Brickbat: At Least I Know I'm Free

Winter Garden, Florida, Mayor John Rees ordered police to remove Joseph Richardson from a City Commission meeting when Richardson refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. The police chief approached Richardson and asked him "What are you going to do?" Richardson then left the meeting.

Comments

[Bardas Phocas]

Stand up. Sit down.
How are we serfs supposed to know what is right and proper?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.....Speech.png

[Rev-Match]

Once I hit high school, I stopped saying the pledge. It started to seem creepy.

Also, WKUK on the pledge. Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=618U-_8o31k

[Fist of Etiquette]

What's best about the Orlando Sentinel page is that it sports two different embedded videos that both start at once.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Rees said he considered the man's refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to be disrespectful to American military troops who are serving overseas and others who have given their lives in defense of freedom.

Outstanding.

[Ted S.]

Why do you hate our Brave Wounded Warriors?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

When you don't stand for the pledge, a kitten dies

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

I thought it was a puppy died, if you did not stand?

Man, I just cannot keep these things straight any more.

[Ted S.]

That'll probably get more people not to stand for the pledge.

[Doctor Whom]

How dare you dishonor freedom by exercising it.

[MegaloMonocle]

He is sitting as a tribute to our Wounded Warriors who can't stand for the pledge anymore.

Why is this Mayor mocking the differently abled?

[Ted S.]

He should do the Bellamy salute.

[Libertarian]

http://rexcurry.net/

"No other country uses a pledge of allegiance to a flag the way the USA does, nor does any other country have laws specifying the recitation daily, in the hopes of promoting it among students in formation and in government schools on cue each day."

[Libertarian]

I'm probably the last one around here to run across it, but I read a phrase yesterday on that is horrifyingly frightening, but apparently increasingly used: "Free speech does not include hate speech." The trend of politics today is one of the things that makes me glad that my 20s are long behind me.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What isn't free speech:

Hate
Yelling fire in a theater
Political opinions outside of major publications
Shit I don't like

[Doctor Whom]

People keep overlooking the all-important "freedom not to be offended" clause of the First Amendment.

[Marshall Gill]

Didn't Voltaire say something like "When I disagree with what you say, I favor having you killed"?

[Rich]

Actually, didn't he just wordlessly kill you?

[Swiss Servator, Bern baby Bern]

No no, that George Washington who threw a knife into Heaven and could kill with a stare.

[Ted S.]

He kills softly, with his song.

[Doctor Whom]

(narrows gaze; looks right through you as if you weren't there)

[Rich]

"Free speech does not include hate speech."

"'Free speech includes hate speech' is not hate speech."

[Ted S.]

By the same token, "tolerance" means not tolerating "intolerance", which in turn means anything you disagree with.

[Rich]

The police chief approached Richardson and asked him "What are you going to do?" Richardson then left the meeting.

Did Mayor Rees then crack, "Ha, we got the bastard to stand!"?

[Stilgar]

He should have stayed, been arrested and the sued the pants off the town and every commissioner.

[Agile Cyborg]

"Though the American Civil Liberties Union also objected to the mayor's actions, Rees so far seems unconcerned: "It wasn't premeditated. I just reacted. It hit me. I said it. I gave him an option. ?Life will go on.""

Likely his response to every single mistake he's ever made... and the sinister result of that attitude is on vivid display.

[Aresen]

I'm guessing Rees' lawyer will be briefing him soon on how much the settlement on the lawsuit will cost and how he should phrase his apology.