Tuesday, April 10, 2018

We'll Find Out If The Door Swings Both Ways


It is now April, 2018, and hence the right (or left) time to return to a period 48 months ago, and then 24 months ago, to two events recalled by Steve M. Four years ago we read from the Washington Times' Cheryl K. Chumley

Former CEO Brendan Eich, who’s been with Mozilla since its creation and actually helped found the company’s charitable offshoot foundation in 1998, announced this week he’s stepping down from the role over a flap generated by a $1,000 donation he made to a California campaign that sought to ban same-sex marriage in the state.

Mr. Eich made the donation five years ago, but his promotion to CEO brought the issue to the forefront once again. And the ensuing outcry from the gay rights crowd and certain Mozilla employees on social media ultimately pushed him to abandon the leadership post.

But now conservatives are striking back.

Mr. Shapiro has started a movement — complete with petition — to get as many Internet users as possible to “uninstall or cease using Mozilla,” he wrote on his website, TruthRevolt.org, replacing his traditional news content with simply the call-to-arms, Raw Story reported.

“Pardon this interruption of your TruthRevolt experience,” the message continued. “Mozilla recently forced its CEO, Brendan Eich, to resign over his personal support for traditional marriage. The firing followed a vicious smear campaign against Eich by dating website OKCupid, in which OKCupid blocked Mozilla users from visiting their website.”

Two years later there was this, from a blog post by Chumley:

A petition to boycott Target over its transgender bathroom policy has generated huge interest ...

Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and of the Christian international relief organization Samaritan's Purse, struck back hard on Facebook at Target over its recently implemented transgender policy, saying men who use women's bathrooms is a danger to the most vulnerable in society.

"I agree with the American Family Association – this policy encourages sexual predators and puts women and children in danger," Graham wrote. "A man shouldn't be able to enter the women's restroom or dressing room because he says he 'feels like a woman today.' That's ridiculous."

And now two years later still, Laura Ingraham criticized young pro-gun safety activist David Hogg, who called for a boycott of her program and took an unexpected vacation after companies took Hogg up on his challenge. The Huffington Post reports that Ingraham returned Monday night and at the end of her program

said she would launch a new segment called “Defending the First” meant to promote free speech and counter a “dangerous epidemic” she said was being sponsored by liberals.

“The left will brook no dissent, and they will militarily police the borders of their stale orthodoxy,” Ingraham said. “We will expose the enemies of the First Amendment while showcasing those brave voices for making a difference.”





Bill Maher (video below) notes "you shouldn't be doing this by teams, you should be doing it by principle." If Laura Ingraham truly is joining Maher, Salman Rushdie and others in promoting the values of free expression and liberal democracy, she ought to be welcomed. But she would then have to condemn efforts by the right- as well as the left- to shut down speech, popular and unpopular.  It's extremely unlikely she will- but if I'm surprised, I'll join the few others who will defend her.







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