He's Black?

A Hate Crime investigation was launched following a string of seven church fires in the St. Louis area in which the congregations were predominately black.  Police have charged David Lopez Jackson in 2 of the seven fires and he remains a suspect in the other five.

Liberals left baffled and confused! 

An ATF spokesman was quoted as saying "There appears to be no indication of a hate crime or sign ... any one particular Christian denomination or ethnic group was being targeted, to be honest I'm completely stumped! I don't know what to think." 

One local leader said he was relieved that he was caught and now that he knew he was black, hopefully he would get some help, but you know... we were kind of hoping we were going to get to string up a honkey! As he walked off he was heard yelling at the top of his lungs:

"NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE". 

Seriously though folks, isn't it kind of racist jumping to the conclusion that the Perp was some angry white guy? Sometimes an arsonist is just an arsonist.

Although to give our liberal friends some hope, maybe it was a hate crime, maybe he hates religion and churches were the only thing conveniently at hand.  Oh wait, that would make him eligible for a leadership position in the DNC. 

Freedom of Speech and of the Press

These are foundational principles upon which this great nation was founded.  It is not mainstream speech that needs protection, saying what everyone else is saying, doing what everyone else is doing, and believing what everyone else is believing is fairly safe, it is only the speech of the outliers, the obnoxious, those swimming against the stream that require the protections offered by the first amendment.

Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, these are the things that put the David Dukes and Westboro Baptist Churches of our world on your evening news.  The man in funny shoes, hat, and a dress (Pope Francis) says "You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others, You cannot make fun of the faith of others."  That's funny, considering his primary job is to preach the gospel of a man that was provocative and insulting to the powers that be, It's not readily documented but I'm pretty sure he made fun of the Pharisees too.  Under the rules outlined by the Pope I'm sure Jesus would have been jailed for "hate speech", he certainly would have been jailed today for vandalizing the money-lenders in the temple.  I certainly found it surprising that the #1 disciple of Jesus today would (half-jokingly) punch you for insulting his mother, but he's Latin American so culturally I suppose we need to forgive him for his machismo.

But this isn't a post about religion, it's a poach about speech.  I wonder if those of you willing to restrict the speech of those offending Islam would be willing to toss Arne Niklas Jansson and the members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti monster in jail?

Fair Use: (c) Arne Niklas Jansson

Are they not making fun of someone's religion?

The Creation of Adam: Michelangelo

I made fun of the Pope above, should I be jailed? My speech restricted?  Is it a hate crime?  I certainly don't hate the Pope or the Catholic Church. Now my intent is certainly different from Charlie Hebdo, I poke my fun good-naturedly, their intent is to ridicule, to expose as farcical not only Islam but the aforementioned Catholic Church, and all religion. Many Christians found this offensive, to the point of vandalism and death threats.

Piss Christ: Andres Serrano

Indeed many Christians found this next film offensive and it was banned in Ireland, Norway, and by several UK town councils. 

What is offensive is quite relative, I find none of the works displayed here offensive, I'm sure some of you will find some, or all of them offensive. Are you willing to ban them? 

There is a fine line between Freedom of Speech and oppression.

SLATE

 

The Pinnacle of Poor Taste?

If the embed doesn't work, please go here to view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYiJ_Dc-y_M


The song comes from Fickle 93.3 (WFKL) out of Rochester NY that brands their format as "We play everything". 

Why I love the 1st Amendment

The Government Can