Feinstein No Einstein
by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: Government's job is to protect our lives and liberties. But how best to accomplish this? Should books be banned? Websites blocked?
Diane Feinstein thinks so.
Sen. Feinstein (D-California) wants to ban The Anarchist Cookbook from the Internet. The book, which came out in 1971 with lots of radical ideas, including notoriously unreliable instructions for making bombs, is now a website. Perhaps the quality of the "cookbook" has helped us survive against the anarchist threat these last five decades.
Today, the threat is not anarchist but Islamist terrorism. So of course Sen. Feinstein also wants the Al Qaida magazine Inspire "off the Internet."
Government censorship, anyone? Free speech, Senator?
Now, I don't approve of the bombing and murdering of innocents for any cause. So I am not at one with deadly anarchists or deadly jihadists. Count me as among their enemies.
But, at the risk of being called a "liberal," I don't think we should defend ourselves against anarchists or jihadists or other terrorists just any old way. For both moral and strategic reasons, we ought not be killing innocents by drone strike, along with those simply declared guilty, without any lawful process at all.
Likewise, we ought not abridge our own cherished principles and the rule of law.
Including the First Amendment.
After all, that's what government is supposed to be protecting in the first place.
The fact that Feinstein seems so comfortable with simply "banning" books and magazines and websites suggests an illiberal, unAmerican attitude. An attitude that threatens to do more damage to the homeland than any "cookbook" or pro-terrorist magazine or website ever will.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
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Paul Jacobs is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America — and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacobs is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.
Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Diane Feinstein, no Einstein, The Anarchist Cookbook, First Amendment To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Diane Feinstein thinks so.
Sen. Feinstein (D-California) wants to ban The Anarchist Cookbook from the Internet. The book, which came out in 1971 with lots of radical ideas, including notoriously unreliable instructions for making bombs, is now a website. Perhaps the quality of the "cookbook" has helped us survive against the anarchist threat these last five decades.
Today, the threat is not anarchist but Islamist terrorism. So of course Sen. Feinstein also wants the Al Qaida magazine Inspire "off the Internet."
Government censorship, anyone? Free speech, Senator?
Now, I don't approve of the bombing and murdering of innocents for any cause. So I am not at one with deadly anarchists or deadly jihadists. Count me as among their enemies.
But, at the risk of being called a "liberal," I don't think we should defend ourselves against anarchists or jihadists or other terrorists just any old way. For both moral and strategic reasons, we ought not be killing innocents by drone strike, along with those simply declared guilty, without any lawful process at all.
Likewise, we ought not abridge our own cherished principles and the rule of law.
Including the First Amendment.
After all, that's what government is supposed to be protecting in the first place.
The fact that Feinstein seems so comfortable with simply "banning" books and magazines and websites suggests an illiberal, unAmerican attitude. An attitude that threatens to do more damage to the homeland than any "cookbook" or pro-terrorist magazine or website ever will.
This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.
------------------
Paul Jacobs is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America — and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacobs is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.
Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Diane Feinstein, no Einstein, The Anarchist Cookbook, First Amendment To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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