Madison On The First Amendment

"The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed. " - James Madison

The differences between this and the final version of the amendment are rather interesting.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Honestly, I have to say that Madison's version is at once clearer and more powerful, even though the two statements are covering essentially the same material. If only he could have managed to stick with the "nor shall any national religion be established" portion, it might have saved us a few headaches.

Well, at the least, it's an interesting window into what people are now calling original intent.

Another Encroachment Against Freedom

The obligatory link: France Bans Laypeople from Reporting Violence

Ouch. So, if you're not a journalist, you face jail time if you happen to catch real violence on film? Besides being ridiculous, it's a dangerous precedent to set.

"The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday."

Now, if you have a dark sense of humor, you may find the next bit here amusing. What date did the French Constitutional Council choose to unveil this law? None other than the 16th anniversary of the Rodney King beating (captured, of course, on film by an amateur with a video camera).

What are they actually trying to target with this law, though?

During parliamentary debate of the law, government representatives said the offense of filming or distributing films of acts of violence targets the practice of "happy slapping," in which a violent attack is filmed by an accomplice, typically with a camera phone, for the amusement of the attacker's friends.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call swatting a fly with a nuclear warhead.

Taken For Granted: Freedom Of Speech

The obligatory link: Egypt blogger jailed for insulting Islam

Living in the free world, it's so easy to forget that things like this can and do happen. Think about it. I'm fully capable of holding forth on just about any topic in this space, short of such things as calling for physical violence against people (and beyond that, anything I may not be able to conscience personally). But at the same time, half a world away, a man is being jailed for doing essentially what I do here... weighing in with my own opinion on topics of interest.

In addition to any kind of an outcry we can raise on the issue of Egypt's appalling behavior, I'd ask that we, both bloggers and readers, keep this in mind: We have this freedom, and others like it, because those who came before us fought and died for it, and because many now still do. Being able to say what you think may be one of the most undervalued freedoms we have going, but consider for just a minute what it would be like to lose it. After that, ask yourself the following question:

If an Islamic country is willing to jail one of its own citizens for speaking his mind, what do you think will happen if we fall under the rule of their laws here in the west?

What we stand to lose is dearer to us than we realize, and the possibility that we will lose it grows every time we turn our backs.