Caption This Photo Open Thread

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What’s up?

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Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee!

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This is NOT an Onion parody:

Canadian student who tore down ‘free speech wall’ defends his actions, views

The Canadian student who wrecked a “Free Speech Wall” at Carleton University less than a day after it was installed continues to create headlines.

Before Arun Smith destroyed the wall — really a very large board wrapped in white paper — students had written messages on it such as “QUEERS ARE AWESOME,” “Obama Murders with Drones” and “traditional marriage is awesome.”

That last statement seems to be the one that aroused the violent ire of the gay rights activist.

On Wednesday, Smith appeared on Sun News, a Canadian news and opinion cable channel, to defend his previously expressed view that “not every opinion is valid, nor deserving of expression.”

[...]

“We have to operate on affect and harm to marginalized communities,” the human rights and sexuality major added.

Smith went on to describe his anti-free speech views at some length, frequently harping on his concern about “the context of the words.”

“Inclusive, safe spaces are not places where you can have unregulated free speech. Unregulated free speech is something that leads to hate speech every single time,” the human rights and sexuality major said.

“There’s a difference between sort of what we say colloquially — ‘I hate this,’ ‘I hate that’ — and what is fundamental hate speech, which is a form of oppression,” Smith carefully contrasted. “If I were to say ‘I hate bigots,’ that’s not hate speech and, you know, everyone in the world is willing to agree with me on that, and anyone who doesn’t probably should reexamine their personal convictions.”

Smith also assured viewers that there is “a difference between hate and oppression” and called himself a simultaneously powerful and powerless person.

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Carleton College is a small liberal arts college in Minnesota best known for setting a Guinness world record for the largest number of people spooning.

Tomorrow’s leaders today.

(Fucking idiots)

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. – Andrew Shepard

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We are your moral and intellectual superiors – Deal with it!

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Mediate:

Kirsten Powers To O’Reilly: Dems Less Tolerant Of Dissent Because They’re Used To Controlling The Media

Bill O’Reilly tonight highlighted findings that liberals on the internet tend to be less tolerant of opposing views than conservatives. Democrat Kirsten Powers agreed with this sentiment, relaying from her own personal experiences engaging with liberals and conservatives, surmising that the former tend to be less tolerant because they are used to controlling the media.

O’Reilly said the study finds liberals are far more sensitive about criticism, and a significant percentage of them have ended online relationships due to political differences. Powers explained that after getting out of her own “Democratic bubble,” she noticed that conservatives tend to be more open to hearing opposing viewpoints than liberals.

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While I do agree that these days the left is far less tolerant of dissent than the right, I disagree as to the reason.

The problem with the left is that they are so convinced of their moral and intellectual superiority that anyone who disagrees with them is not only wrong but is also stupid, evil, or both. The demonizing and dismissal of dissent is not exactly conducive to debate and compromise.

Both sides have been guilty of this sin. It was just a decade ago that the right was equating dissent with treason and the support of terrorism. The only real difference between then and now is the right is no longer in power.

Right now the Republicans are clinging to the moral high ground because they have nothing else to cling to. If the terrorist attack in Benghazi had taken place four years earlier then yesterday you would have seen Condi Rice getting alternately grilled by Democrats and coddled by Republicans.

The reason we can see this is we no longer belong to either side. My journey has taken me from youthful idealism and optimism to tribeless cynical pessimism.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.

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Fear Mongering- PA Dem Style

Got an email from the PA Dems yesterday. Subject line of the email was “CHEATING.” Oh NO! The evil Republican Governor and his minions in the State Legislature are once again floating a proposal to more equitably distribute the electoral college votes! To actually reflect the will of the voters of each Congressional District! EEEEEEVVVVVIIIILLLLL! How dare they try to take away Philly’s power over the rest of the state! CHEATING? The Dems accusing anyone of cheating? Pot meet kettle!

See for yourself!

Friend -

They are at it again.

Harrisburg Republicans – led by Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi – are once again trying to rig the Electoral College to benefit Republicans by splitting Pennsylvania’s electoral votes.

You might remember that Governor Corbett and Pileggi tried to do it in 2011 and now Pileggi is trying to change the law again.

Pileggi said his proposal would “more accurately reflect the will of the voters in our state.”

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

It is nothing more than a partisan power grab aimed at helping Republican candidates win the Presidency. If Pileggi had his way, Barack Obama would have only won 12 of the 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania.

The new attempt is part of a national GOP push to change the way electoral votes are awarded in blue states.

(Link to petition removed. Those who want to sign it can go find it on their own lol)

Republicans are spending more time trying to help Republican politicians than the people of Pennsylvania.

We beat the proposal in 2011 and, together, we will again in 2013.

-Jim Burn

See this part?

If Pileggi had his way, Barack Obama would have only won 12 of the 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania.

Works for me! Why in hell should Philadelphia decide how MY vote is cast? Just plain WRONG.  We would have had a completely different result had ALL states required electoral college votes be cast according to the votes of each Congressional District.

It is much easier to rig votes in big cities, where people are more or less anonymous. Not so out here in bitter clinger land- where everyone knows everyone else.

There are other things in the voting system that need to go away. Same Day registration and voting. (MIT kids can make any ID for cheap money.) Early Voting that lasts all month. We already have absentee ballots. Just how many districts can an ACORN hire “volunteer” vote in per day? Then multiply that by the number of days in the early voting period. Nope. Needs to go. Along with the ridiculous primary system and caucuses. Who the hell decided some dinky little states like Iowa and NH get to tell the rest of us who runs? Regional primaries, rotating.

Lots of things need fixed in our system. I’ll take reforming the electoral college as a great start.

Might make PA relevant once again too! The Dems are too stooooopid to see how much money our state lost out on during the last sham- no campaigning by major candidates is a huge loss of revenue to local businesses. And divvying up the votes would mean they would have to campaign in ALL the districts- not just Philly and Pittsburgh.

Screw you Jim Burns.

COUNT MY VOTE!