Read this while it's still legal

[TehBorken]

Never mind that Washington State promotes its own gambling agenda with State funds- the Washington State Lotto, Mega-Millions, etc etc. Tell me that's not gambling. [hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"]  [div class="block"]              [h1]Read this while it's still legal[/h1]              [p class="source"]By [a href="mailto:[email protected]"]Danny Westneat[/a]
[!-- end photo --][!-- end photo 2002401817 box --][!-- end photo --]Seattle Times staff columnist   [/p]    [/div][div class="body"]As most of us toasted liberty and pursued happiness last week, Jim Harvill opened his mailbox and learned these rights are not as unalienable as he thought.[/p] On July 3, Harvill, an affable operations manager for Sprint PCS near Spokane, got the following letter from the publisher of two magazines he has subscribed to for years. "It is with deep regret that we must inform you ... " it read, "we must cancel all subscriptions to Washington State."[/p] The magazines are "Casino Player" — a monthly review of U.S. casinos and hotels — and "Strictly Slots" — a guide to one-armed bandits, video poker and other mechanized means of gambling.[/p] Hardly classic literature. But Harvill liked them. And now he can no longer read them, thanks to a twisted reading of the state's new law against Internet gambling.[/p] The state says placing bets online is against the law. Fine. But the state goes on to say that even writing about Internet gambling in a way that's promotional is "aiding and abetting" an illegal industry.[/p] So now two print magazines consider themselves banned in this state. It's not clear whether the publisher pulled them on his own or was asked to by the state. The letter vaguely cites "new state laws regarding the legality of online gaming."[/p] [p style="font-weight: bold;"]Mind you, no actual betting occurs via these magazines. People like Harvill buy them just to read about gambling.[/p] "It's completely surreal," Harvill says. "My government is saying there is something I'm not allowed to read. I've lived in this country for 60 years and I can't remember anything like this happening to me before."[/p] Well, it has certainly happened to others. Ask Larry Flynt. But it is almost never allowed to stand. Has to do with all that stuff we heard ad nauseam last week about independence and the freedom to think and speak as we want.[/p] The nation's birthday week was a dark one for the most unruly and inconvenient of our freedoms, expression.[/p] [!--AB IF="Story_Ads"--] [/p][table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"] [tbody][tr][td align="center"]
[/td][/tr] [/tbody][/table] [!--AB ENDIF="Story_Ads"--] We learned that a high-school band in Everett had been barred from playing "Ave Maria" because the song is too religious. This is as baffling as if an art class were not permitted to study Michelangelo. And then a Fort Lewis Army officer, who was properly accused of refusing to ship out to Iraq, was inexplicably charged for saying "contemptuous words against the President of the United States."[/p] Lt. Ehren Watada had said the president misled us into a war that, in retrospect, was a mistake. Shocking! Even in the military, how can stating the obvious be a jailable offense?[/p] I realize there are arguments for all these clampdowns. Still, it ought to give us pause that in one Fourth of July week we had two magazines banned in the state, one song muzzled in a school district and a slew of words outlawed in the military.[/p] Would a confident people do this to themselves?[/p] Oh, well. So we can't read up on Internet betting. Students can't play songs about Jesus' mother. Soldiers can't call the president a charlatan.[/p] If we all get really bored, at least we can still burn the flag.[/p] [em]Danny Westneat's column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or [a href="mailto:[email protected]"][email protected][/a].[/em][/p]           [/div]    

[Some Chick]

Wow.

  I am so glad I don't live in the US.  I'd constantly be fighting shit like that.

  We actually had to change the name of a big promotion one year in my home town.  We always had "Midnight Madness", as do many communities.  One person got offended that we were promoting the slandering of people with mental illness.

  We renamed it so that person could find someone else to write letters to.

[weird al]

Here in Canadia, we're certainly no slouches when it comes to trampling on basic rights. Remember this little blast from the past?:

  [FONT face=Arial size=4]APEC protester sues RCMP and Prime Minister's Office[/FONT] [FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2]

"BCCLA Board member Craig Jones has filed a civil suit in B.C. Supreme Court against the RCMP as well as the Prime Minister's office for violating his constitutional right to peaceful protest during the APEC forum and leaders' summit held in Vancouver November 18-26, 1997.

On November 25, Jones was arrested, assaulted and jailed for over 14 hours for simply displaying signs on the lawn of his campus residence...... [/FONT]

[FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2]The lawsuit describes the events of November 24 and 25, when RCMP officers first ripped signs that Jones had placed on a fence along the motorcade route. The signs read FREE SPEECH, DEMOCRACY, and HUMAN RIGHTS. When Jones, a UBC law student and official observer of the protests on behalf of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, objected that removal of the signs violated his constitutional rights, he was told by a high-ranking RCMP officer: "Don't be stupid; go to bed."

On the next day Jones positioned himself with the same three signs along the motorcade route in an area which the RCMP had designated for residents of Green College, where Jones lives. ....[/FONT]

[FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2][/FONT]

[FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size=2]... He was approached by officer who told him to remove the signs. When he politely declined, Jones was thrown to the ground by two officers, handcuffed and jailed for fourteen hours before being released without charge. The RCMP confiscated Jones' three signs together with several more from other students present...." [/FONT]

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[FONT face=Arial size=2]And of course who would ever wanna forget this little "blast" from the past? The first commentator is Terry Milewski, who later lost his job for being too friendly with the protesters (seems he lost his cynical detachment and had offered some sort of strategic advice to anti-APEC activists). The last commentator is some thug, best forgotten, who speaks out of both sides of his mouth. [/FONT]

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[A href="vny!://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-367-2016-10/politics_economy/apec_protest/"]vny!://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-367-2016-10/politics_economy/apec_protest/[/A]

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[Some Chick]

I do remember that, but as I recall, there was an inquiry into the actions of the RCMP afterward to, which validated the feelings of the public that they were way out of line.

[Sportsdude]

Hah, how am I not suprised. Geez they go after gambling but not hate speech which hurts people.  Mean while lets be little nazi's and start banning books.

[Some Chick]

And don't forget about those terrible threats — The Dixie Chicks.

  That was beyond ridiculous what people did to those women.  I LOVE their new in your face video.

  Take THAT Bushman.

[Sportsdude]

Oh the dixie chicks do have supporters in the country music world and this might shock you at who it is: Merle Haggard. Yep he said so in an interview. But I like how that album went to number 1 with absolutely no air play.

[weird al]

I read an interview with Merle Haggard umpteen years ago, figuring I'd hear the same old tired redneck bullshit that you might expect to hear from the guy who blessed us with "Okie from Muskogee." But he said something really cool, along the lines of..."Yeah, America, love it or leave it. Sure this country is f*cked up. But if you love it, you don't leave. You stay here and try to fix the sonofabitch."

[Sportsdude]

Yeah well I'm a mix of both if you can say that. You can't really leave something. I've tried for many years to rid myself of my southern/midwestern roots but you can't its impossible.  My heart is somewhere else but my upbringing will always be midwestern.