I’m always amazed by people who refuse to support the CBLDF because they perceive the organization as solely interested in protecting the publication of adult-only comics. Since such nay-sayers find such comics in poor taste, they don’t understand why the CBLDF would fight for the rights of any adult to purchase them. And when it’s pointed out that other material may well be targeted, they dismiss such claims out of hand.
I wonder what they would say to what’s currently going on in South Carolina, where the U.S. government seized a comic book because–get ready–it featured a parody of George W. Bush.
Not that that’s what they admit to, of course. From the intro to the case at www.cbldf.org:
“On October 27, U.S. Customs sent a letter to Top Shelf Productions notifying them that copies of the anthology Stripburger had been seized, charging that the stories “Richie Bush” by Peter Kuper and “Moj Stub” (translated, “My Pole”) by Bojan Red
• 
Mr. David,
Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve been waiting for the end of the year to evaluate my situation and see if I can affort to be making donations to anymore organizations. Thanks for pointing out that sometimes you can’t afford to not give money. Just back from CBLDF’s site.
You know what’s been REALLY apalling about this? That there’s been so much dead stupid ignorance about first amendment rights concerning this case. For example, on one board, one poster confidently said that the law said very little about parodies and that case law wasn’t real law.
Ghah.
Remember when we used to laugh at Canadian and British Customs practices here in US comic fandom? How provincial, we thought. I suspect that the next target will be involve Fantagraphics/Eros as well as Diamond and some small comic store in one of the Red States.
I am now convinced and will send CBLDF a donation.
[Quote] Down in South Carolina, they don’t approve of some dámņëd furriners making fun of the Pre-zi-dent of the U S of A. [/Quote]
PAD, I’m sure you could be more offensive if you wanted, but not without delving into a sack of four letter words.
I’m not supporting censorship in any way, but insulting the people who would be able to turn this aroung? Not a good way to accomplish anything.
-Richard
They might be able to make a case that Richie Bush swipes a particular art style for its parodies, which as I recall isn’t usually the case with MAD. I’m a bit of a fence-sitter when it comes to the “rights” of some artists to swipe other artists’ trademarks for commercial purposes – I enjoy the style parody but it’s not right to make money off something someone else has done, y’know? And as you know, companies need to defend trademarks (including art styles, logos, etc.) pretty vigorously even if they don’t want to because if they don’t they lose the right to challenge those trademarks anywhere. And again, that’s not fair to the holders of the original trademarks. It was when the CBLDF started defending what I considered creative theft, citing First Amendment considerations (where I felt particular cases weren’t FA ones), that I decided not to renew my membership.
I’m from the South. My husband is from South Carolina. We are democrats. We do not believe in censorship in any way.
I have purchased every novel you have ever written. Supported most every view you have ever posted on here.
You putting all the “South” in one category is as bad as what the people who stopped the importing of that comic did.
Tammie
Oh…
Don’t make fun of the way we talk. It is part of our heritage. Just the way that your pattern of speech is part of your heritage. It’s not because we are st-oo-pid. We talk this way because our parents talked this way, and their parents talked this way, etc.
I’m not sure why I was so highly offended by your post. I’ve never posted on here before even though I read your column every day. Maybe it was because you totally disqualified your intelligent statements about censorship with the seriously offensive statements about the people of South Carolina.
Tammie
PAD wrote:
————————————————
“We all know what happened. Down in South Carolina, they don’t approve of some dámņëd furriners making fun of the Pre-zi-dent of the U S of A. So they trumped up some charges and refused to allow the books into the country. Prior restraint by the US government based on personal dislike for political satire.”
————————————————
What the hëll, PAD?! I’m usually inclined to ignore your liberal yammering here because I like your writing and I think it’s best to keep the artist and the art separate. This time, however, you made me mad enough to log in and respond. I’m a South Carolinian, and I’m insulted that you implied that we’re all ignorant yokels. Yes, there are those types here, but the same sort of person lives in NYC: Same ignorance, different accent.
I’m a conservative, but I’m not an idiot because of my politics, despite what you liberals would like to believe. I’m certainly not an idiot because of the geography of my birth. The same argument about geographical mental inferiority was also used to denegrate another group – Africans. I’m also not moron because of my cultural differences from you (might I remind you that members of the Jewish culture were also considered to be inferior by various parties at various times – and that wasn’t true either).
You’re guilty of generalizing about a large group of people. I suppose we’re all equals in this country, unless our state voted for Bush.
Hëll, I’ve been worried about where this country is going for years now. For me this is just the latest example. Personally, I’m getting tired of people trying to make choices for me.
I don’t know why but it just reminds me of the people who want to ban The Wizard of Oz. There’s no real connection except they both involve scared people with little minds.
The sad part is that it involves satire. I’m all for satire, even when it’s pointed at me or something I believe in. We need satire. President Bush likes it too. I recently saw his into to a speach he was giving in Canada wherein he thanked those who came out to see him. He thanked them for waving at him. With all five fingers. That seems like a self-satirization to me. It has me wondering if some kiss-ášš is trying to kiss up and gain favor. Which would be pretty dámņëd sad.
I was going to write more, but I want to clear it with the National Center for Thought Control (NCTC)before I get dissapeared in the dead of night.
Salutations,
Mitch Evans
I think it’s more along the lines of a bureuacrat trying to curry favor, but, whatever the reason, it’s mind-numbingly stupid.
Folks from South Carolina–chill. I apologize if I offended you. Basically, I was writing in “the voice” of Edward Rutledge, representative of South Carolina from the musical “1776” who was prone to drawling, “We heyah in the deep South” and such. Which is pretty much what happens when you’ve been in as many productions of “1776” as I have. It’s so automatic when it comes to South Carolina that I literally don’t give it any thought. Again, please accept my apology on that score.
PAD
The Richie Bush issue would make a veru nice test case to overturn this. I’m fairly sure that even the right wing of the U.S. Supreme Court would come down on the correct side of things, and it would be nice if the possibility of being sued for using an incongruous style to satirize a series of real world events was taken off of the table for good.
I rarely post, too, and was about to add to the “Making fun of a person’s accent is basically the wrong apporach to winning them over” bit, until I saw PAD’s apology, which is accepted. I think I was slightly offended because a Southern accent has equated into sounding “ignern’t” somewhere down the line. Hailing from the south (and like Tammie, a Democrat and avid PADuwan), I felt the post was feeding the stereotype of southerner = stupid (or, more broadly as of late, red state = stupid). Since PAD is fairly evenhanded in terms of race and region, I found that to be particularly jarring.
Vicomte, I think you are wrong. By the time this case got to the Supreme Court, it would be a couple of years. If you look at the current Supreme Court line-up, you might note that the many of the Justices are quite old. Justice Stevens, who is now one of the left wing Justices is up there in age. If he leaves the Supreme Court, he will be replaced with a Conservative. Justice O’Connor, who is perhaps the most reasonable Conservative is also up there in age and could be replaced with a Justice that would make her look like a liberal. It is also important to remember that the Supreme Court conservatives helped Bush become President. In other words, I think it is quite possible that the Supreme Court could hold that the seizure is Constitutional.
One more thing to concern ourselves with is whether Top Shelf can afford to litigate this matter even with CBLDF’s help?
Elayne,
I regard myself as fairly moderate on trademark issues, but I’m not sure the argument is best framed as “It’s not right to make money off of what someone else has done.” I’d much rather the standard be based on whether there’s a reasonable likelihood that the imitation will cause harm by creating confusion in the market place.
I think most commercial parody, and much satire, makes money in part off of work other people have done. It take a concept that has made its way into the public consciousness and uses it in an unexpected way to create humorous effect. These concepts were usually created for commercial purposes, and so any money from parodying them (or employing them in parodies of other things) is ultimately made in part off of the work of others. If the money is made at the expense of the creators, I see that as a problem, but I don’t see just mimicking a style as doing that.
Some years ago a sketch comedy show (I forget which) did a wonderful spoof of the Rankin-Bass Rudolph, done in a perfect imitation of the animation style. It wouldn’t have been nearly as fully if it hadn’t employed the stop motion technique and similar looking characters, and it wouldn’t have been possible at all if the Rankin-Bass creative work wasn’t there to derive the humorous sketch from. I can’t see that it is reasonably likely to have caused economic harm, however, and so I can’t see a legitimate governmental interest in prohibiting that sort of expression.
“I’m a conservative, but I’m not an idiot because of my politics, despite what you liberals would like to believe… You’re guilty of generalizing about a large group of people.”
(emphasis mine)
I wonder – am I the only person who found the coexistence of these two phrases in the same post to be highly entertaining?
Peter said Folks from South Carolina–chill. I apologize if I offended you.
Only 49 more to go. Tehe! :0)
The scum-suckers in the government are engaging in MORE UNCONSTITUTIONAL activity and you people are worried about PAD “talking” in an exaggerated Southern Accent?
Now wonder this country is going to down the tubes…
Bladestar said Now wonder this country is going to down the tubes…
Maybe, in your opinion it is. I tend to have an optimistic outlook and believe that our country is the greatest country in the world.
’nuff said
Let’s see,
1. We don’t have healthcare for all our children, much less all our citizens
2. Our trade deficit is huge.
3. The government wants to rack up even more of a deficit to “fix” social security, which would be solvent ’til 2042 without doing a thing.
4. We are engaged in a war with no end in sight.
5. Science seems to be a dirty word to this government.
6. The army has only half the new recruits it needs, and they are of poorer quality.
7. Many in this country don’t believe the election results.
8. The DeLay rule.
9. Censorship.
You know what? There’s just too much that is wrong with this country anymore to continue the list, but I invite anyone to add your own ideas. The greatest nation? Not anymore.
The censorship is way, way out of hand. These folks still have me confused about “Saving Private Ryan” ( what a subversive work that is).
Nova, if you think this country and the driection it’s headed are great, then you truly ARE the fûçkìņg moron I’ve accused you of being in the past…
Bladestar said Nova, if you think this country and the driection it’s headed are great, then you truly ARE the f^%$ing moron I’ve accused you of being in the past…
How about using spell check before posting? Have I told you lately that I love you man.
:0)
Karen said 3. The government wants to rack up even more of a deficit to “fix” social security, which would be solvent ’til 2042 without doing a thing.
Let’s wait until there really is a problem and then try to fix it. Yup, that’s the best solution for everything.
and 5. Science seems to be a dirty word to this government.
I disagree. Maybe you think our government should set aside money for human cloning research.
and 6. The army has only half the new recruits it needs, and they are of poorer quality.
Our military is the best trained in the world. I’ve been there and have seen it in action. I’m sure our soldiers would love to know that you think they are inferior.
and 7. Many in this country don’t believe the election results.
That’s your opinion, right? I bet you had the same opinion the last election. Get over it already, it’s not going to change.
7. Many in this country don’t believe the election results.
But hey, you can be comforted by the fact that, after spending $65 million on Ukraine’s election, we have the ability to *demand* that the results must be made invalid because “our” guy lost.
Makes you wonder.
PAD,
I’m enjoying the commentary on your posting. Bottom line, I’m sending one more contribution to CBLDF before the end of the year (get the writeoff, you know). That contribution can be credited to you bringing up this issue.
Regards,
Dennis
Novafan:
“5. Science seems to be a dirty word to this government.
I disagree. Maybe you think our government should set aside money for human cloning research.”
Thats a bogus response,while Karen can defend herself,I am pretty sure she is refering to the blatant alteration or ignoring of facts presented by scientific research that is not in line with
what this administration wants to hear.An example being an article in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN that explains just why the much vaunted missile defense wont work and even under optimal conditions is about 20 to 30% accurate.Also even if it hits the target unless it gets the missile coming out of the launcher there is still the risk if Fallout and a big ášš mushroom cloud over a major city.
“6. The army has only half the new recruits it needs, and they are of poorer quality.
Our military is the best trained in the world. I’ve been there and have seen it in action. I’m sure our soldiers would love to know that you think they are inferior.”
First she was not saying our soldiers were inferior she was saying the recruits are not the same standard as they used to be.Unfortunately I have seen many unscrupulous recruiters enlist folks just to fill a quota that probably shouldnt be flipping a burger let alone handling a weapon.
While our military is highly trained it doesnt due a dámņ bit a good if they dont have the proper numbers,resources and equipment to do the job,while Rumsfeld sits around giving snarky answers.
Karen I hope didnt step on your toes here and am not trying to speak for you 🙂
Karen said 3. The government wants to rack up even more of a deficit to “fix” social security, which would be solvent ’til 2042 without doing a thing.
Let’s wait until there really is a problem and then try to fix it. Yup, that’s the best solution for everything.
No. Many economists believe small fixes, like raising the amount of income that can be taxed, instead of privatizing to give Wall Street more of that income it so desperately needs.
and 5. Science seems to be a dirty word to this government.
I disagree. Maybe you think our government should set aside money for human cloning research.
Who said anything about human cloning? I just want them to stop gutting environmental regulations. Respond to what I write. Not what you think I’ve written.
and 6. The army has only half the new recruits it needs, and they are of poorer quality.
Our military is the best trained in the world. I’ve been there and have seen it in action. I’m sure our soldiers would love to know that you think they are inferior.
Here is a story about the Army Guard: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-11-23-recruit_x.htm
I read an article the other day that said exactly what I wrote. The Army, Guard and Reserve are only getting about half the recruits they need and the people showing up are of poorer quality. I will post that article as soon as I can find it. I in no way said anything against our troops, only on who is being recruited now. Don’t twist my words.
and 7. Many in this country don’t believe the election results.
That’s your opinion, right? I bet you had the same opinion the last election. Get over it already, it’s not going to change.
There are a lot of websites out there that think there was something fishy going on in this election. Not just my opinion, but the opinion of MANY. Congress is looking into the elections. Is it “just their opinion” too?
I didn’t format the above correctly. The italics are my initial comments. The words after were Novafans, and the 3rd paragraph would be me responding to his comments. Then more italics. Sorry.
Deano,
Not at all. Thank-you. It’s nice when others hit some points more accurately or add things I didn’t think of at the time.
This whole thing is pretty dámņ depressing. I remember spending so much time reading about censorship cases in the past (and in other countries) and thinking that we in the U.S. had pretty much cleaned up our act. I believed this despite the Mike Diana case, the Friendly Frank case, the Jesus Castillo case, the Man who spent a night in jail over Elfquest, etc.
Now I’m remembering what I hated about so much of the eighties. Any day now I expect to see a commercial claiming that D & D is satanic and will turn kids into murderers. This is what I get for letting my aclu and cbldf membership lapse.
Novafan: “I tend to have an optimistic outlook and believe that our country is the greatest country in the world.”
Y’know, I hear this sentiment alot. Usually after I’ve pointed out to someone how our goverment has mucked things up over the last several decades.
I want to make it clear to everyone here that I am not attacking Novafan in any way. I just believe in quoting my source. Novafan just happens to be the most recent.
When people utter this sentiment to me it just seems like lazy brain work. Like putting a U.S. flag on ones SUV and calling it patriotic or putting a yellow ribon magnet on your vehicle (the latest ‘look at me’ fad) and claiming to support our troops.
The fact is that our goverment HAS mucked things up. Both here and abroad. And they’ve also done some really good things here and abroad. The censorship issue is another case of something being mucked up for the sake of… I don’t know what.
What I DO know is that is that the politicians have a divide-and-conquer attitude towards the people. And we’ve fallen for it. All the way down to the little peons like myself. This is evident by how often we go online to our various message boards and weblogs and read and write about how best to beat ‘them’ in the next election or how to make ‘them’ look bad in the press. What we ought to do is work with ‘them’ to solve actuall problems instead of arguing with ‘them’ over the sypmtoms.
Aren’t you glad I’m a peon and not an elected official?
Salutations,
Mitch Evans
Nova said: “I tend to have an optimistic outlook and believe that our country is the greatest country in the world.”
As long as that outlook doesn’t cause you to be ignorant and/or arrogant of other countries and ethnicities, then it’s okay. (not accusing you of such, just saying) What really really bothers me are Americans that are so egocentric and ignorant that they write off the feelings, values, and customs of other cultures and of immigrants who still retain their ethnic heritage.
Being from New York, I live in the world’s largest mixing pot of ethnicities, and though ethnic blindness isn’t as much a problem here as in other areas of America, it still exists. It’s fine to have pride in America, but don’t let that pride blind you.
As for the topic at hand, if censorship becomes a new trend for American politics and government, then America loses the quality that once made it “the greatest country on earth.”
What I find interesting about the things being said here are that no one seems to be considering that many of these censorship attempts DO come from the South, and after years of fighting it, some publishers are just giving up on the “red states.” Warrten Ellis, in his mailblog, mentioned that a couple of publishers have told him that they are just going to give up on dealing with southern states because it’s a waste of money to market to them. He even talked about it would be quite profitable for some creators to simply do tours of the coastal areas and forget the rest of the country, because they just don’t buy their work.
In 1992, at the Republican Convention, Pat Buchanan said that there is a cultural war going on in this country, and like it or not, there are a lot of people who are fighting it, while people on the side of free speech are not, and therefor are losing.
While it may be a Bad Thing for people to stereotype, the numbers are not lying. People in the south do not buy enough copies of controversial or mature readers books for companies to continue to try and sell them there. That is going to have enormous consequences down the road.
See, if I wanted to fund an organization that fought for first amendment rights, I would fund the ACLU, you know the people who are responsible for the only real victories that the CBLDF can claim.
What exactly has the CBLDF accomplished on their own?
Peter can probably point to more than I can, but the original Friendly Frank’s case and http://www.cbldf.org/casefiles/mavrides.shtml
are two examples. Also, from what I’ve read of the fund, most of their victories on their own aren’t too public: someone threatens to sue/suppress comic shop owner, comic shop owner calls CBLDF, CBLDF lawyer tells original person who threatened to sue/suppress that CBLDF will sue/countersue, said someone goes away. I agree that the CBDLF should do more to publicize its victories.
This is a scary precedent: What’ll happen to political cartooning, for both conservatives and liberals, if they start worrying about being sued for “clearly piratical copies” of political figures? I thought the standard was that something violated copyright if it could be too easily mistaken for the original. (Negativeland got hit with this for doing a U2 parody whose cover had “U2” in massive letters, which the court ruled could make people think it was an album by U2.) And since when are presidential images copywritten? Reagan appeared in CAPTAIN AMERICA — heck, he was shown to be a snakeman — and no lawsuits followed. My guess is that the people bringing the suit are hoping the comic store owners would rather fold than face the time expense of fighting this ridiculous charge. To that I say: Thank [insert your favorite religious figure here] for the CBLDF!
(And for the people who want to ban adult-oriented comics, here’s a great Judeo-Christian thought for you: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Don’t impose restrictions on others based on your beliefs, unless you’re willing to let others do the same to you. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Man, I get Biblical late at night…)
1. We don’t have healthcare for all our children, much less all our citizens
2. Our trade deficit is huge.
3. The government wants to rack up even more of a deficit to “fix” social security, which would be solvent ’til 2042 without doing a thing.
4. We are engaged in a war with no end in sight.
5. Science seems to be a dirty word to this government.
6. The army has only half the new recruits it needs, and they are of poorer quality.
7. Many in this country don’t believe the election results.
8. The DeLay rule.
9. Censorship.
10. No less than eleven states have shown that they view homosexuals as second-class citizens or worse.
11. George W. Bush is the President of the U.S.
The U.S. is many, many things right now, but the greatest nation is most assuredly not one of them.
Another day in the land of the “free.”
First there’s this little bit of censorship of which I learned by way of Neil Gaiman: U.S. Government Seizes Parody Comics At Customs. It appears that Customs has decided that parody of Bush isn’t protected by the First Amendment. Of…
“Thats a bogus response,while Karen can defend herself,I am pretty sure she is refering to the blatant alteration or ignoring of facts presented by scientific research that is not in line with
what this administration wants to hear.”
It’s actually more pernicious than that. In the past, scientists from foreign lands came to the United States to take advantage of research facilities and work in tandem with American companies to chart scientific advancement. I read an article a while ago (I wish I’d saved it) that stated the US reputation for science research is such that many foreign scientists don’t want to come anywhere near America.
“Also, from what I’ve read of the fund, most of their victories on their own aren’t too public: someone threatens to sue/suppress comic shop owner, comic shop owner calls CBLDF, CBLDF lawyer tells original person who threatened to sue/suppress that CBLDF will sue/countersue, said someone goes away. I agree that the CBDLF should do more to publicize its victories.”
We can’t. More often than not, the stores involved don’t want the publicity. You can’t really blame them. They’re not interested in helping the CBLDF score public brownie points. They contacted us because they were being hassled by anyone from local censorship groups to eager DA’s who think the stores will be easy pickings. And when the CBLDF makes clear the resources at our disposal and that we’re going to make it a fight for anyone who’s out to violate retailers’ First Amendment rights, nine times out of ten they back down. At which point the retailer feels like he dodged a negative PR bullet, and wants nothing but to go back about his business. No retailer wants to advertise that people were accusing him of selling, say, pørņ.
And naturally we honor their wishes, because we’re not interested in getting props, we’re just interested in making the marketplace safer for all retailers, creators and fans. So we have this tidy little public relations disconnect where we get the job done but can’t talk about it, and people who only hear about our few but highly publicized failures think we’re the Keystone Cops. It’s somewhat frustrating.
PAD
PAD wrote: “We all know what happened. Down in South Carolina, they don’t approve of some dámņëd furriners making fun of the Pre-zi-dent of the U S of A. So they trumped up some charges and refused to allow the books into the country. Prior restraint by the US government based on personal dislike for political satire.”
Your conspiracy argument rings hollow, PAD. There has been a veritable deluge of anti-Bush stuff on book shelves in the past eight months or so, including a boatload of comic-related material. Much of it is STILL on the stands even a month after the election because it just isn’t possible to return it all fast enough. That being the case, why then, out of this vast sea of material slamming Bush, is this one comic allegedly being targeted all of a sudden for the reason you theorize? Is it, like, the greatest Bush parody of all time or something?
The answer, of course, is no. The fact is, the books may have been confiscated for the exact reason cited on the complaint, and nothing more.
*sigh* Does anyone know the lyrics to Holland’s national anthem?
With regards to the whole Southern Accent, maybe it’s just me but I love Southern Liberals. Something about espousing the progressive agenda in an accent generally asociated with lyncher and wife beaters just does something for me. Like Molly Ivins. I LOVE her voice.
I think what is going on here is wrong. You will always find examples, like the one here, and that is where CBLDF and other groups shine. They fight the good fight and we are thankful.
Though, I’m really not too concernd about the direction our country is going in terms of censorship. Not that long ago it was ruled that simulated sex acts between underage children were protected by free speech. With that in mind, I find it hard to believe that political satire and other adult themed comics will be going away anytime soon.
PAD writes: It’s actually more pernicious than that. In the past, scientists from foreign lands came to the United States to take advantage of research facilities and work in tandem with American companies to chart scientific advancement. I read an article a while ago (I wish I’d saved it) that stated the US reputation for science research is such that many foreign scientists don’t want to come anywhere near America.
Oh heck, I can attest to that; our company’s HR department in Vancouver, BC can barely process applications fast enough. Two years ago, finding semi-qualified chemists and engineers was very hard.
Now, resumes of PhD’s are stuffing the mailbag. These are highly experienced researchers with lots of published work, not freshly-minted doctorates.
Doubters needn’t take my word for it. Compare job sites like Monster.ca (Canada) with Monster.com (US). Pick any technical field, and there are tens of thousands of jobs on the US site; many have gone unfilled for months.
But the Canada job site will often yield only a few dozen postings, and those are usually quite recent. Most companies in Canada aren’t finding it necessary to advertise for skilled researchers; superb applicants are practically knocking their doors down.
Conversely, colleagues in the US are saying it’s difficult to find even mediocre candidates for research positions.
The job market in BC would be glutted, if not for the fact that the research money is fleeing the US even faster; research subsidiaries and facilities are springing up like weeds, so these guys are able to get multiple job offers. And yes, most explicitly state they will not consider jobs that require “cross-border travel”, (though none seem to mind going to London, Tokyo or Paris. Or even Shang-hai.).
The unemployment rate in BC is now at its lowest level in more than ten years, mostly thanks to growth in science and engineering. And thanks to the plummeting US dollar, companies can now often pay as well or better than US firms.
My colleagues at other companies are saying the same, and supposedly Toronto is the same story. In fact, I haven’t been commenting on this site much lately ’cause I’ve been working 12-hour days trying to get on top of our HR needs before Christmas break… just got in from work and it’s after 1am… gah!
Karen, I agree with everything on your list. Your comment at the end about the US not being the greatest country anymore, though, can’t agree with that. Sure, there are lots of things wrong with this country, just like any other country. And now half the country has chosen to re-elect a man who lost my respect a long time ago.
But we’re still the greatest country in the world because of the Karens and Toms and PADs we have here. People who fight for what’s right and believe in the promise of freedom that this country stands for. Freedom of speech, religious freedom, freedom to organize. Things may look bleak to some of us now. They’ve been bleak before. But we’ll come through this and we’ll win. Because I still believe that most Americans know what’s right and will do what’s right. We may be fooled, like some were in the recent election, but we’re not fools. I love my country and I’m sure you do, too. Don’t give up on us, Karen. We need folks like you.
“Your conspiracy argument rings hollow, PAD. There has been a veritable deluge of anti-Bush stuff on book shelves in the past eight months or so, including a boatload of comic-related material.”
Well, two responses come to mind. The first is, how much of that material passed through customs? Ooo, I know, I know! Answer is: Little to none. So the opportunity to sandbag it wasn’t there.
The second is, I never postulated a conspiracy theory. I think this is the work of a couple of local customs agents, abusing the trust and authority accorded them as representatives of the US government and the Constitution. And these guys (or, who knows, perhaps even this guy) had his sense of patriotism personally offended and came up with a reason to keep it off the stands. A reason that simply is insupportable weighed against First Amendment considerations.
I think you will generally find, throughout history, that the reasons people offer for doing wrong are simply rationalizations because they know the real reasons won’t fly (which is why Bush’s story on Iraq kept changing).
What’s pernicious about this case, though, is that if it’s then allowed to stand, suddenly it’s more than a guy or a couple of guys being humorless jerks imposing their will in flagrant disregard for the First Amendment. Suddenly it’s a precedent, and customs agents elsewhere who would never have flagged parody material only because they thought it wouldn’t survive a challenge will now feel empowered to do whatever the hëll they want when it comes to curtailing material they find personally vexing.
Now if you want to say I’m overreacting, if you want to shrug it off or believe it’s a legit grievance, that’s perfectly fine. Me, I prefer to err on the side of free expression.
PAD
“The unemployment rate in BC is now at its lowest level in more than ten years, mostly thanks to growth in science and engineering. And thanks to the plummeting US dollar, companies can now often pay as well or better than US firms.”
Glad we could help…I guess.
PAD
The sky is falling, better send donations to CBLDF!
Peter David wrote…
Glad we could help…I guess.
As much as it pains me to admit it, your president is doing absolutely stellar things for our economy. Our dollar hasn’t been this high in about 12 years.
If he wasn’t running your country (and one or two others) into the ground, I’d say keep up the good work!