Speaking at the Pleasure of the State.

A bit back Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell had a fun bit of satire: What other Rights Work Like this?

Where he talks about treating the First Amendment as if it were the Second with a few key edits:

Many states already have agreements to recognize newspaper licenses from other jurisdictions. Virginia, for example, honors licenses from 27 other states that have similarly robust standards; Maryland, which strictly regulates what newspapers may be sold, and the District, which essentially prohibits it, do not recognize out-of-state licenses. These are legitimate choices that would be overridden by a federal legislature that too easily bends to the will of the news lobby. Nevada, a strong press-rights state, rescinded its agreement with Utah because Utah does not require training in acceptable viewpoints. Why should Congress to overrule that judgment?

And shortly afterwards (and today) Muggeridge's Law reared it's head proving that reality can always beat satire.


First from England we find that the "UK Labour Party wants journalism licenses, will prohibit “journalism” by people who are “struck off” the register of licensed journalists.

And if that's not enough, today NY State Democratic Senators are dreaming of this:

PROPONENTS OF A MORE REFINED FIRST AMENDMENT ARGUE THAT THIS FREEDOM SHOULD BE TREATED NOT AS A RIGHT BUT AS A PRIVILEGE – A SPECIAL ENTITLEMENT GRANTED BY THE STATE ON A CONDITIONAL BASIS THAT CAN BE REVOKED IF IT IS EVER ABUSED OR MALTREATED.

It's for The Children, don'cha know. Nice to see that the threat of "cyberbullying" is sufficient to eviscerate refine that silly old Freedom of Speech.

What can you expect from places where self defense is outright denied to anyone not wealthy, famous, or government.

And speaking of New York and pushing aside those silly old rights we have Nanny Bloomberg himself.

There are powers only governments can exercise, policies only governments can mandate and enforce and results only governments can achieve. To halt the worldwide epidemic of non-communicable diseases, governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option. That is ultimately government’s highest duty.

Guess what he's talking about. There's some clues.

He's talking about "healthy eating". Yes, personal diet falls under the umbrella of "powers only governments can exercise, policies only governments can mandate and enforce and results only governments can achieve."

There is literally no aspect of a person's life that these slimy meddling bastards would not want to control. There's a reason totalitarianism is called what it is.

For you next assignment muse over the meaning of the phrase "Police State".

And you'll note that these are all lefties. That's mostly due to the media. Both sides have their Totalitarian urges (though it's more explicit on the Left). However, if anyone on the Right said stuff like this (or canceling elections!) the media would pounce on them.

Just take this example Jay G talks about racist associations.

Or this little story about an oddly quiet story that killed infinitly more people than Watergate (numbers are fun!).

And another set of excuses.