Reason on the Radio

For all you Hit & Runners in Alberta, I will be discussing the forthcoming prosecution of Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders on the AM 770 CHQR program "World Tonight" at 7:35 MST. For bored non-Canadians, you can listen to the stream here.

I wrote about the Wilders case here and here. Last year Jacob Sullum discussed the case of Ezra Levant, the publisher harassed by Alberta's Orwellian Human Rights and Citizenship Commission.

Comments

[Lefiti]

Could you perhaps let me come on the program with you so that I could perform oral sex on myself for the audience. True, its radio and my auto fellatio will not shine in all its glory, but it is better than nothing

[Jeffrey Balla]

Wow...

Anyway, a relevant and non-crude comment. Tough work...

Does CHQR archive their broadcasts, and if not, will this interview be on YouTube later?

[Nemo]

I often forget that free speech doesn't exist in Europe, and I am often baffled by it.

[Kalim Kassam]

Many of Rob Breakenridge's interviews and segments from "The World Tonight" end up on this podcast: http://www.am770chqr.com/_SHARED/Podcasts/public/RSS.aspx?PID=1022

[Nick]

How do they justify their censorship? These don't sound like "for the children" things that Americans use to justify our tyranny.

They protest all their employment issues and don't seem to give a damn about true freedom. F them.

[R C Dean]

How do they justify their censorship?

The Dutch are an interesting people, with a long history of being pretty homogenous, which allowed them to have a very tolerant political order, because civil society took care of itself. This was based on placing a high value on civility and going along.

Unfortunately, they are no longer so homogenous, and their old civil virtues have been broken down. This is an effort to replace the civil norms with legal norms.

[jtuf]

This case is a strike against free speech.

I don't think the Dutch are that homogenous. They recieved a wave of immigration when the wars over Reformation racked Europe. About half of the early colonists from across Europe to the New York area went through the Netherlands first. John Locke's work was also well recieved by the Dutch in his time. I think it's more a matter of Europe having no back bone, because they still haven't recovered from WWI and WWII.

[bob]

I'd have a lot more sympathy (I know, I know, it's the principle, right?) for Ezra if he weren't so trigger happy with his own attempts to stifle the free speech of others -- including bloggers.

[R C Dean]

I don't think the Dutch are that homogenous. They recieved a wave of immigration when the wars over Reformation racked Europe.

The Dutch were a noted Protestant stronghold. Protestants from across Europe = pretty homogenous, an easy ground for some basic social consensus that lays the ground work for a permissive state. Seriously, the Dutch are Exhibit A for deep libertarianism.

That consensus is eroding. The state is filling the void, as it ever will.