First Amendment Guarantees Right to be Stupid

Stupidity is a guaranteed American right in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. You are simply allowed to be stupid here. We see this every day, of course. We see it especially in the media coverage of Mr. Handlebar Mustache himself, of Koran-burning fame, as described in Jason Linkin's commentary in the Huffington Post.

When we talk about protecting the few people from the tyranny of the majority by protecting their right to speech and religion, we are talking about protecting the essence of living in a democracy. And that means fools will abound. And they will do stupid things, because let's face it, sometimes the majority is acting out of common sense. The reason we don't burn Korans on every street corner is it doesn't do anything, puts U.S. troops in danger and is reminiscent of Hitler and the Nazis. And anyone can tell you that burning a book doesn't stop an idea.

Essentially, that puts burning the Koran on the same level as streaking through Mecca. You can do it, but why? Because you are stupid. And in the United States, you have that right. After all, we elected George W. Bush president, didn't we?

War Crimes! Why Are We So Outraged?

Torture as the Bush Administration's Biggest Legacy - the officials of the Bush Administration committed war crimes. The footnotes in the Torture Memos which I discussed extensively in 2006 show that the Bush Administration did indeed know that Waterboarding is Torture, and Torture is Wrong. And they authorized it anyway.

I wrote about the Torture Memos back in 2006 and was roundly ignored. So did the New York Times, by the way. And this outcry we hear now is a little cowardly. Where were all these civil liberty patriots when the violations were happening? They were too frightened to confront the Bush Administration.

As a contractor at the CIA, I spoke up about the wrongs of torture and its illegality through my classified blog. I warned the people doing waterboarding that they may be criminally prosecuted. Of course, my intelligence career was destroyed. I now practice elder law.

There are probably going to be people prosecuted for torture eventually. In the typical American way, some lower ranking person is going to be strung up as an example. We can't let that happen.

The Dick Cheney and John Yoo types can't be allowed to walk away without consequences. If they can, then other outrages on civil liberties will be attempted, and will one day be successful.