Tearing off the fringes, one post at a time.
From the January 14th, 2006 edition(page A7) of the Wall Street Journal:
Justice O’Connor is the most familiar of the court’s nine justices, says a December FindLaw Survey. Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens are the least familiar. Fifty-seven percent of U.S. adults can’t name any current justices.
The emphasis belongs to the Journal.
Remember this stat the next time someone talks about how “low” turnout is for a presidential election.
First Amendment protects even the vile, by Steve Chapman
Apparently Fred Phelps, he of “God hates fags” fame, now is telling us that God is using roadside bombs and so on in Iraq to punish American soliders for…whatever it is that God hates about America — and he shows up at military funerals to tell people about it. Like any reasonable person, I think Phelps is a colossal idiot, but the First Amendment protects everyone, whether you want to hear it or not.
The solution to offensive speech is not to legislate it away; it’s more speech. Phelps’ right to show up at these funerals and thank God for IEDs is balanced precisely by everyone else’s right to show up and say that he’s wrong.