Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
A couple days ago I had directed the following comments toward Richard Warman, or more precisely, his Wikipedia page:
His Wikipedia page contains four major categories as of this writing: Legal activism; Canadian human rights tribunal; Political activism; References. Who is he? The wonderful glittering text in the main article informs us…
He is best known for initiating complaints against white supremacists and neo-Nazis for Canadian Human Rights Act violations related to Internet content. In June 2007, Warman received the Saul Hayes Human Rights Award from the Canadian Jewish Congress for “distinguished service to the cause of human rights”. He holds a BA (Hons.) in Drama from Queen’s University, an LLB from the University of Windsor, and an LLM from McGill University.
He’s a Nazi hunter! Wow, what a great guy! And he’s got letters after his name and everything.
:
…wouldn’t you want to know some of the less flattering things about Mr. Warman? Especially if you’re sufficiently interested in him to go look up the Wikipedia entry about him? Well, it turns out at least some of the Wikipedia admins don’t seem to think so. They think you should only know the flowery parts. Or at least, they’ve so far come up with some wonderful excuses for excising anything else from the article.
Now, I don’t know if the Wiki admin in question is a Warman “fan,” per se, or if he’s simply scared that Wikipedia will face undesirable repercussions should it act as a repository for unflattering items about he who is demonstrably a hyper-litigation minded individual. But I do know this: I have never, in all the time I’ve been acquainted with Wikipedia, seen an article on a more controversial personality that made it so far without being pockmarked by so much as a “Criticism” section.
Well, it’s two days later. Guess who has a Criticism section now?
Criticism
Syndicated columnist Mark Steyn states that Warman abuses the intent of the Canadian Human Rights Act by personally appearing as the plaintiff about half of section 13 “hate speech” cases in the history of CHRA, and all of such cases since 2002.Publisher and columnist Ezra Levant argues that Warman’s actions as plaintiff before the Canadian Human Rights Commissions are tantamount to censorship in the name of human rights. In response, Warman sued Levant for defamation.
Charlie Gillis of MacLean’s magazine asserts: “Richard Warman says he’s fighting hate. Critics say free speech is the real victim.”
It really shouldn’t have gone this far, though. I find it ironic — if there’s any one individual in all of its pages, who stands opposed to the way Wikipedia is supposed to work, that one individual would have to be Richard Warman. I mean look at that second paragraph again — Levant brings up, y’know, these lawsuits on behalf of “human rights” amount to censorship in the name of human rights. What does Warman do? Does he engage in vibrant, spirited debate to the effect of “Nuh-huh!” Or “You wouldn’t be saying that if your human rights were the ones being defended”? Or “Sometimes the greater good must prevail” or some such?
Nope. He just goes and sues him.
And one editor, or a plurality of editors, ends up slipping on his own fecal matter scrubbing the “Richard Warman” article sparkly clean of anything that might hurt Poor Richard’s feelings. And who can blame said editor for at least having the impulse? This guy, apparently, sues for a living. And so the great Wikipedia contradicts its own policy:
Wikipedia is not censored
Wikipedia may contain content that some readers consider objectionable or offensive. Anyone reading Wikipedia can edit an article and the changes are displayed instantaneously without any checking to ensure appropriateness, so Wikipedia cannot guarantee that articles or images are tasteful to all users or adhere to specific social or religious norms or requirements.
While obviously inappropriate content (such as an irrelevant link to a shock site) is usually removed immediately, or content that is judged to violate Wikipedia’s biographies of living persons policy can be removed, some articles may include objectionable text, images, or links if they are relevant to the content (such as the articles about the penis and pornography) and do not violate any of our existing policies (especially neutral point of view), nor the law of the U.S. state of Florida, where Wikipedia’s servers are hosted.
This is the trouble with thought policing. It is inherently non-egalitarian, because, as Mark Steyn has pointed out, Section 13 of the CHRA has ended up being Richard Warman’s personal law. Here’s an online encyclopedia well beyond the “Maple Curtain,” down in Florida, and they’ve been worried sick about offending this one guy up north. Seriously. After “Wikipedia may contain content that some readers consider objectionable or offensive,” you may as well have stuck in the four words “except to Richard Warman.”
But I’m delighted to see that the dam has been broken, and there’s finally three paragraphs of less-than-pleasing stuff about this guy. Couldn’t happen to a nicer fella.
And the version log says it happened just yesterday. Heh heh. All tremble in fear of The Blog That Nobody Reads.
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