‘The blasphemy we need’

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The Volokh Conspiracy

‘The blasphemy we need’

By Jonathan H. Adler January 8

 

A free society can also be a polite one. The right to say offensive and scurrilous things need not be exercised. ne can defend the right to say such things without also defending the practice. And yet, as Ross Douthat observes, when such speech is threatened — whether such threats come from the state or fanatical murderous thugs — there is a time to defend the practice.

 

in a cultural and political vacuum, it would be okay to think that some of the images (anti-Islamic and otherwise) that Charlie Hebdo regularly published, especially those chosen entirely for their shock value, contributed little enough to public discussion that the world would not suffer from their absence.

 

But we are not in a vacuum. We are in a situation where my third point applies, because the kind of blasphemy that Charlie Hebdo engaged in had deadly consequences, as everyone knew it could … and that kind of blasphemy is precisely the kind that needs to be defended,

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http://twitter.com/cjosied/status/553247423125286912/photo/1

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Stop Lying: Media Are Censoring Charlie Hebdo Out Of Fear Of Islam

Media elites are claiming journalistic principles prohibit publication of Charlie Hebdo pics. They need to admit the real reason is they're terrified.

By Mollie Hemingway JANUARY 9, 2015

 

With straight faces and an apparent belief that we’d all forgotten the media coverage we’ve been subjected to in recent decades, editors and executives at many media outlets claimed this week that their well-established respect for religion prevents them from showing images that Muslim extremists have used to justify murderous terrorism.

 

Nobody believes this. Absolutely nobody on earth believes that American journalists operate with deference toward Baptists, Mormons or Catholics, much less an abundance of deference to same. The Episcopal Church? Sure. Nuns on the Bus? Absolutely. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright? Maybe. But even that’s not about religious deference so much as political tribalism.

 

http://thefederalist.com/2015/01/09/stop-lying-media-are-censoring-charlie-hebdo-out-of-fear-of-islam/

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January 11, 2015

Je Suis Sick and Tired of Cant

By Clarice Feldman

Millions of pixels gave their lives this week in lame efforts to explain the horrid slaughter of innocents in France, most of it pure cant by cowardly journalists, uninformed politicians offering up theological views on Islam, and self-described experts on terrorism who blame it on everything from Israel to the West’s defense against such attacks.

 

Liberal Hypocrisy on Free Speech and Freedom of the Press

 

Count me in the camp with Matthew Continetti, who gives countless examples of liberal hypocrisy about free speech including the following examples:

 

Do liberals actually believe in the right to offend? Their attitude seems to me to be ambivalent at best. And this equivocation was apparent within hours of the attack, when news outlets censored or

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/01/je_suis_sick_and_tired_of_cant.html

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the Obama Manual for Terror Unpreparedness

By: blbennett (Diary) | January 11th, 2015 at 03:40 PM

 

Since the entire World has witnessed the horror of an armed military-style terror strike in the heart of Paris and we may be next, we should make sure we’ve ticked off every item in the Obama Manual for TerrorUnpreparednes

 

1. Appoint devout Muslims—preferably with Muslim Brotherhood connections—to highpositions in DHS. Here are just two examples:

 

Kareem W. Shora appointed by President Obama In 2009 to the Homeland Security Advisory Council. Within a few months, Shora was appointed the senior policy advisor for DHS’s Community Engagement Section, by Janet Napolitano.

 

Background: he was the national executive director American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. While there, he worked with CAIR

http://www.redstate.com/diary/blbennett/2015/01/11/obama-manual-terror-unpreparedness/