This is an increasingly common idea, and is not just restricted to failed presidential candidates. It is also an extremely insidious idea, for “hate speech,” contrary to popular belief, is not an objectively quantifiable entity. One’s person’s “hate speech” is another’s outspoken defense of liberty and justice. And there is no basis in the Constitution, […]
Hugh Fitzgerald: Howard “Dizzy” Dean and “The Farthest Thing From an Islamic Republic”
Howard Dean, he of the shriek heard round the world, claims to know that present-day Iran has nothing to do with Islam. Of course, he could only conclude that if he knew a lot about Islam (and Iran). Well, so many people seem to know all about Islam these days – Barack Obama, Jeh Johnson, […]
Howard Dean: “I don’t consider Iran to be a Muslim country”
It isn’t that Howard Dean thinks Iran is full of Methodists. He just thinks that Islam is wonderful, and that the Islamic Republic of Iran is evil and oppressive, and so therefore it must not really be Islamic at all. How this misunderstanding of Islam has grown so strong as to be able to take […]
Howard Dean: “Free speech is good. Respecting others is better”
Fewer and fewer people seem to understand the significance and importance of the freedom of speech these days: the avalanche of criticism that was heaped upon my colleague Pamela Geller for our event in defense of the freedom of speech in Garland, Texas last May demonstrated that. People who should have known better, including Donald […]
Howard Dean on the Charlie Hebdo murderers: “I stopped calling these people Muslim terrorists. They’re about as Muslim as I am.”
The gunmen screamed “Allahu akbar” and declared, “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” as they murdered people in the offices of a publication that had mocked him. They couldn’t be Muslim terrorists! But Howard Dean says, “They have no respect for anybody else’s life, that’s not what the Koran says.” Well, let’s look at what […]