be the change you want to see in the world

A high school kid in USia displayed a satirical “Bong Hits for Jesus” banner - not in spirit different from the famous “Nuke the gay whales for Jesus” bumper sticker - off school property on a public sidewalk and is suspended from school. He goes to court on free speech laws and it goes all the way to the new supreme court, which has been stacked by Bush with the likes of Roberts and Alito, tipping the balance to conservatives. They ruled against the kid. Satire now off-limits for American High School kids. USians just don’t get satire, do they? I guess that’s why they thought Borat was offensive to Kazakhstan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Supreme Court ruled against a former high school student Monday in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner case — a split decision that limits students’ free speech rights.

Joseph Frederick was 18 when he unveiled the 14-foot paper sign on a public sidewalk outside his Juneau, Alaska, high school in 2002.

Principal Deborah Morse confiscated it and suspended Frederick. He sued, taking his case all the way to the nation’s highest court.

The justices ruled 6-3 that Frederick’s free speech rights were not violated by his suspension over what the majority’s written opinion called a “sophomoric” banner.

“It was reasonable for (the principal) to conclude that the banner promoted illegal drug use– and that failing to act would send a powerful message to the students in her charge,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court’s majority. (Opinionexternal link)

Roberts added that while the court has limited student free speech rights in the past, young people do not give up all their First Amendment rights when they enter a school.

Roberts was supported by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer, and Samuel Alito. Breyer noted separately he would give Morse qualified immunity from the lawsuit, but did not sign onto the majority’s broader free speech limits on students.

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said, “This case began with a silly nonsensical banner, (and) ends with the court inventing out of whole cloth a special First Amendment rule permitting the censorship of any student speech that mentions drugs, so long as someone could perceive that speech to contain a latent pro-drug message.”

Christopher Hitchens in late 2003:

“No president could responsibly face the U.S. public, nor could any unimpeachable president after 9/11 face the public and say, ‘We did have some evidence involving Saddam Hussein, but we did not think it was worth fighting over,’” Hitchens said. “I think that on this matter the United States has put itself on the right side of history.”

Now, I’m being unfair, of course. Hitchens has been solid on many, many issues, but his slip on the Iraq war has colored him in my mind for the last while. This clip makes me smile though. Such verbal gymnastics. Does he have a teleprompter. It is quite amazing.

wise flickr user atomcity wrote today:

“I don’t understand how flickr could have gone along with entering into a local german setting knowing that this would be the situation (when at least from an outsiders perspective, its seems like staying out of germany would have been a perfectly fine scenario from the point of view of german users, and probably from a business point of view considering the PR damage done by this whole debacle) The lack of foresight and willingness to go into such a compromised situation just doesn’t make sense, and the lack of responses explaining the rationale for the current situation doesn’t make sense.”

Bingo!

Rumors in Physics Blogosphere Test Faith in ‘God Particle’

For weeks, the physics world has been buzzing with rumors juicier — at least in context — than any Washington scandal: Researchers at Fermilab’s Tevatron particle collider may have made one of the biggest scientific discoveries in decades, just months before a new European facility supplanted their position at the top of the field.

Dear al qaeda cowards,

Please ensure that you stand in tightly grouped formations, away from schools, mosques and other structures you may live and work in, and away from civilians (especially children attending school). That way, when we bomb you with million-dollar smart bombs from miles away to ensure we don’t get a scratch on our pretty little heads, we don’t have to arrive later and find we messed up. It hurts the war effort at home.

Same goes for you Canadians.

“We had surveillance on the compound all day and saw no indications there were children inside the building (ed. note: school),” said Army Maj. Chris Belcher, spokesman for the Coalition.

The military said other children who survived said that they were forced to stay inside the building (ed. note. stay in school) throughout the day.

“Credible intelligence named the compound, which contained a mosque and a madrassa (ed. note: school), as a suspected safehouse for al Qaeda fighters,” the statement said. “Coalition forces confirmed the presence of nefarious activity occurring at the site before getting approval to conduct an airstrike on the location.”

The military said that residents later confirmed that al Qaeda fighters had been present in the compound (ed. note: town) in Paktika province’s Zarghun Shahr district all day Sunday.

“This is another example of al Qaeda using the protective status of a mosque, as well as innocent civilians, to shield themselves,” Maj. Belcher said. “We are saddened by the innocent lives that were lost as a result of militants’ cowardice.”