Monday, August 01, 2011

The Civil Right Not To Be Offended: Say It Ain't So, Tennessee

A Public Service Announcement
From the State of Tennessee
Always on Watch has an interesting post up today.  A pundit in Tennessee is claiming that Tennessee has a new law that will make it illegal to offend anyone with a photo, drawing or cartoon.  That will put Steve Benson out of business, but also Michael Ramirez and everyone else.  AOW's article says:
The specific law outlaws posting a photo online that causes "emotional distress" to someone and has no "legitimate purpose." While the law does state that there needs to be "malicious intent," it also includes a massive loophole, in that it says that you can still be liable if the person "reasonably should know" that the actions would "frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress."
Clearly, this law is an abject violation of the First Amendment for free speech, and cannot stand.  It would allow anyone to shut down another's free speech based on an individual's subjective tastes and biases.

It must be repealed immediately, or be overwhelmed with massive civil disobedience.  Let's flood Tennessee with crude drawings of Muhammad eating bacon sandwiches.  That's my entry above!  (Uh, but I didn't make it, honest.  I found it over at Crooks and Liars, I think.  Or maybe it was Democratic Underground.)

Read it all here.

2 comments:

Always On Watch said...

Stogie,
LOL. To that graphic, I mean.

Thank you for linking to my post.

I cannot believe that the state of Tennessee has sunk to such depths -- to have decided to ignore the First Amendment, indeed to punish any and all who "insult" or "offend" particular groups. Tennesseeans used to be a tough bunch, with tough skins. What happened to them?

Stogie said...

AOW, it seems Tennessee has been "Europeanized." Now we have our own states creating "speech codes." This is absurd and cannot stand.