Monday, October 09, 2006

Censorship, oh my

The unhinged right blogosphere, led as usual by Michelle Malkin, and concern trolls like Instawanker and Peter Beinart, are all together up in arms these days over the cancellation of Mozart's Idomeneo by a Berlin Opera House. They're arguing that liberal bloggers should be all over this, by golly, and their failure to do so only demonstrates their real callowness on issues of free speech and civil liberties.

Right. Well, in the same spirit, Tristero directs them a case of free-speech suppression right here in America.

For that matter, the General brought up another instance of it right in the heartland:
YAKIMA -- There was shock among several students after learning their fall play would be postponed until next spring or possibly indefinitely.

"We'd brought it up in the meetings...there might be issues we never really expected it was going to be the school district," said drama club president and Davis senior Kristie Prescott.

Prescott and several drama club students decided to do the Laramie Project last month at the start of the school year. It's a play about the aftermath of a young Laramie, Wyoming man brutally murdered by two men for being gay.

But soon after, controversy erupted in the high school's community with students, their parents and even staff.

"When I read the play I didn't have a similar reaction," said Lee Maras, principal of Davis High School. "But the ones I did talk to didn't even want to read it, didn't even want to look at it - just felt it was inappropriate for our school."

I'm sure our mighty defenders of civil liberties and free speech such as Reynolds -- that oft-self-proclaimed libertarian -- and Beinart are gonna be all over it.

Or should I simply take their obvious disinterest in these stories evidence of their hypocritical interest in civil liberties solely as a convenient club for bashing liberals?

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