A passing reference to Language Log has introduced me to an excellent blog. For instance, this well-balanced post on hate speech. Why didn't someone notify me of it before?
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John Wilkins is an eternal student, who thinks philosophy of biology is at least as interesting as politics or sport and twice as important. He has a PhD from the University of Melbourne and a position as a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Queensland, in Australia. After a varied career, involving factories, gardening, civil service, publishing, graphics, public relations but not, unfortunately for the CV, driving a truck, John finally completed his thesis on species concepts in 2004, which he has worked into two books.
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Why wasn't I told?
Category: Administrative
Posted on: January 25, 2008 5:08 AM, by John S. Wilkins
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Language log is a great blog, but that's not one of their better posts (anything by Mark Lieberman is great, though Pullum is usually excellent too). The only problem here is the excessive zeal and officiousness of the British police. Two local (to me) examples: Oxfordshire police charged a student with hate speech after he said to a policeman "do you realize your horse is gay?" And more recently, when someone threw a water bottle to a protestor sitting in a tree, the police charged him with littering. In both cases the courts threw out the cases and money was wasted.
Posted by: Neil Levy | January 25, 2008 11:57 AM
Sorry. I rely on you to point me towards excellent blogs.
:o)
Posted by: Chris' Wills | January 25, 2008 2:06 PM
That's what happens when you've hired too many police in the name of political expediency, and now they're looking for something to do to justify their existence. Apparently it happens on the left as well as the right (for the right, "security" is the buzzword, rather than hate-speech.)
Posted by: jeff | January 25, 2008 3:29 PM
I suppose that I simply assumed that, as one of the cool intellectual bloggers, you already knew about Language Log. In any event, glad you found it.
Posted by: Bill Benzon | January 25, 2008 4:31 PM
Oh Bill. Shucks. You've made me blush...
Posted by: John S. Wilkins | January 25, 2008 10:24 PM
Jeff, note in the 2 examples I gave if there was an agenda it was certainly not left-wing. In both cases (including the one using hate speech legislation) the target were environmental protestors. I suspect it is the police using a handy tool to do their master's bidding, not their promotion of a left-wing agenda.
Posted by: Neil Levy | January 26, 2008 4:37 AM
Neil, it's the not the target but the source that I was considering. Maybe I'm wrong, but I see the British government as being somewhat to the left of the USA's. I also don't see them as actively promoting a left wing agenda. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them need to look like they're doing something.
I may be wrong in associating "security" with the right, though. I've heard the security in Britain is very tight - tracking everyone and their cars wherever they go, etc.
Posted by: jeff | January 26, 2008 1:07 PM
Jeff, *all* Western governments, probably all other properly elected governments, are to the left of the US govt. In any case, the decision to prosecute is not up to the govt: it is a police and DPP matter. Neither are conceivably left-wing.
Posted by: Neil Levy | January 27, 2008 7:29 AM
I thought everyone knew about the greatness of Language Log. It's even cited in the latest NYRB.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | January 30, 2008 10:32 AM