"MY SPEACH IS GOOD, YOUR'S IS BAD"

Yeah yeah, really long time – I’m sorry, you know the drill. Anywhoo, Patti Davis, one time Playboy Celebrity Playmate, Ronald Reagan’s daughter has a pity piece in Newsweek. She’s mooning that she was dis-invited to be a speaker at some group because of her stance on stem-cell research. More specifically, the part where she supports the killing of babies for their stem cells.

“The group, which opposes such research, had booked a date with me in November to speak on the same topics I have been dealing with in lectures for years now—losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s, navigating the treacherous waters of grief—without any explicit mention of stem-cell research or, in fact, any kind of medical treatment. The lecture was to coincide with the publication of my next book, "The Long Goodbye."

Getting the news that I was canceled was one of those moments when one realizes that the personal really is political. I certainly support anyone’s prerogative to hire or not hire whomever they choose, and I definitely don’t want to work for someone who doesn’t want me. But when people aren't permitted to speak because their opinions are considered inappropriate, it's a sign that something is amiss beneath the surface. Particularly, as in this case, when those opinions have nothing to do with the job itself.”

This is the line that gets me

But when people aren't permitted to speak because their opinions are considered inappropriate, it's a sign that something is amiss beneath the surface.

Patti, you are still permitted to speak, in fact, Newsweek is letting you speak. What you can’t do is say whatever you want, wherever you want, on someone else’s dime. If this un-named organization doesn’t want you around because of you baby-killing ideas, that’s up to them.

She then goes on to list other people who have suffered because of their views and, who would have guessed it, they’re all liberals:

“Performers like Linda Ronstandt are fired from gigs because of an opinion expressed on the stage; people who are angry at Bruce Springsteen’s political views want to boycott his music. We all know what happened to the Dixie Chicks. What became of calm, civilized disagreements, acceptance of the fact that we don’t always agree with each other? When did things turn so ugly, and when did anger reach this kind of crescendo?”

I wonder why she didn’t mention Bob Casey, who was pulled from the 1992 Democratic Convention speaker list because he was anti-abortion? How about David Horowitz, who is regularly shouted down at speeches? Must have been an oversight.

The main point of her article isn’t that she has been denied her free speech rights, it’s about how civil discourse has been lost in politics. The tenor of the speech is fevered and angry today and she longs for the time when people at her fathers cocktail parties could have political discussions and,

“…that not everyone agreed with everyone else. But there were no raised voices, no angry words. This was apparently how adults talked about very important things—in civil, understated tones.”

I agree with her, it has become a tad crazy out there. But what she doesn’t mention is WHO is running around, waving their hands over their heads, frothing at the mouth and reducing debate to attacks, abandoning facts and truth for insults and lies.

It’s the left.

It’s groups like the NAACP, who run commercials saying Bush killed James Byrd again because he vetoed hate crime laws. It’s MoveOn, doing everything they do. It’s Democratic consultants who say bush “betrayed” his country by not fighting in Vietnam. It’s the psychos at DemocraticUnderground who think Bush has plans to cancel the 2004 elections, it’s Michael Moore and his entire “documentary”.

How come you didn’t mention that, Patti?