Reason Writers, Friends Discuss Threats to Free Speech at Newseum Event in D.C. Today

See Robby Soave, Brendan O'Neill, Greg Lukianoff.

| Censor

Spiked edtor and Reason contributor Brendan O'Neill is hosting a free speech extravaganza at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. today beinning at 1:00 p.m. The event will feature a number of speakers familiar to Reason's readers, including Foundation for Individual Rights in Education President Greg Lukianoff and Reason's own Robby Soave.

The event is free and open to the public. Learn more here.

Comments

[Heroic Mulatto]

*glances at article's clip art*

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Cosmotarian cocktail party in 40 minutes.

[Zeb]

What's in a cosmotarian, anyway? Clamato? I suppose it must be like a cosmopolitan, but I have no idea what's in that either.

[mad.casual]

Needz Edt button!

[Suthenboy]

Will the secret text in each of the first ten amendments that is written in invisible ink finally be revealed?

[Almanian's Rusty Woodchipper]

The first rule of "100 year old document club" is....

[Bern-o-Matic 5000]

Jeffrey Rosen knows all of the secret text but he only tells people when he feels like they need a lecture.

[Episiarch]

Yes, it reads "YOU GOT PUNK'D LOLOLOLOL".

[Nosea]

I hope you guys are up on your telepathic powers unless pc patrol duct taped that too. Then try plan B-- out of body experience . Keep us Informed on what transpired.

[The Late P Brooks]

The Constitutin is just a fucking piece of paper

The proposal was drafted by Newsom, a candidate for California governor in 2018, and sponsored by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. It comes in the wake of high-profile killings nationwide and three recent San Francisco Bay Area killings in which the shooters allegedly used stolen guns to commit the crimes.

The ballot initiative would ask voters to make five changes to state law:

------------

- Background checks for ammunition purchases: Ammunition dealers would need to conduct a background check at the point-of-sale for all ammunition, and dealers would need a license similar to those required to sell firearms. Stores also would be required to report to law enforcement if ammunition has been lost or stolen.

We keep getting the shit sapped out of us when we try to take their guns away, so let's try to keep them from getting ammo.

Presumably, private sales of ammo would be a felony.

[ant1sthenes]

Given that the point of the 2A was to avoid the dangers of a standing army by having an armed citizenry, I'd say it's already failed pretty badly.

[Mainer2]

Would

[kV]

Best (only?) Newseum joke ever.

[Rich]

Smartphones and laptops could do more damage to your skin than the sun. The blue light emitted may significantly affect skin and stop it from healing - and its impact on DNA leads experts to believe it could accelerate the ageing process.

BAN PHONES AND COMPUTERS -- FOR THE CHILDREN!

[SimonJester]

It is funny to me that the article is published by the Sun.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

"Smartphones could be worse for your skin than the sun"
No, they couldn't.

"The blue light emitted from your TV, computer and phone is called high-energy visible light (HEV)"
No, it isn't. That's fucking made up nonsense.

"and is as dangerous, if not more, than sun damage."
No, it absolutely isn't. Blue light doesn't cause thymine dimers.

Not a god damn word of that article is true.

[GILMORE?]

"Not a god damn word of that article is true"

Maybe that's the point.

[Zeb]

I'm pretty sure you also get more light at those wavelengths from the sun than from a screen.

[Zeb]

According to Wikipedia, at least, it's not simply made up nonsense (or not too recently made up, anyway) and the higher end of the visible spectrum has been shown to cause some damage to eyes. Which vindicates my dislike of LED lights.

The "more dangerous than sunlight" bit still seems pretty obviously absurd.

[Pl?ya Manhattan.]

The call it "High Energy" for for a very misleading reason (the blue/near violet wavelength).

If the light from your iphone was truly "High Energy", it would need to be plugged into an A/C power source all the time.

Sunlight at sea level is about 1000 watts per square meter, thousands of times more than a TV or phone.

[Zeb]

Yeah, particularly misleading to people who don't know how the energy of photons works. It's accurate, but probably not in the way most people would think of it.

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

Is Warty taking glamor shots of his 'dates'?

[The Shrubber's Woodchipper]

Some people would rather just take the hit rather than involve the police in their lives.

[Rich]

As the NRA and its members have been telling us for years, a gun is just a tool like a hammer. Hammers can kill just like a gun can kill, says the NRA and its members. so the solution is easy - arm the militia with hammers. Put a hammer in the holster instead of a Glock. Eveybody is happy then - and the hammer is much cheaper to use since it doesn't require expensive ammunition.

Now, *that* is logic.

[Episiarch]

I think the gun grabber animists' biggest weakness is that their average IQ is less than that of a carrot. It really doesn't help their cause.

[Heroic Mulatto]

It's worth noting that Israeli gun laws are terrible.

[GILMORE?]

"Lawyer Smadar Ben Natan, a leader of a coalition of anti-firearms groups called Gun-free Kitchen Tables, says a series of welcome regulations has halved the number of civilians allowed to bear arms over the past decade.

She believes it would be "very undesirable" if such policies go by the wayside "at the whim of a temporary situation".

The lawyer cites to AFP the case of a Jew stabbing another Jew on Tuesday in the mistaken belief that he was an Arab

"In the long run it is obvious that more weapons creates more danger, not more security but the opposite," she says."

I'm having trouble comprehending why guns are worse than people stabbing each other

[Episiarch]

Most people are dumbfucks who have no idea how physically traumatic a piece of metal sliding through your organs is. They watch TV and movies and think getting stabbed is no big deal. Because they are dumbfucks. Guns are loud and go boom, so they're "scarier" to morons.

Again: the gun banner people are animists. This means, quite literally, that they ascribe motivations and personality and intentions to...objects. Hunks of metal. They are quite simply that stupid. Expect nothing but stupidity from them, because you can count on that.

[Rich]

BAN K-MART-- FOR THE CHILDREN!

[Princess Trigger]

I can't think of any downside to calling the cops. /sarc

[ant1sthenes]

What exactly would reporting it achieve, anyway? Do these people think that police recover stolen goods or solve robberies?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Speaking of dumbfucks and guns, I don't have time to give it the full HM treatment, but check out this "tweet" from something called the A is For Organization, whose motto is "Restrict Guns, Not Abortions".

Now, we're supposed to see that and think "Look how ignorant those pro-life neanderthals are! WE FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE!!!!"...but the problem is, the dude is correct, albeit pedantically. Not that porcanthrope Lindy West and her ilk would be familiar with terms like "lumen" or "epithelium", much less their import as to why he's correct. To her credit, in the comments, West admits he is correct while stammering something about "context". Yet, in their smug self-righteousness, A is For Org still chose highlight their own ignorance by including it as part of their social media campaign.

And these are the people who want to disarm peaceable people..because abortion or something.

[GILMORE?]

"People are running around stabbing each other at random...

...BUT LETS NOT OVER-REACT"

[lap83]

Imagine someone trying to inflict that much damage with a knife in a place like Texas

[lap83]

same goes for anus but I bet he'd be pretty dismayed if someone tried to put things up there w/o permission

oh burn!!11

Wait, so fetuses are rapists now? It's so hard to keep these talking points straight.

[GILMORE?]

I LOVE SHOUTING MY ABORTION WITH AMAZING WOMEN

[Heroic Mulatto]

Wait, so fetuses are rapists now?

Yes, and they're not bound by entropy either!

[Zeb]

Fetuses are worse than just rapists. They are incestuous rapists.

[lap83]

so like Warty

https://twitter.com/AIsForOrg

I know I'm supposed to, but I can't muster any outrage over this one either. They do know that pregnancy is how new life is made, right? When you are a woman and you have sex, there is always the chance that your body is going to take this foreign DNA and start incubating a new being. Nutrients are prioritized for the fetus, your immune system is suppressed so your body doesn't treat it like a parasite, etc. It's not normal solitary you.

[R C Dean]

Hey, is the fetus getting affirmative consent for his use of her lady parts?

No? Then he's a rapist.

[lap83]

wrong link http://tinyurl.com/ntyweqc

[Zeb]

It's a fight among fucking idiots. On the one hand you have assholes who think that pointing out that in some technical sense the uterus is external to a woman's body is a slam dunk argument against the self ownership argument for abortion rights. And on the other, people who can't imagine that anyone could oppose abortion for any reason besides misogyny and that everyone fits neatly into their preferred political categories where favoring gun rights and disfavoring abortion rights are somehow related in any way at all.

[Zeb]

That one is just too stupid to even be worth any outrage.

[GILMORE?]

"everyone fits neatly into their preferred political categories where favoring gun rights and disfavoring abortion rights are somehow related in any way at all."

Uhm, no one needs to listen to or think about anything you say because you clearly come from the wrong quadrant of this Social Network map