Freedom of Speech

The Committee to Protect Bloggers declares this to be Free Mojtaba and Arash Day. These two men were apparently arrested by the Iranian government for what they put on their blogs. (Intense oversimplification, but hell, if you want details, read all about it.)

The site says that free speech isn't a cultural or partisan issue. I think what they meant was that it shouldn't be. I used to get into arguments with my mother's SO all the time about whether we had any inalienable human rights at all. He claimed we didn't; only privileges the government gives us. According to him, if the government decides that we should not be allowed to speak, we should accept that.

I think anyone who knows me will know how much of a crock of shit I think that is. I'm with Voltaire on this one; I may not agree with what you say (hell, in the case of the Iranian gentlemen, I might not even be able to read it), but I will defend to the death your right to say it. After all, I'd expect the same to be done for me, and I'm a Golden Rule kind of girl.

Of course, that kind of thing does cause its own sets of problems. What about the people who use their rights to free speech to spread hatred, bigotry, antisemitism and terrorist sympathies? Should hatemongers be accorded the same rights as the rest of us when their messages are so detrimental?

In my opinion, yes they should. Because we have the right to talk back.

Payless

I occasionally get accused of being negative -- of dwelling on the things that could possibly go wrong, particularly when I can't do anything to change it. What I say to that is, "At least when the blow falls, I'm prepared".

This means that tonight's little pessimism-a-thon is devoted to the fact that tomorrow is supposed to be payday. Emphasis on "supposed to be". I remember my stint in X-Ray when the bastards wouldn't pay me for the time I had off sick, all on a technicality. In that case, I hadn't even actually resigned. Of course, in that case, when I rang in long-term sick, I passed the message on to someone I didn't really know and obviously couldn't trust, since the message apparently never got to my office manager. In this case, I'm damn sure that Kate passed the message along to both Violet and Tanya and that they got my resignation letter, because I know Tanya would have been on the blower to me on Friday last to find out if I was going to be away this week as well if she hadn't known. So I shouldn't be so worried. On the other hand, I didn't know that the withholding of pay was going to happen last time either.

Well, there's no sense in fussing about it now, I know. Still, I have to acknowledge that it's a possible outcome, even if I have no clue what I'm supposed to do about it should that actually be the outcome.

Eh. I'll find out in the morning.