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Gag The Internet! An Obama Official's Frightening Book About Curbing Free Speech Online
New York Post ^ | 07/11/09 | Kyle Smith

Posted on 07/11/2009 2:30:24 PM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines

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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Are we supposed to be afraid of this? (No.) Isn’t the Obama administration over-reaching in so many areas, that its hold mindshare is already at risk? (Yes.)

This is just another attempt to distract us from focusing on battles we can win.


21 posted on 07/11/2009 3:37:18 PM PDT by Tax Government (Sarah NOW.)
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To: NewHampshireDuo

That is unusual. My family came from a communist country when I was a child and I found “global warming” radioactive from the first. I think there’s far less belief in it in the Eastern Europe which has had a recent encounter with communism than in the West, where tyranny seems to be a forgotten concept. In the Czech Republic only about 11% of people believe in global warming but, of course, there’s a special reason for that - the wonderful Vaclav Klaus who can not only see the truth but articulate it.


22 posted on 07/11/2009 3:41:00 PM PDT by Nipfan (The desire to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it - H L Mencken)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

bump


23 posted on 07/11/2009 3:44:48 PM PDT by lowbridge (It's not that liberals are ignorant, it's that they know so much that isn't so - Ronald Reagan)
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To: NewHampshireDuo

<< ... escaped from communism but he’s swallowed environmentalism ... >>

I’d call that “spreading communmentalism,” not escaping it.

“Environmentalism,” by any other name, IS the new communism.

(Ask any Greenpeace founder!)

Brian Richard Allen
Los Angeles Califobambicated 90028
And the Far Abroad


24 posted on 07/11/2009 3:53:48 PM PDT by Brian Allen (Buraq Hussayn bin Buraq Hussayn bin Hussayn Ubambi, is to America what Pol Pot was to Cambodia)
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To: Brian Allen

Sunstein also believes that animals have the right to sue people ...


25 posted on 07/11/2009 4:17:24 PM PDT by Docs Galore
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

It is NOT the responsibility of the government to teach us to be better human beings. This is the height of arrogance on the part of Statists. Every tyrant since the beginning of time has tried to make better human beings. Hitler believed that was what he was doing when he exterminated a large number of Jews and other inferior beings. Stalin did it with his purge in the Soviet Union to about 40 million Russians. A good human being, in the Statist’s view, is one that supports the state without question. All others are bad human beings.


26 posted on 07/11/2009 4:41:37 PM PDT by Nosterrex
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
"Nudge," his previous book, which suggests that government ought to gently force people to be better human beings.

You must learn to love Big Brother, Winston. There is no room for haters.

27 posted on 07/11/2009 4:46:40 PM PDT by Travis McGee (---www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com---)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

“Sunstein was appointed, no doubt, off the success of “Nudge,” his previous book, which suggests that government ought to gently force people to be better human beings.”

It’s easy to criticize. I think we should offer some helpful suggestions such as perhaps the government should place some words on government buildings to enourage people to be better humans.

For example:

“Thou shall not murder.” or
“Thou shall not steal.”

I wonder if we could come up with, oh, maybe, another eight of those?


28 posted on 07/11/2009 5:13:26 PM PDT by DugwayDuke
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To: stevie_d_64
I feel like I am waiting for some code phrase, to activate me and my group or something...

The chair is against the wall...John has a long mustache. I repeat, John has a long mustache.

29 posted on 07/11/2009 5:44:22 PM PDT by optiguy (Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.----- Ronald Reagan)
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To: optiguy
The chair is against the wall...John has a long mustache. I repeat, John has a long mustache."


30 posted on 07/11/2009 6:06:26 PM PDT by RasterMaster (DUmocrats - the party of slavery, sedition, subversion, socialism & surrender)
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To: optiguy

“John has a long mustache” !!!!

Mon Dieu! Time to go set the charges!


31 posted on 07/11/2009 6:07:24 PM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: Behind Liberal Lines
I'm surprised that neither The Post nor anyone so far on this thread noted a well known fact in these quarters: Sunstein's 2001 book, Republic.com (be sure to read the reviews at Amazon), got its name from this very website. He simply lopped off "free" from the title. Free Republic provided what Sunstein considered prima facie evidence that political websites needed to be regulated.

The solution he suggested at the time was that every political website be required by legislation to supply links to opposing viewpoints, which were to be prominently displayed on the website's home page. The idea was laughed out of tech circles and went nowhere.

Sunstein is definitely a dangerous fellow, a government regulator par excellence and an enemy of freedom.

32 posted on 07/11/2009 7:34:48 PM PDT by beckett (Amor Fati)
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To: A_Former_Democrat

I walk around a lot now saying, “What are they thinking?” This is one of those times. I don’t understand how liberals - who will go to the wall to protect the free speech of pornographers - will do what they can to destroy free political speech. Political speech is the main type of speech our founders wanted to protect. What are they thinking?


33 posted on 07/11/2009 7:39:32 PM PDT by GOPJ ( Obama Administration: Soft & Sweet with Enemies. Tough & Unfair with Friends.)
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To: samtheman
For 8 long years the left fantasized that Big Bad W was out to get their library cards... or some such nonsense. But when it comes to actual curtailment of actual speech, where is the left?

Great comment, samtheman, but I fear thinking people - the principled ones - left the democrat party years ago. They don't remember the Berkeley Free Speech Movement.

34 posted on 07/11/2009 7:42:59 PM PDT by GOPJ ( Obama Administration: Soft & Sweet with Enemies. Tough & Unfair with Friends.)
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: Docs Galore

I better suck up to my cats PRONTO! LOL!


36 posted on 07/11/2009 9:27:32 PM PDT by Lauren BaRecall (Proud heterosexual.)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

If Kyle Smith isn’t blowing things out of proportion, this is truly frightening. Just imagine anyone critical of anthropogenic global warming theory. The debate truly would be over because any critics would be declared “wrong.”

OTOH, if Obama overreaches this much, the TEA parties will seem like, well, tea parties compared to the wave of anger that will wash over this nation.


37 posted on 07/11/2009 10:38:56 PM PDT by Entrepreneur (The environmental movement is filled with watermelons - green on the outside, red on the inside)
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To: GOPJ

Actually, they do remember the Berkeley Free Speech movement and are sticking to its principles which are: everyone is free to speak as long as they speak exactly what they are told by the leadership of the Left.


38 posted on 07/12/2009 3:48:29 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

Despite the “mess” and the lack of a system, Sunstein says, “I do tend to know where things are.” He qualifies: “I know where everything important is, and I don’t usually lose things. But I have lost checks, made out to me, and I also find coffee cups and Coke cans in surprising places.” He does reorganize on occasion: “When it gets completely disgraceful, I improve it a bit. Usually I clean up a bit in the summer. Right now it’s gotten completely disgraceful, I guess.”

Very few items-ties and KitKat wrappers notwithstanding-in Sunstein’s office on the fourth floor of the Laird Bell Quadrangle are unrelated to his work. The “most unusual” set of items in the room, he says, “may be my CD collection, which features Inter Alia, Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Liz Phair, Bruce Springsteen, and Shawn Colvin. Eminem can also be found here.”

And while his office may be disgraceful, his home, Sunstein declares, “is actually very neat. No mess at all. I keep it that way, partly for my 11-year-old daughter.”

39 posted on 07/12/2009 4:00:53 AM PDT by Fred Nerks (FAIR DINKUM!)
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To: Behind Liberal Lines

I guess he's changed his mind!

Really interesting coming from a guy who wrote this in 2003...

Review Why Societies Need Dissent...shows that demands for lock-step conformity are wrong and uninformed thinking. Sunstein's important new study is filled with empirical evidence of the significance of opposition, found in his compelling explanations of the need for, and benefits of, disagreement. Sunstein reveals that, in fact, the influence of dissenters is for the better, be it with courts, juries, corporate boardrooms, churches, sports teams, student organizations or faculties, not to mention 'the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court...during times of both war and peace.' --John W. Dean (Los Angeles Times Book Review )

40 posted on 07/12/2009 4:23:56 AM PDT by raybbr (It's going to get a lot worse now that the anchor babies are voting!)
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