Your rant loses something in the translation. There is no Sun King, there was no meal served, and no one was required to watch with admiration. All the speaker and audience expected was that the speaker be allowed to address the audience without being drowned out by disrupters or disrupted by people who grew up to believe that they are the center of the universe.
”Let a speaker hold a crowd by his speech, and not jailing those who dissent.”
You must have taken lessons in sophistry from Reuters. They refer to Palestinians who kill civilians as “activists.” The hooligan in question was not a dissenter, he was a heckler and a disrupter.
” In meetings a more regular order is desired than a political speech -- and this was a political speech by Mr. Bush, even though he is the President. So in meetings there is less tolerance of repeated and vociferous speaking out or noising off -- but even in regular meetings some allowance for same should be made. That is if one understands freedom, respects the the minority opinion, and loves Liberty.”
You have it backward. Meetings are a more appropriate venue for rough and tumble debate. At a formal speech, we are expected to listen. We are not invited to participate. The first thing that totalitarians of every stripe do is send hooligans to opposition meetings and speeches to disrupt. Grow up. Shouting down a speaker and heckling is not an exercise in free speech, it is an exercise of brutality. It is the mark of the totalitarian who uses the tendency of most people to avoid conflict to inflict his will on the majority. It is the method by which Leftists have come to dominate the Universities: the willingness to be uncivil to cow the majority who value civility.
I have nothing but contempt for those who hijack the venue of others to bray their own stupidities.
And so you show! That "venue" you claim, is a public one, my dearie, and a public speech was made, that to one free man's view begged a timely response which he did make. Hooray for him to hold his liberty out for us all to appreciate, yet that you, like Loretta Bobbitt, would chop it off at the nub, eh?