related slogan that violated the rules. The wife of a powerful Republican congressman was also asked to leave.

Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Florida _ chairman of the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee _ was removed from the gallery because she was wearing a T-shirt that read, "Support the Troops _ Defending Our Freedom."

She was sitting about six rows from first lady Laura Bush and asked to leave. She argued with police in the hallway outside the House chamber.

"They said I was protesting," she told the St. Petersburg Times. "I said, "Read my shirt, it is not a protest.' They said, 'We consider that a protest.' I said, 'Then you are an idiot.'"


Reading the entire article, you get the impression that the two women were treated the same. They weren't. Sheehan was arrested, held for several hours, and charged with misdemeanors. Young was not arrested nor charged with any crime.