With Free Speech the Exception is the Problem

For John, BLUF:  I don't have to hang around you, but I shouldn't murder you, just because you are saying or drawing jerky things.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The New York Post does a much better job of explaining what is needed for free speech than its more staid relative, The New York Times.  Here is Ms Nicole Gelinas,♠ with "Blaming the victim — Charlie Hebdo & free speech".

Here is her "Bottom Line":

The dead cartoonists, in the end, were right.  If you can’t put pen to paper without risking death, you can’t do anything freely.

To make one exception means to make them all.

Now let’s see how many supposed defenders of speech will just stop there . . . instead of adding the “but, but, but” that shows they don’t believe in free expression when it really counts — when people just died for it.

There it is—"To make one exception means to make them all."

Hat tip to the Instapundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Ms Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal.