Free Speech

Here is something I have been thinking about. Freedom of speech seems to be under attack.
Last week an NBA player was fined $50,000 - that amount may not be right - for making a "gay slur" towards a fan.
A few months back Kobe Bryant, also of the NBA, was fined $100,000 for saying something was "gay."
And this week a tv commentator got in trouble for calling conservative woman politician a slut.
Now im not thinking about the gay issue, or any other issue.
The problem to me is freedom of speech. What does it say about freedom of speech when you can be fined, suspended, or even fired for making a comment.
Whether the comment was right or wrong is not the point. In all of those instances it was bad judgement and not a good thing to do. Does that make it right to take disciplinary action against them?
They were all on the job at the time, so i guess you could say they were representing their company.
There might be a conflict of rights there, so its not black and white.
But still I think there is a tendency now a days in our culture to squash freedom of speech.
Should offensive speech be allowed"?
How do you define offensive?
If you only allow freedom of speech to those you agree with, do you have freedom of speech?
Just some questions to spur discussion.

Something else that seems odd to me here. It is the liberals who seem more likely to take action against someone for bad speech. Arent liberals supposed to be the ones who want to let everything go? But not offensive speech apparently. hmmmmm

Where are the birthers?

Ok. Birthers would you like a little barbeque sauce with your crow.
For months - years even - you have called for the president to come clean about his birth certificate.
He has finally done so - and I still think he should not have.
But... where is the fairness? Where is the admission of being wrong? Where is the being honeest and "coming clean" that you called for.


Remember that book that was to be released that was going to blow this thing out of the water and be a book that finally exposed the president ... well i guess it is still being released..
Below is a press release about it.
But come on birthers .... lets have a little transparency.....


Let me introduce you to Jerome Corsi.

This week he released a new book that the publisher says will be a bestseller "of historic proportions."

The title is "Where's the Birth Certificate?" -- yes, really.

Corsi's work is a greatest-hits reel of delusions, ranging from 9/11 conspiracies to claiming that there is an infinite supply of oil in the Earth's core. In 2008, he published a book about Barack Obama claiming, among other things, that he (a) is a secret Muslim; (b) is secretly anti-military; (c) secretly dealt drugs; and (d) secretly supported terrorist actions when he was eight years old. So many secrets!

FactCheck.org called Corsi's work "a mishmash of unsupported conjecture, half-truths, logical fallacies and outright falsehoods."

There's really no way to make this stuff completely go away. The only thing we can do is laugh at it -- and make sure as many other people as possible are in on the joke.

Prayer meeting ?

I just saw on brand-x website, that city attorney is concerned that the city "might" be sued over its practice of having a prayer before meetings, done by area ministers.

I just wonder if it is a good use of taxpayer money to pay the city attorney to prepare briefs on issues where the city "might" be sued. Someone could stumble on the front steps of city hall too, and sue the city. Anyone can sue anyone over anything. It just costs a couple bucks to file the paper work for a lawsuit.

I suppose this is a topic to be debated, but i think another issue here is whether the city should be paying its attorney to find areas where the city "might" be sued. This has been a long-standing practice, and many city commissions do this. There are constitutional ways of going about it. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a hot button issue in ark city.

Live blogs

We are having the state track meet here today for two classifications. I am going to be doing a live blog there. This will pretty much just be state track results, so probably not of much interest to you folks up there.
But just in case anyone wanted to see it, it will be at www.ardmoreite.com
1-5 p.m. today, saturday.

friday

Google has been having some trouble looks like. I posted something yesterday and now I dont see it at all. Couldnt sign on last night at all.
Seems to be working now.
Talk about whatever you like in this space.

another update

Howdy folks.
We are almost at the end of high school sports season down here. Spring time sports is the busiest time of the year, and spring time sports playoffs are just crazy. It is almost over, but that is why i have not been posting.
I am going to be doing some live blogging at sports events. State track meet this weekend.
I am getting immersed in high school sports here. Paying more attention to who is hitting home runs, and who is nearing10 seconds in the 100 meters, is actually more fun than paying attention to what politicians are saying.
At least in sports, there is a winner and someone who did not win. As opposed to politics, where no matter what happens, both sides claim a victory and spin it their way regardless.

There are some good athletes down here, so that makes it fun. They play at a high level in most sports. But once the high school season is over things should slow down a bit.

Tourism
There is a tour of train depots coming up. Sounds interesting and I just heard about it yesterday. But the tour ends with the Heartland Flyer at the Ardmore train station. The depot here is still active, and is one of the old ones that has been restored.
Several train depots have been restored here.
I know there is one rotting to death in Ark City and some group is allegedly trying to do something to save it.
Ive even heard that the Railroad company is willing to give it away.
Hope someone will take up that project in earnest.

Ok, dont know if that will get people going.
But ... just in case ... guns, abortion, taxes, obama, bush, lowes and mel kuhn. . oh, and dotty smith.

Commision and other stuff

Noticed that the city commission there in ark city is going back to the mid-day Friday work session.
This is a sign that the old order, which is now  the new order, has taken over.
The argument for thursday evening was so the working public could come to the meetings. The argument against that was that no one ever comes anyway, and i guess it is more convenient for members to meet at that time.
Of course if commissioners have a day job, that could be an issue.
As a reporter, the work session is always much more interesting than the meeting. I once covered a commission in another state and rarely actually went to a meeting. The meetings are a formality in a sense while the work session is where stuff gets hashed out.
You can still go to the regular meeting and you can still speak there.
The thing is, its rare for very many people to show up at a work sessions or at a meeting.

I saw where they have found bin laden and he is dead. Both sides are already lining up to take credit. Both sides should be embarrassed that it took them 10 years. :)