From: king_p@fog.cs.odu.edu (Paul King)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Re: Tipper Update!
Date: 21 Jul 92 17:05:50 GMT
	<1992Jul20.182150.18064@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
	<14f16bINN1l0@stanley.cis.Brown.EDU> <SOWA.92Jul20180218@netcom.com>
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA


   I guess I shoulda jumped on this thread on the messages
 that Eric Sowa is responding to, but I didn't see it.
 There is no direct dead content in this, well a line at the end,
 but please feel free to hit 'N' right now. Except you "Jordan"
 you need to hear this, unless you don't live in the U.S. in which
 case you don't really need to worry about the U.S. constitution.


In article <SOWA.92Jul20180218@netcom.com> sowa@netcom.com (Erik Sowa) writes:

 >  Warning Label: no ODC here. If you find the advocacy of free speech to
 >  be offensive, please go on to the next article.

 I'm sorry, but I also have a think to to say here. And the 
 topic is only sorta kinda dead related, in that if we let our gov't
 shut us up we'll have more cops at our shows and then we'll get 
 arrested just for going to the show.

   Jordan> There are clearly some cases where we can see intuitively that
   Jordan> it is abuse of "free speech" to use the media to spread
   Jordan> "dangerous" ideas.

 >  Who is this "we" blessed with such crystal-clear intuitive vision?
 
  And how is an Idea, a thought, dangerous? It could be wrong. 2+2=17
  is an idea and it's not dangerous, just wrong. Factually wrong ideas
  can be ignored, disproven. Other ideas can be dangerous to power,
  can disrupt control, but part of what america is defies control.
  Defies it hard. An idea can spread truth, the only things an idea
  can hurt are based on control or ignorance or both.



   Jordan> I do believe that free speech is a privilege that should not be
   Jordan> abused.

 >   It is a right, not a privilege.

   Thank You. I heard on the radio that some astonishingly large
  percentage of college students and professors thought free speech was not 
  protected by the Constitution, and further did not feel that it should be.
  Idiots. 

   Jordan> Let's save our amendments for when it matters, such as political
   Jordan> issues. We can all see that 2 Live Crew and Ice-T do not deserve
   Jordan> our support.

 Excuse me Jordan, what is a political issue? You mean junk like has 
 Bill Clinton Had an affair? Did Bush inhale? Political crap like that?
 That's media not politics. Politics ,in regard to the constitution,
 is how we choose to allow the gov't to affect our lives. That means exactly
 things like free speech. Did you know it works that way. We allow the gov't
 not the gov't allows us. That's why we explicitly protected our right to
 say bad things about the gov't. And anything else we want. We didn't
 even decide that the gov't could prohibit 'obscene' writing. Why
 not write about sex, in whatever context works for us? That's
 political, not this stupid sham election coming up.



 >  On the original subject, IMHO Frank Zappa was right: Tipper's crusade
 >  for "voluntary" rating labels on CDs is cultural terrorism. Yes, it's
 >  not an outright ban, but the effect on a music store owner's choice of
 >  titles to stock can be chilling. FWIW, I'm a parent, and I also think
 >  the movie rating system is stupid.


  Yes. Just because it's not a law doesn't mean it's not oppressive
 and disgusting. If it has the effect, the effect, of silencing one
 voice, it's oppressive and wrong. If *you* don't want to hear it,
 "the radio has two, count 'em two knobs. One changes the station,
 and the other one <pop> turns it off."

   Once again, ssorry for the lack O'dead. I just pulled out mt RFK 90
 tape the other day. Man what a rainstorm. We had a good rainstorm the 
 other day, for about ten minits, and it wasn't nearly as long or hard
 as that '90. 

        
         -Paul


Free Hugs