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Conrad to Dogberry: \u201cAway, you are an ass, you are an ass!\u201d (IV.ii.66).\u00a0 \u2013 Much Ado About Nothing<\/em><\/p>\n The VA governor, Ralphie Northam,\u00a0 is now impinging on the 1st<\/sup> Amendment right of freedom of speech in the state of Virginia. People\u00a0 will not be allowed to criticize government officials (meaning him) or say bad things about them\/him without penalty.<\/p>\n https:\/\/bigleaguepolitics.com\/virginia-democrats-push-legislation-to-make-criticism-of-government-officials-a-criminal-offense\/<\/a><\/p>\n Wow. He must like being stupid enough to set himself up for a massive federal lawsuit. Someone should tell him he\u2019s riding for a nasty fall when he does these things.\u00a0 He claimed he was a pediatric neurosurgeon, didn’t he? I want to see some proof of that claim, because I find it very difficult to believe he got through undergrad school, never mind anything higher.<\/p>\n From the article: \u00a0In the wake of the Virginia gun rights rally on Monday, Democrats in the Capitol are not slowing down their push for tyranny. They are moving a bill through the legislature that would effectively criminalize dissent against Governor Northam and other state government officials.<\/p>\n House Bill 1627<\/a>\u00a0was introduced by Delegate Jeffrey M. Bourne last week. The legislation \u201cprovides that certain crimes relating to threats and harassment may be prosecuted in the City of Richmond if the victim is the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n Language in the bill explicitly criminalizes free speech, in what would constitute a blatant attack on the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. \u2013 article.\u00a0\u00a0If you think the rest of the Democrats aren\u2019t watching this, you aren\u2019t paying attention.\u00a0 Since there is nothing in the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution that criminalizes publicly saying that someone is an ass, this proposed bill violates the law regarding free speech.<\/p>\n Making threats toward someone can be considered prosecutable if taken in context, e.g., an image of some kind of weapon or a noose is included or it is part of a video. That should, indeed, be looked into, however, local law enforcement is mostly busy trying to prevent mayhem as it is, and not get involved in other people’s quarrels unless they turn violent. But making vulgar, snide and derogatory public remarks about someone is not a crime of any kind. It is just bad manners and sometimes an effort to get attention from an audience. Criticizing someone’s actions is not illegal, either. Under that bill’s language, criticism can be considered harassment.\u00a0Trying to criminalize such speech because it might hurt those precious feelings is a violation of the First Amendment’s clause about freedom of speech.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, Twitchy provides us with the information from various tweets that the citizens have twittered out regarding their attitude toward that lovely island\u2019s current governorship.<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitchy.com\/brads-313037\/2020\/01\/24\/everything-seems-rather-calm-in-puerto-rico-just-a-guillotine-being-set-up-at-the-governors-mansion-while-the-wait-whut\/<\/a><\/p>\n I know the PR flag as the guillotine blade is just symbolic, but the Puerto Ricanos want that silly bitch and her butt buddies gone. The discovery of disaster relief supplies that were shipped to the PR and warehoused instead of being distributed, two years after Hurricane Maria whacked that lovely island of tropical breezes, is at the root of this anger.\u00a0 Why weren’t those supplies distributed? Why?<\/p>\n What does this all mean, if put in its proper context?<\/p>\n I think Tom Jefferson, in writing to James Madison in 1787, said it best: I hold that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.<\/p>\n “Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states in a great one. 3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in\u00a0most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the 1st. condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has it\u2019s evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing.\u00a0Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem<\/a>. Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs.\u00a0I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.<\/strong>1<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Unsuccesful rebellions indeed generally establish the incroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medecine necessary for the sound \u00a0health of government.” –\u00a0Thomas Jefferson<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0James Madison<\/a>,\u00a0Paris<\/a>, January 30,\u00a017872<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.monticello.org\/site\/research-and-collections\/little-rebellionquotation<\/a><\/p>\n Stock up on your favorite beverages and treats. We have not yet begun to fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"