Much like "I support the 2nd Amendment, but-"

No censor ever fails to say "I believe in free speech." In fact, here's a useful rule of thumb: if you are proposing a law or a rule, and you feel moved to defend it by saying "I believe in free speech, but . . . ." you are probably a censor.


On that idiot Garry Trudeau:
The issue is not just that it's ridiculous to call the world's second-largest religion an oppressed minority. It's not just that Trudeau and his ilk treat murdering people based on cartoons as something that is the moral responsibility of the cartoonist. The issue is that anti-blasphemy social and legal norms are a tool of oppression of people who are powerless, even by the finicky standards of Trudeau and the New York Times. The concept of blasphemy is used to persecute religious minorities, ethnic minorities, rights activists, and anyone else disfavored by the mullahs and the mob. It is used to protect power — the existing power structure of the mostly conservative, mostly traditional, mostly male-and-religious-dominated societies where the concept holds sway.