# Home of the free my ass! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 4, 2003, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424 "2003-04-04T09:14:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/21 "2003-04-04T14:36:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gary Kumquat \* > \*\*So would you like to admit you were talking completely out of your ass then? \*\* Dude, if he does, will you please do the same? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/22 "2003-04-04T14:43:13Z")
Dude, if you thought I was fucking serious…nah, I give up. ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/23 "2003-04-04T14:47:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gary Kumquat \* > \*\*Dude, if you thought I was fucking serious…nah, I give up. \*\* Dude, if you’re fucking serious, at least you’re getting some. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/24 "2003-04-04T16:24:20Z")
If an anti-war protest turns violent, involves destruction of property, or is engineered to harrass others (such as people lying in the street to tie up traffic) then I believe that particular protest should not be permitted. Would that make me part of the 17%? - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/25 "2003-04-04T16:38:27Z")
**Bricker** , are you disallowing the protest or disallowing the behavior that may go with it? ---
**Author:** ![Kalashnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kalashnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalashnikov)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/26 "2003-04-04T18:53:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > \*\*And above all, we’re talking about a country which claims freedom of speech as one of its citizens’ major perks, and yet time and time again those who speak up are silenced. \*\* Cite? **Who** is doing this ‘silencing’? ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/27 "2003-04-04T19:07:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enginerd \* > \*\ ***Bricker** , are you disallowing the protest or disallowing the behavior that may go with it? \*\* Speaking for **Bricker** , if I may. He was referring to the behavior, clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Morrigoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Morrigoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morrigoon)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/28 "2003-04-04T19:20:46Z")
I agree with Bricker. Standing on the sidewalk spouting off idiotic slogans is one thing. Disrupting the daily life of a city without previously getting a permit is just wrong. It violates the rights of others - especially the lying down in the street thing. How would you like to be the first car, getting stuck there, when you have a job interview to get to? No one has the right to intentionally impede someone else’s freedom by getting their car trapped in the middle of an un-planned for protest. Now, if you get a permit, and traffic is diverted around you, that’s another thing, at least you have the opportunity to avoid getting caught up in it (even if it makes traffic suck) They have a right to disagree about the war. If they want to shout fuckwit slogans on the sidewalks that’s their business, but get in my way and it becomes my business. I don’t want it to become my business. I become a bitch when it becomes my business. ---
**Author:** ![lezlers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/29 "2003-04-04T19:56:01Z")
I think **Priceguy** may have been referring to such things as the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, and those forms of suppression. Those worked against newspapers that wrote against the war, private meetings for groups against the war, things of that sort, that did not in anyway impeed on anyone else’s civil liberties. I don’t think he’s referring to the idiots that lay down in the middle of the street. I’m anti-war, and _i’m_ against those idiots. Am I right **Priceguy**? ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/30 "2003-04-04T20:13:12Z")
My ass just wants to be freeeee! ---
**Author:** ![Abe\_Babe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Abe\_Babe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe_Babe)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/31 "2003-04-04T20:39:00Z")
My ass is indeed freeeee! for I am wearing no pants. Re the newspaper article: I’d like to see exactly what the 1 in 6 want to prohibit. I would bet the number who think anti-war protests at this time are bad, or even that the protesters are themselves bad, is significantly higher than 1 in 6. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/32 "2003-04-04T20:59:52Z")
The irony in this thread is amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/33 "2003-04-04T23:52:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kalashnikov \* > \*\*Cite? **Who** is doing this ‘silencing’? \*\* Let me put it this way: walk out into the streets and advocate Communism. Report back with the results. Also note that the post _was_ made in anger. The only point was to say that people who oppose freedom of speech in this manner while ostensibly protecting it are fuckwits. Not the most original point in the world, but there it is. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/34 "2003-04-04T23:55:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lezlers \* > \*\*I think **Priceguy** may have been referring to such things as the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, and those forms of suppression. Those worked against newspapers that wrote against the war, private meetings for groups against the war, things of that sort, that did not in anyway impeed on anyone else’s civil liberties. I don’t think he’s referring to the idiots that lay down in the middle of the street. I’m anti-war, and _i’m_ against those idiots. Am I right **Priceguy**? \*\* I wasn’t particularly thinking of the street blockers. The article I read stated basically that five out of six Americans felt that anti-war public protests should be prohibited. No more details than that. My original post was based on that. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/35 "2003-04-05T00:30:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > \*\*Let me put it this way: walk out into the streets and advocate Communism. Report back with the results. > > Also note that the post _was_ made in anger. The only point was to say that people who oppose freedom of speech in this manner while ostensibly protecting it are fuckwits. Not the most original point in the world, but there it is. \*\* I don’t have a cite either, but I read a study that says the OP is fucking ridiculous. If you advocate Communism, you will be called a moron and a fucktard. People (non-college campus, we’re talking) will tell you to piss off and go away, if they don’t simply ignore you. What’s the problem? Stupid ideas get the appropriate response. Such is the double-edged blade of ‘Freedom of Speech’. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/36 "2003-04-05T00:47:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > **I’d kill to protect their right to say it, .** See? And in a civilized country like America, you’d have the right to own guns with with to do it. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/37 "2003-04-05T02:17:02Z")
I think Americans who would suppress free speech – like the fucktard deejay on my local Clear Channel Voice of Evil Network station, who says people shouldn’t be allowed to oppose the war – are a disgrace to all the Americans who took up arms and died believing they were defending freedom. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/38 "2003-04-05T08:13:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > **See? And in a civilized country like America, you’d have the right to own guns with with to do it.** And this is relevant how, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/39 "2003-04-05T08:26:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bricker \* > \*\*If an anti-war protest turns violent, involves destruction of property, or is engineered to harrass others (such as people lying in the street to tie up traffic) then I believe that particular protest should not be permitted. > > Would that make me part of the 17%? > > - Rick \*\* I don’t know, but considering that “not giving permission” for a protest to take place must necessarily take place before it starts, I’d love to know when city governments started being able to predict the future… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424/40 "2003-04-05T10:35:47Z")
Ooooh! Good one, Leaper! Bricker, I looked into some statistics a couple of weeks ago about the number of people protesting and the number of arrests in the Washington Square demonstration in NYC. Only one person in every 2200+ was arrested. So 1/2200 multiplied by .17 = ? Priceguy, why not do your on non-scientific research? Hand out copies of the Bill of Rights to Americans and ask them to sign them if they believe in them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/home-of-the-free-my-ass/166424.md?page=3)