Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan basically called President Barack Obama a liar this week after Obama said that he spoke to Erdogan about his concerns with the crackdown on journalists in Turkey. Erdogan said it never happened and accused Obama of essentially speaking behind his back. As we discussed last week, Erdogan has moved beyond his arresting of critics in Turkey to seeking the prosecution or censorship of any critics abroad. His comments further reflect his authoritarian definition of free speech as speech that by definition excludes any criticism of him.
Category: Media
Cyprus is following the precarious path of countries like France and Russia in criminalizing one side of the historical debate over the genocide of Armenian Turks by Turkey. It is now a crime to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenian Turks a century ago, according to a resolution passed Cypriot parliament. While a French court later struck down its law, the addition of Cyprus among countries criminalizing historical debates is chilling and disconcerting.
Continue reading “Cyprus Criminalizes The Questioning Of The Armenian Genocide”
Given the Wall Street poll showing that one-third of Sanders voters are not willing to vote for Hillary Clinton in the general, the outburst by Clinton over the “lies of Sanders” is not going to improve those numbers. While Clinton dismissed the young person as a Sanders supporter, she is not. She is an uncommitted Greenpeace volunteer. Various media sites have challenged Clinton’s denial of receiving money from the fossil fuel industry and Sanders went on television to repeat the basic allegation. They say that she has received a great deal of money from people in the industry and her PAC has continued to take such money. They argue that she is again making a technical defense (direct contributions from companies to the campaign are not at issue because such donations would be illegal). At issue is the fact that Clinton has refused to sign the pledge of Sanders not to take fossil fuel money. Like the recent Clinton campaign demand that Sanders change “his tone,” this videotape will only likely cement the opposition of many Sanders supporters and prompt them to vote in the fall for Green Party candidate Jill Stein or other candidates. Ironically, Clinton once attacked President Obama on this very point: for taking money from individuals in the industry.
The United States continues to give overwhelming support to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he continues his expansion of authoritarian power, the dismantling of secular government in favor of Islamic rule, and the destruction of free speech and the free press in the country. Now Erdogan’s insatiable appetite for censorship and sanctions of critics has extended to outside of Turkey where he is demanding that critics be silenced. Not only has his thuggish security details been criticized for roughing up protesters in Europe and the United States, but Turkey is demanding action from governments against his critics.
There is an interesting controversy out of Marquette University, which has moved to suspend and possibly fire Professor John McAdams after his criticism of a junior faculty member Cheryl Abbate in a free speech dispute. Abbate was recorded by a student in saying that his views against same-sex marriage were not appropriate to be voiced in her class. The response of the university has some problematic elements for a free speech perspective.
We have been following how universities across the country have seen an increase in claims of “micro aggressions” and impermissible “cultural appropriation” (here and here). Now that tension has become physical at San Francisco State University after student Bonita Tindle reportedly attacked a white student named Cory Goldstein for wearing dreadlocks. The claim seems to capture the race to bottom on campuses where an ever widening array of words or symbols are declared racially or culturally insensitive. However, this was so bizarre, I checked to confirm that it was not an early April Fool’s joke. Yet, various news organizations are reporting it and a YouTube video shows the attack.
The Saudi Arabian government is again reaffirming the extremist Islamic system under Sharia law this month in pushing not just for more severe punishment for homosexuals but more prosecutions of people who are viewed as espousing or encouraging homosexual views on social media. One such major victory for the Saudi religious police came this week with the arrest of a Saudi doctor for raising a rainbow flag outside his home in Jeddah. After his arrest, the doctor insisted that he had no idea that the rainbow was a symbol for gay rights. Yet those champions of Islamic purity in the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice still charged him.
There is a curious class action lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco that seeks an order to force movie studios to use a minimum of an R rating for movies depicting the smoking of tobacco. The lawsuit filed by Timothy Forsyth and others strikes me as entirely meritless. The lawsuit cites various movies like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as warranting an R rating. Not all that gruesome decapitations and gouging mind you. It is the fact that characters like Gandalf smoke.
Just when you thought that this campaign season could not get more weird, Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has been charged with misdemeanor battery over allegations he grabbed the arm of then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. A video does in fact show Lewandowski grabbing the arm of Fields though it seemed to pass fairly quickly (though Fields showed a bruise left in the aftermath). Most people would not view the encounter as battery and the delay in reporting the alleged crime may be raised at trial. That might not matter for the misdemeanor charge given the definition, as discussed below. The video is also below.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is back in the news again this week to dispel any doubt that he is hellbent on assuming authoritarian powers. The latest subject of his wrath none other than Britain’s consul general Leigh Turner over a “selfie” taken at the espionage trial of two journalists. We previously discussed the outrageous prosecution of Can Dündar, editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, and his colleague Erdem Gül – a direct attack free speech, free press, and political dissent. Turner with other diplomats showed up to support civil liberties in Turkey at the start of the trial. That led to another tyrannical outburst from Erdoğan who has added diplomats to the list of undesirables in his new Islamic dominated government.
There is a tragic story out of Scotland where Muslim shopkeeper Asad Shah was murdered after posting good wishes to his neighbors for Easter. Police say that the attack by another Muslim man was “religiously prejudiced.” Shah represents the best of Islam and humanity. He appears to have died for his desire to build social and religious bridges to his Christian neighbors. In the meantime, Imam Maulana Habib Ur Rehman of Scotland’s largest mosque has been calling out to the worst elements of the faith in praising an Islamic extremist who murdered as politician who opposed blasphemy laws. While the Imam insists that he was taken out of context, it is hard to see how the quoted responses can be given any moderate meaning. They are two opposing images of Islam: one of tolerance and one of extremism. In the meantime, thousands of Muslims have gone into the streets not to denounce the murderer but to demand the adoption of Sharia law and the punishment of blasphemy.
It has been fascinating to watch the rapid political and economic changes favoring the legalization of marijuana, including the growth of a market worth billions in sales and taxes. The most recent polling by Associated Press and the University of Chicago has found a record-high percentage of Americans — 61 percent.
Continue reading “Poll: Sixty-One Percent of Americans Favor Legalization of Marijuana”
Saudi Arabia UN Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi has finally resolved the rather glaring inconsistency of the Kingdom demanding elections in Syria while denying full elections to Saudi Arabians. The reason is simple according to Al-Mouallimi: Saudi citizens are the happiest in the world and would not want a democratic choice.
Police have arrested a British man, Matthew Doyle, for “suspicion of inciting racial hatred on social media.” Doyle was arrested after posting tweets in the aftermath of the Brussels attacks. He described how he confronted a Muslim woman in south London and asked her to explain the Brussels attack. After she said, understandably, that she had nothing to do with the attacks, Doyle said she had given “a mealy mouthed response” and later used an anti-Muslim epithet.
Continue reading “Englishman Arrested After Posting Anti-Muslim Views On Twitter”
For those who believe that candidates engage in little better than baby talk or talk down to voters, a new study may support you. Carnegie Mellon University has studies the speeches of all of the presidential candidates and found that they speak at a low of a seventh grade level for Donald Trump to a high of a tenth grade level for Bernie Sanders. For my part, Sanders scores big time whenever he uses the word “oligarchy” and sends millions online in desperate searches.
Continue reading “Study: Presidential Candidates Speak From Seventh To Tenth Grade Level”