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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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.
Sorry. I rely on you to point me towards excellent blogs.
:o)
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.)
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.
Oh Bill. Shucks. You've made me blush...
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.
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.
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.
I thought everyone knew about the greatness of Language Log. It's even cited in the latest NYRB.