Highlight of last week
I’m still very busy. The past two or three months have been full of work, but I really think the storm is about to end. I feel like I’ve written that lately, but I really believe it this time. Last week I only worked 54 hours, I spent a full day (Saturday) without touching a computer, and I got a full eight hours of sleep for two nights in a row. And next week I’m taking a full day off, during which I’ll learn the gender of my child (due in May).
I have a full dozen half-finished posts I’ve attempted to write lately, but before I go back to finish them (or delete them, more likely… no need to comment on old news) I want to comment on the highlight of last week: Ezra Levant. A year or two ago, this man published the Muhammad cartoons in a Canadian publisher. A Muslim man complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which apparently is a government body which was set up to investigate and rule on “offensive” acts or words. I had no idea such an organization existed, especially in a country like Canada, but perhaps things are worse there than I knew. Levant was invited to speak to an “investigator” for the commission, and he nailed it. He didn’t just stand up for his right to say and write whatever he wished. He blasted the entire existence of a government-backed commission that would use the power of the state to force an individual to apologize for something he had a right to say. He was great, and I even had to listen to his videos two or three times. They were great, and if you haven’t heard them yet go here now:
His Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/EzraILevant
(check out “I don’t answer to the state” here)
His blog: http://www.ezralevant.com
Thanks to Myrhaf and Not PC for posting on this subject. I saw the Levant videos mentioned on LGF but I passed on watching them because I didn’t have time. When I saw it mentioned by Objectivists I found the time, and I’m glad I did.
And to give a small taste of the kinds of things he said, I used my typing powers to transcribe part of what he said. If you think his words are good, you really should see him deliver them!
Tags: [ezra levant]Only a fool would think that by passing a law you could change someone’s heart or mind. Only a fool would go to a human rights commission because he couldn’t convince his debate partner. [Guy who raised complaint] could not convince me on the radio so he went to the police to have them convince me. He went to you to have you convince me. Only a fool would do that because even if this runs its course and [guy who raised complaint] gets his desired punishment, which is for me to say the false words that I apologize. doesn’t that fool know that in my heart I don’t apologize and I don’t mean it? Only a fool would think that censoring and gagging someone is the equivalent of changing their mind.
[…]
For them to want the state to compel me to utter words I don’t believe is Orwell at its apex.
[…]
What’s the use of an apology if they wouldn’t mean it? A convicted murder cannot be ordered to apologize but a convicted publisher can be ordered by the state to apologize. I’ll rot in hell before I use my mouth to say that fascist’s words with you as his instrument to compel me to do so.
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