Tag Archives: Freedom of Speech

Keeping the world safe from comic books

Can the TSA really detain someone just for carrying a manuscript? Apparently so:

Sable wrote of his experiences: ‘Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then ‘discovered’ the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.’

‘The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.’

Yeah, this is really helping.

Right decision, wrong reason

The City of London Police have backed down amid international outrage over their arrest and prosecution of a 15 year for peacefully expressing the belief that Scientology is a cult. I had blogged about here right before the police backed down.

The reasons given beggar belief:

A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesman said: “In consultation with the City of London Police, we were asked whether the sign was abusive or insulting.

“Our advice is that it is not abusive or insulting and there is no offensiveness (as opposed to criticism), neither in the idea expressed nor in the mode of expression.”

 Putting aside the interesting question about how a placard could be abusive, and the fact that the international ridicule likely was a mitigating factor, reasoning here is appalling.

So in London one can only express an opinion if it is not insulting or offensive. And who is to determine what is insulting or offensive? Why the government of course.

That’s not how a truly free society works.

Free speech in Britain slides another bit towards oblivion

What is going on in Britain these days? Has the country that gave us George Orwell really going to prosecute someone for using the word “Cult”? Has the madness really gone that far?

Joseph Welch once faced down a similar tyranny here in the US and utterly demolished it with on simple question:

Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

Who will stand up to the government of Britain and ask the same?