The Dow Jones Industrial Average will start the trading day today at a four-year high and about 50 points away from the psychologically important level of 13,000. Especially with the news this morning of a $170 billion Greece bailout, the Dow could easily set a new high today. Read the rest of this entry »
In some respects, there’s nothing wrong with MSNBC’s firing of Pat Buchanan. Because we live in a free society, the commentator was free to publish a book that demeans homosexuals and non-Christians, and MSNBC was free to fire him. Arguably, no one committed a crime here. So, why did this supposed non-event trigger such as firestorm? Read the rest of this entry »
We embrace freedom of speech as an abstract principle, but we often hate nothing more than a concrete human being speaking and writing freely. Shame on MSNBC for firing Pat Buchanan for his hateful beliefs and writings. Buchanan is right: much of the hate speech that compelled MSNBC to fire him was nothing more than a restatement of traditional Catholic beliefs. But that doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter at all. Hate is hate, whatever its pretext. But Buchanan’s firing suggests that any person speaking in a public forum can only enjoy freedom of speech as long as his exercise of this freedom does not rise beyond Abe Foxman’s or Al Sharpton’s comfort zone. This is silly.
