Archive for the 'Free Speech' Category

Pay your taxes — finance the incumbent you hate

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Imagine you’re unhappy with the performance in office of some incumbent politician. You throw your hat in the ring and proceed to spend months raising the hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary to wage a viable electoral challenge. Or, maybe you’ve spent decades of hard work amassing the private, after-tax savings necessary to fund such [...]

Conspiring to block political free speech

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Back in 1963, one Ernesto Arturo Miranda was arrested for robbery in Arizona. While in custody he confessed to raping an 18-year-old woman two days before his arrest. He was convicted on the more serious charge. But in 1966 the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, threw out the confession — and with [...]

Carson City controlled by the Ku Klux Klan?

Friday, December 18th, 2009

The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, working in tandem with an outfit called the “Western States Center,” has compiled a new report dubbed “Facing Race: 2009 Legislative Report Card on Racial Equality.” The handout awards Carson City’s Democrat-dominated Assembly “an A-plus for 100 percent support for racial equity bills,” while exiling the state Senate to [...]

‘I think hate speech has no place on our campus’

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, is one of two panelists scheduled to appear at a Nov. 19 forum sponsored by Flipside Productions, an enterprise of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Reno. The other panelist is Miguel Acosta, a member of an immigrant rights organization in New Mexico. Nicolas Blevins, a [...]

‘This student should have to pay some price’

Friday, February 20th, 2009

A few weeks after Proposition 8 was approved by California voters back in November — banning same-sex marriage there — Professor John Matteson apparently assigned members of his public speaking class at Los Angeles City College to address the issue. Did the instructor actually expect all his students would adhere to the minority position — [...]

Come on, Allison, aren’t you embarrassed?

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

The Nevada Democratic Party hopes to re-take control of the Nevada state Senate for the first time in 18 years. Democrats chose to target two seats — those of state Sens. Bob Beers of Las Vegas and Joe Heck of Henderson. First step: Recruit two Democrats to run against them. Introducing, in this corner for [...]

For fear of offending some loony Muslim, somewhere

Friday, August 29th, 2008

Journalist Sherry Jones, 46, had worked for a decade at the Montana Missoulian when she went back to school to earn her 2006 bachelor’s in English and creative writing from the University of Montana. She began reading about women in the Middle East while preparing her honors thesis. Jones decided the story of Aisha, child [...]

When they turn off the last non-cable will there still be an FCC?

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

NOTE: This is a column about naughty words. A local Las Vegas eatery called Paymon’s Cafe, specializing in Middle Eastern cuisine, serves its own version of the popular peach-flavored concoction generally known as the Fuzzy Navel, but dubbing it the “Genie’s Navel” — a reference that may soar over the heads of younger diners. From [...]

Vegas judge jails unhappy customer

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Diana Bickel is upset with the east side jewelry store called Tower of Jewels, at 896 E. Sahara Ave. She contends a one-carat engagement diamond which jewelers at the store set in a ring at her behest proceeded to fall out of its setting one month later. Tower of Jewels attorney Aaron Maurice says store [...]