I have been a critic of the alarming criminalizing of speech in Great Britain through hate speech laws. Such laws create an insatiable appetite for greater and greater speech regulation and create a sense of empowerment among citizens to silence those with whom they disagree. Now, a Scottish man has been convicted of a message that was grossly offensive, indecent or menacing. According to the Evening Express, the prosecutor (appropriately named Susan Love) cited the fact that Terry Myers, 41, called the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.”
Love declared that the mail was threatening but added that it was a racially aggravated offense due to the use of the word “leprechaun.”
His defense attorney said that the two men had a “petty and pathetic” history and that his client regretted the use of the term.
He was nevertheless found guilty and fined £280 ($350) for the offense.
We have been following (here and here and here and and and here and and here and here) the worsening situation in England concerning free speech. The problem is trying to draw such lines rather than embracing free speech as protecting not just popular but unpopular and even hateful speech. Once you start as a government to criminalize speech, you end up on a slippery slope of censorship. What constitutes hate speech remains a highly subjective matter and we have seen a steady expansion of prohibited terms and words and gestures. As noted in a prior column, free speech appears to be dying in the West with the increasing criminalization of speech under discrimination, hate, and blasphemy laws.
As someone of Irish (and Italian) descent I would not be insulted to be called a leprechaun. Indeed, being called a magical figure is a substantial improvement from the usual abuse that tends to follow more scatological than magical themes.
Chicago Father’s Day weekend marred by violence: Police release photos of 1 suspect; 61 shot, 9 fatally
CPD Superintendent Brown calls for revamp of home monitoring system; ‘we need to do more than just cry’
CHICAGO (WLS) — As of Sunday morning, 61 people were shot, 9 fatally, across Chicago during Father’s Day weekend.
Four minors, including a 3-year-old boy, were among the victims who were killed, police said.
Sunday afternoon, police officials held a press conference where they urged the public to come forward with any information about the weekend’s violence.
Police released photos Sunday afternoon of one suspect, who police believe is armed with a handgun.
BLDMtB – did BLM take a knee in honor of their deaths?
they were putting knees to business owners and rival gangsta to womp on da phat booty 4 da benjamin bling bling
Black Lies Matter
Not sure why this is so offensive. Leprechauns have the treasure. The other guy was jealous.
What was his sentence, a boiled dinner?
An Irish seven course dinner, a six pack and a potato.
A much better summer solstice story:
https://astronomy.com/news/2020/06/nabta-playa-the-worlds-first-astronomical-site-was-built-in-africa-and-is-older-than-stonehenge
semcgowanjr — The Scots are the ones who escaped Ireland. Or fled, depending upon who’s telling…
😃
Freedom of speech is natural and God-given and, therefore, universal and not criminal.
Great Britain et al. haven’t got the memo – are not woke.
Attendant to freedom of speech is civil redress, in this case, actionable slander.
Prove damages, Sir.
Since when are Scots and Irish separate races?
semcgowanjr – since always!!!!!
Sem,
The day my mom got pissed at my dad! LOL;)
Advice to the offended cancel culture:
“Self-importance is man’s greatest enemy. What weakens him is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of his fellow men. Self-importance requires that one spend most of one’s life offended by something or someone.”
– Don Juan Matus
Keyword: “weakens”.
If you think that feeling offended and calling out the offender(s) to censor them “empowers” you. It’s the exact opposite. Because all it does is weaken you.
Which is why “Resist not evil” are 3 of the most important words in the New Testament.
Amen, Rhodes.
Have you met my family? Sounds like it. 😄
Ha-ha-ha.
I live by a saying everytime I see my family, and I happened to see them today/yesterday.
Patience. And Tolerance. Patience. And Tolerance.
I repeat it to myself while driving there. It tends to help.
I also use it in life with others folks too.
And I have even said it to others to use with me. “Have a little patience and tolerance for me!”
I would go further and say to live your life in a “weaken” state tends to mean you are “dwelling” and “obsessing.” Both of those can happen from/by a variety of reasons.
Best comment yet; most of ours are degenerating (again) into partisan bickering.
We climbed up on that slippery slope some time ago. In our little town there is a petition drive underway to remove two monuments on our courthouse lawn that honor confederate veterans. The rallying cry is the monuments honor men who supported slavery! The monumentsare hurtful and they must go! I objected, not because I care where the monuments are located but because of the reasons given for taking them down. At the time I argued that if that is a valid reason then we also must remove the monuments honoring Washington and Jefferson, and don’t forget about Jesus since through Paul he said, “slaves, obey your masters.” Little did I know at that time that the mob so quickly would come after Washington and Jefferson. Churches, you’d best keep a watchful eye.
Slavery and slaves are at the foundation of Western Monotheism.
Two small examples. First from the second story, biblical myth, so-called Exodus, attributed from “God” to a one “Moses.” (Note: what or how are “Hebrew” slaves differentiated from “goy” slaves?)
Second from the Hebrew biblical superior hero, to a one “Jesus of Nazareth.”
Exodus 21; Slavery;
1 Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.
5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:
6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
7 And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
8 If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
9 And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
10 If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.
11 And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.
12 He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.
13 And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand; then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.
14 But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die.
15 And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.
16 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17 And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.
18 And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
19 If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.
20 And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.
21 Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.
22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.
23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26 And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.
27 And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth, or his maidservant’s tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake.
28 If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
30 If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
31 Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
32 If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
33 And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein;
34 The owner of the pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of them; and the dead beast shall be his.
35 And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it; and the dead ox also they shall divide.
36 Or if it be known that the ox hath used to push in time past, and his owner hath not kept him in; he shall surely pay ox for ox; and the dead shall be his own.
King James Version (KJV)
Jesus of Nazareth
1 slavery; slaves
Matthew 18:25; Luke 12:47 and Matthew 24:51
Jesus not only condones owning slaves, but also recommends beating and killing slaves. Matthew 18:25; Luke 12:47 and Matthew 24:51
Matthew 18:25, where Jesus uses slaves in a parable and has no qualms about recommending that not only a slave but also his wife and family be sold, while in other parables Jesus recommends that disobedient slaves should be beaten (Luke 12:47) or even killed (Matthew 24:51).
Christian apologists attempt to justify the “Bible’s” slavery passages.
Argument 1: “Slavery in the Bible was more enlightened than that of 17th-19th century America and other ancient Near East cultures.”
Even granting this point for the sake of argument, this fails to answer the simple question: is owning another human ever moral, or not? The relative kindness of a slave owner does not enter into the basic moral question of owning other humans as property.
Argument 2: “They could be let go after 6 years” or “It was a mechanism for protecting those who could not pay their debts.” (a.k.a. “Debt bondage”)
“Hebrew slaves were to be freed in the 7th year (Exodus 21:2, Deuteronomy 15:12-18). Slaves from surrounding countries could be kept as property forever (Leviticus 25:44-46). A further exception pertains to women whose fathers sold them into slavery, and for whom there was no release after six years ( Exodus 21:7)
Argument 3: The Bible restricted slave owners’ actions (Exodus 21:20).
Exodus 21:20 does mandate punishment for a master who kills a slave with a rod, but the very next verse says “But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner’s property” (NRSV). The NIV, by contrast, translates this verse as “if the slave recovers after a day or two”, which changes its meaning. Either way, the emphasis is that the slave is first and foremost property, and therefore the greatest loss is to the owner, whose slave was “as good as money”.
Argument 4: “Slavery was allowed by God because of the time period, but was not the ideal will of God.”
There are many ways a creative, all-knowing and all-powerful deity could make it clear that slavery is immoral while, for instance, giving the Israelite economy a grace period to let slavery “wind down”, should that be necessary. The passages concerning slavery from the
Pentateuch (e.g. Exodus 21:2-7; Leviticus 25:44-46),
by contrast, provide guidelines that allow for slavery to continue indefinitely. New Testament writers, too, who had an opportunity to overturn or clarify the Pentateuch’s instructions, did not do so.
Also it seems improbable that a God who was capable of assassinating Israelites by the thousand if they did not follow his instructions to the letter would balk at telling them to give up slaves.
Argument 5: “The term ‘slave’ is a poor translation. It should be ‘servant’.”
This may be plausible in some contexts, but not for Leviticus 25:46, which specifically allows that slaves are property who may be inherited by the owner’s children and kept for life. This passage makes no sense unless they are discussing slavery — permanent ownership of one human by another — as we know it today.
Jesus’ Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
(Matthew 18:23) makes no sense if said “servant” is not a slave, since the master has the power to sell both the “servant”, his wife and his children (Matthew 18:25).
It also makes little sense in the case of Matthew 24:51 in which these “servants” may be not only beaten by their master (as in Luke 12:47), but that the master “shall cut him asunder” in the words of the King James translation.
dennis hanna
dennis………..I think you’re referring to Jesus’ Blue Period.
Dennis, slavery and slaves are also at the feet of CHINESE POLYTHEISM
pretty much at the feet of CIVILIZATION ITSELF
you can look it up
and not abolished there until 1947 that is in the PRC; after that in Singapore and some other places
I hate it when people say WESTERN as if it’s a slur word and have no sense of perspective
Now here’s a question. Without slavery, what is the fate of surplus labor, which can’t feed itself?
STARVATION, perhaps? This is the reason and justification for the ancient world’s institution of slavery in one word
And it’s why with the rise of wages and industry, it could be done away with.
Slavery not abolished in most places in Asia until the 20th century
Stop the moralizing already
Context much? In Matthew 18 he was telling a parable.
Are you familiar with the words “allegory” and “metaphor”?
Talk about a pitiful stretch.
Too bad everybody has been brainwashed by our schools and culture to believe the ridiculous story of a “war over slavery”. Propaganda is very effective. Anyone who wants can read Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address where he specifically states that he will NOT go to war over slavery, but he will invade the Southern States if they do not pay the import/export taxes at Charleston Harbor, or if they attack any federal forts, such as Ft. Sumpter which enforces the tax collection
After all, does it make sense that someone would kill half a million of their own people to do something nice for someone else? Is that what you think war is – Killing people to do something nice for someone else?
It was a tax rebellion, not a war over slavery. Do you know of any other war fought to free someone else’s slaves? Didn’t the other countries of the West get rid of slavery without a war? Why is the Confederacy, which lasted 4 years, blamed world-wide for slavery when it was a 10,000 year institution? For slavery in the West for the last 400 years, why not blame London, Amsterdam, New York, Boston, and the Jews for buying slaves from Africa and bringing them to North America, South America, the Caribbean, etc.? They did this for 400 years!
Those who think Lincoln invaded the South over slavery are brainwashed. I challenge anyone who disagrees to find any statement from Honest Abe saying he is attacking the South over slavery. I have been searching historical records for any such statement and cannot find it. If anyone can find such a statement, please let me know as I cannot find it.
Best money ever spent…
See Theodore Dalrymple’s menu of examples in regard to British courts’ treatment of criminals who have done ghastly things. Then recall that there are rural householders who are sitting in prison in Britain for curing home invaders with a dose of lead. Now read this.
The British political class is shot through with people who are cruel to the kind and kind to the cruel, because it’s easier for them that way. We live in a decadent age.
“Political correctness is just fascism disguised as manners.” (George Carlin)
What they do in Britain, is what Democrats want to do here.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Leprechauns everywhere are offended, and are getting drunk, rioting, looting and burning. #BLM……..BlarneyLeprechaunsMad.
Why do Ukrainians have hunched shoulders and sloped foreheads?
Cuz when you ask them a question, they hunch their shoulders in bewilderment and when you tell them the answer they smack their foreheads in astonishment.
So, fine me or bar me from this blog. (My Mom’s parents were from the Ukraine, when it was part of the Austria-Hungary Empire, a town called ‘Redhead’.)
An old woman comes into the newspaper office and states that she wants to put a notice in the obituaries, ‘Angus died’. The clerk informs her that there is a minimum 5 word cost and that she has three more words, if she has anything more to say. She thinks for a moment and then instructs the clerk, ‘Angus died, Volvo for sale.’
My Dad’s parents came from the third island out, Outer Hebrides, a long time ago.
As far as this latest complaint regarding freedoms goes; every country struggles with that area where the freedoms of some come into conflict with the freedoms of others. In this case the freedom from receiving speech that could be damaging is out of balance with the freedom of speech. The pendulum, perhaps, has swung a little too far in one direction. One might stop and consider the perversity of freedoms here in the US. A perverse interpretation of the second amendment is further perverted by a right wing Supreme Court Justice and idiots have the right to bring assault weapons to protests, into houses of government, etc.
Turley, you might pull your head out of your legal where the sun don’t shine once in a while. Happy Father’s Day anyway.
I have heard some pretty absurd litanies, but what in the name of all that’s holy is the “freedom from receiving speech?” That is simply off the scale of nonsensical.
Well, Bill:
Yelling ‘Fire’ in a crowded theater, if there was no fire, would come under the argument that the people who received this speech and were trampled to death suffered an injustice through the freedom of speech of the idiot that yelled fire. A more relevant example would be joking about bombs while traveling on an airplane. There are black and white areas and it gets gray where they overlap. Calling someone a Leprechaun might, in some cases, be akin to calling an African American the ‘N’ word. It could be seen as inciting an altercation. It might be offensive to Leprechauns who fell slighted by being lumped in with the Irish humans. If there was a local history of brandishing this moniker causing riots and physical violence; well think on that.
What is nonsensical and absurd is some Americans’ ‘holy’ reverence for guns. This is a far greater perversion and travesty. There is nothing more absurd than a law so completely perverted that it supports masked morons parading around in the legislature of a State brandishing assault weapons; unless it is the legality of allowing those morons to brandish assault weapons while confronting protesters.
I hope you have received my speech clearly and it is not too tedious to your ears.
issac – in which state, exactly, did “masked morons” parade “around in the legislature.”?
Michigan
Try and pay attention. Read the newspapers.
Michigan-idiots armed with assault rifles, wearing masks, grouping together in the legislature building, the place where governing for all the people is performed.
Albuquerque-idiots armed with assault rifles confront protesters. One vigilante shoots a protester.
All this allowed because of a perverse interpretation of the second amendment. Yet the Leprechaun story seems to illustrate Turley’s perspective on the abuse of freedoms.
If someone tells a joke about bombing an airplane in an airport or on the plane and they get arrested and charged, will Turley come to their defense?
issac – it was all very peaceful and I am not sure about masks or that they went on the floor of the legislature, only that they were in the halls. Since the CCPvirus was going are you saying they should not have been wearing masks?
” A perverse interpretation of the second amendment”
***************************************************************
Exactly what might that be? And before you answer, you might want to read Federalist 46.
Fellow Americans who assembled peaceably and exercised their right to openly bear arms
I applaud their lawful protest. I applaud other lawful protests
If protests turn to riot and looting and vandalism and arson, i believe they should be quelled with all necessary force, promptly
This is our system of ordered liberty. Which now sinks into disorder.
Issak:
You are almost always wrong when you talk, but you have become increasingly strident and boring; an unfortunate combination.
Also try to stay on point, non sequiturs rarely bolster your arguments.
“supports masked morons parading around in the legislature of a State brandishing assault weapons”
As opposed to the masked morons with Antifa destroying and burning entire sections of cities under the guise of a BLM protest, I’ll take the ones just “parading around” every day of the week.
Morons looting and burning, using a valid and necessary protest as cover, should be incarcerated for the maximum. In the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake over a hundred years ago, only, they hung looters from lamp posts. Most of the looting, however, was done by US troops called in to quell the looters. Madness is criminal sometimes. This madness/criminality is momentary and not recognized as American or civilized, anywhere.
The thugs armed with assault rifles, however, are using a perversely interpreted rule of law to threaten the population. These morons, masked or not, are threatening the peace when they parade around with weapons used solely for killing other humans. If ever there was an expression of anarchy it is this perverse application of a perverse interpretation of the Constitution. I’ll take the odd expression of anarchy any day, one that is recognized as criminal and momentary; over this cancer that threatens the ‘everyman’ by armed morons. This is not 1776. The British and Indians are not threatening. The government is not massing troops to take over Bullhunk, Texas. Aliens are not approaching earth. The most serious and dangerous expression of anarchy are these morons, armed to the teeth.
Molotof cocktails, flash bombs, baseball bats, and bricks, are far more that an “odd expression of anarchy”. Especially when they are being wielded in your neighborhood in the middle of the night.
I can tell you from recent experience that on the night of May 29th I was very glad that I own a .12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun.
Rhodes:
You commit that same old error when you combine the extreme proliferation of guns in society with the basic right to own a reasonable gun to protect one’s home, in one’s home, for one’s home. That right precedes the second amendment and was always a given. That right was there from the moment Europeans set foot on these shores. That right exists in Canada and most other countries. The second amendment addresses the society: well regulated militia, state, the people. A citizen and before becoming a citizen a colonial, always had the right to keep a musket for protection and hunting. It’s a question of direction and degrees. I doubt very much that those who penned the second amendment had idiots wielding assault rifles in public in mind. It takes an obtuse perspective to equate your .12 gauge ownership with the activities of the moron not well regulated militia, in question. Wrong direction to excessive degrees.
We went to our local gun shops to buy AK-47 or AR-15 rifles
All of them,…sold out
Thankfully we have social workers walking the area
Bwahahahahaahaha
I didn’t equate my ownership of a shotgun to anything.
But somehow you did.
Yeah, I got a front row view to a baseball on a Porsche last weekend from the balcony looking down to the front of the street and sidewalk. Who knows what the issue was there.
Gal banging away taking out all the windows and the guy screaming at the top of his lungs.
I assumed it was one of the prosties squatting in the illegal AirBnB unit, Apt. 311 (a suitable number).
Could be wrong.
And I also assumed that was one of her John(s)? But I could be wrong there too.
It is tough to get the police to come out here for an non-emergency hotline call in the middle of protests and riots. Still waiting LAPD.
I guess we will keep waiting while they punch another hole in the stairwell wall, break the front gate….
On a different note. The liquor store across the street has decided to just keep it boarded up, bc why not!?
Anonymous – I just hate it when rioters get all liquored up.
Son of Bacon, stay in Canada. You’re in Canada, isnt that right? Trust me there are a million more gun owning rednecks per each Michigan militia-man, spread all across the USA. Things look swell for rioters, looters, and anarchists now,. but the screw may yet turn
Best to Stay in Canada son of Bacon if you don’t like America
The freedom from receiving speech should involve our ability to ignore what another says. We’re so busy climbing a top Mt. Offended that I think we forget that we have the ability to ignore silly people who say stupid things to us. We forget to consider the source, and their desperation to find something to offend us. If we took some time to work on building up our “ignores” we might even find something called inner strength. I wouldn’t say that I’m above ever being offended, but if someone called me a leprechaun, I don’t think I would consciously ignore them. I don’t think I’d even pause, unless it was to laugh at their silly attempts to offend me.
“Sticks and Stones”.
(The Dave Chappelle version is very funny, BTW).
Actually, I had heard the term used in several police procedurals from the UK. Are they now going to ban them? The great Chris Lilly has four of his shows pulled from Netflix because they are supposedly racist, but they are not.
Do these people ever stop to think?
Visualize the courtroom, with the judge, prosecutor, and defense attorney all earnestly fighting for justice, the cops keeping order, and the cameras recording this for posterity.
And they fine the poor man $350 for calling his rival a leprechaun!
If they stopped to think, they would realize how stupid the whole process was.
And the taxpayers got dinged for the cost.
But farce aside, this is a serious matter. The British have decided to travel a slippery slope; we don’t know where it will end, but history would suggest that we not be optimistic.
the English and Irish never got along.we have a very sick world today.
England, Ireland all of Europe have gone to Hell in the handbasket. Saint Peter allows Lepracans into the Pearly Gates for an interview and then into Heaven if they weren’t too Irish.
Folks, recall the movie Blazing Saddles. The mayor of the town about to be attacked by an Indian tribe agreed to allow a crowd of ex slaves come into town who had agreed to defend. Then he looked across the crowd at some of the white migrants headed west and declared: “But Not The Irish!”
Better see that movie again. They were NOT about to be attacked by an Indian tribe. They were about to be attacked by Hedley Lamar’s henchmen.
MofoKnow – if I remember correctly, because I am not going to take the time to look it up, the late, great Slim Pickins, was leader of the henchmen. You do not want him coming after you. 😉
“Somebody’s gonna have to go back and get a sh*tload of dimes!”
TruthHertz001 – LOL 🙂