Friday, August 11, 2006

Kudos to Fox News

Whoda thunk it?

But in this case, the spokesmodel kicks ass and takes names, demonstrating either a good knowlege of the bible, or at least good preperation, and proceeds to rip a WBC Unapologeticist a new one. In public. In terms familiar to any God-Fearing Evangelical.

Myself, I support the right of Westborough Baptist Church to speak their minds in public, anywhere.

I also support the right of Americans in general to Take Umbrage.

I'm a strong supporter of the "fighting words doctrine" which points out that your freedom of speech is reasonably limited by the fact that if the direct intent of your words is to offend someone so badly that they punch you in the face, you can't complain that you got the result you wanted.


Recent lower-court opinions illustrate that the fighting-words doctrine is still a highly contentious area of litigation. In City of Garfield Heights v. Yaro, 1999 Ohio App. LEXIS 5688 (1999), for example, an Ohio appeals court held that a woman who cursed during a confrontation with a police officer could not be convicted of disorderly conduct because her speech did not constitute fighting words. Citing Chaplinsky, the court determined that the applicable test was whether the words used would "reasonably incite the average person to retaliate."

Or, if I may boil down the view of the court: "Say what you like, when you like, where you like, but don't let your mouth write a check your ass can't cash."

In one interesting side note, this video was posted to YouTube BY a church supporter. Apparently they think it portrays them in a good light.

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