As a massive believer in free speech, I love this XKCD comic! You absolutely have the right to say whatever you want (short of the illegal types of speech – hate speech and obscenity or shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre.) But you also have to accept that whatever you say might be criticized, questioned […]
So I wrote about the Charlie Hebdo massacre in a rather rambling manner the other day. I’m still thinking about what happened a lot – the conflict between unrestrained freedom of speech defenders (here!) and a sort of “Can’t we all get along/be kind and non-offensive to everyone” reaction which I have some sympathy to but […]
Although anyone who reads my blog for about three seconds would probably be able to do a pretty good job of pigeonholing me and my politics fairly quickly, there are a few positions where I’m probably not your typical lefty (whatever that is!) For example, many on the left are seen as proponents of political […]
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the site, Reddit. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s currently my favourite site on the Internet. One of the reasons I like the site so much (and one of the site’s greatest advantages) is the fact that it literally has an unlimited […]
WikiLeaks (which is down as I write this for reasons I’ll get to) is a site that’s been around since 2006 and first got a mention on this blog just over a year ago for a library-related story. Since then, the site has released two fairly large dumps of information obtained from a single army […]
Rolling Stone has totally remade their “Best Songs of All-Time” list from scratch. Still probably a bit too heavy on Boomer Rock Classics but at least they’re trying… I posted the #1 pick just a few months ago so will post the #2 song which definitely shows how the list has changed… “Fight The Power” […]
This has been an unprecedented twelve months that has impacted all sectors including public libraries. Libraries have had to pivot in a variety of ways – from implementing curbside pickup to quarantining books to opening up to the idea of staff working from home – and there are numerous articles about the impacts of Covid […]
Good article from The National Post about the changing nature of the debate around Freedom of Expression. What remains is that challenges still come from all sides of the political spectrum. …the bulk of work on freedom of expression is shifting from people who fruitlessly complain about books to attacks on journalists and bloggers. Also […]
I meant to post this when I first saw it as I thought it was a pretty powerful speech, so unique and different from the usual generic “blah blah” you hear from so many politicians. In it, Ryan Meili talks about the reasons why the general public doesn’t trust politicians. He points out how politicians […]
Yesterday, I said that during Freedom to Read Week, often everything starts to look like a Freedom of Expression issue. I didn’t mention another aspect of this in that sometimes, something that looks like a freedom of expression issue could also actually highlight something else – potentially even something criminal. And lo and behold, something […]
