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Monday, February 13, 2006

Levant Has Balls!

Ezra Levant, the publisher of the Western Standard has said that the magazine will print some of the Mohammad cartoons today, according to the Globe. I say good for them! Fine, the cartoons may offend some people, but the magazine should have every right to print them. They aren't showing them on the front cover, so only people that choose to see the cartoons will see them. If you are going to be offended, I have a very easy solution for you, don't buy the freaking magazine! It is just that simple.

The Canadian Islamic Congress said they will seek to have charges laid, against distributing hate crime literature. Well I have a question, I am not religious, so my beliefs are in the freedom of people, does this mean the Canadian Islamic Congress is committing a hate crime against my belief in free speech by filing this complaint?

When Levent was asked if these cartoons could spark violence, he responded, "We're about to find out." As someone that loves freedom, thank you Mr. Levant! I don't think he is publishing these to be offensive, but to make a point that he will not be bullied into not expressing himself. Judging from the comments I have heard the extremist Muslims say, he may receive death threats. I applaud him for, literally, putting his own ass on the line in the name of free speech!

Edit: I just saw that Ezra wrote this in the Calgary sun. Great article!

Edit2: I was about to look into getting a Western Standard subscription, but it seems much of their website is down. I'm hoping it is down due to high traffic, not any malicious act. Whenever their site is back up, I encourage everyone to reward their courage by subscribing!

4 Comments:

At 2:33 PM, Blogger trustonlymulder said...

The WS site has been down for quite some time. Has me worried.

 
At 2:46 PM, Blogger William Joseph said...

Don't be worried, look at the WS blog post:

http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2006/02/dont_panic.html

 
At 3:33 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Ken!

Thanks for taking the time to read my little stupid blog!

I think it's sad too that some people's knee jerk reaction is to set stuff on fire and he shouldn't have to worry about it.


But I bet that thought ran through his head when he decided to print the cartoons... I wonder if he can also take a step back and see the people he is hurting as well, not the ones who are gonna burn stuff down, but the ones who are gonna sit at home and feel silently indignant and greatly hurt that their deity is being crapped upon on a international stage? Someone's grandma out there is crying that Mohammed is being portrayed as a terrorist, Is Ezra thinking about her?

 
At 3:46 PM, Blogger William Joseph said...

He probably is not thinking about the crying grandmother, but life should not be about trying your hardest to never hurt anyone else's feelings. I do not think the Western Standard is publishing these to be offensive (I'm agreeing they probably are offensive to many people), they are doing it to make a point. Free speech should not be bullied to silence at the threat of someone burning down your property.

If someone else has a magazine and routinely printed stuff that is just blatently offensive, I would not try to take away their right to print it. I would just not buy it and encourage others to do the same. The Western Standard does not regularly print stuff that is racist (as far as I know), they are only doing it this one time to make a bigger, and more important, point.

 

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