Louisiana woman in dispute with neighbors says F---you with Christmas light message. Police officer says it violates city obscenity statute... which doesn't exist. ACLU helps her in court. She's harassed by neighbors and police with other petty citations.

Free speech? Pfft! This kid says something stupid on Facebook and then winds up in jail with $100k bond. He's charged with "inducing panic". Really? Where's the riot?

"Ignorant free speech often works against the speaker. That is one of several reasons why it must be given rein instead of suppressed."
--Anna Quindlen

Newest version of NDAA seeks to usurp the Supreme Court and impose an Internet sales tax! The Court previously ruled a retailer must have a physical presence in the state to be taxed. Bottom line... Think about it... What is the difference between mail order sales and Internet sales? Just the form the catalog takes. Just because the government doesn't like the decision, they are going to choose to ignore the Court's ruling altogether. We should ignore them in return!

A university's Christian society has banned women from speaking at events and teaching at meetings, unless they are accompanied by their husband, it has been revealed. An email sent out by president Matt Oliver to all BUCU members said: "It is ok for women to teach in any CU setting... However we understand that this is a difficult issue for some and so decided that women would not teach on their own at our weekly CU meetings, as the main speaker on our Bristol CU weekend away, or as our main speaker for mission weeks.

“The acorns are not only presenting a risk to the tree nut-allergic students but it is also becoming a great cause of anxiety among all students with nut allergies,” Giustizia wrote in her request to appear before the committee, adding that acorns “can also be used to bully and torment children.”

Police in Kent have arrested a man after a picture of burning poppy was posted on a social networking site. According to the website of the CPS, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, section 1, "deals with the sending to another of any article which is indecent or grossly offensive, or which conveys a threat, or which is false, provided there is an intent to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient".

I have been reading up on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a legislation powerhouse responsible for laws such as the Voter ID legislation that we are dealing with here in PA. They claim to be proponents of the free market, federalism, and limited government, but this whole group is just really creeping me out. Seems to support of transition of power, rather than a lessening of regulation. And then I saw this article supporting intellectual property rights.

Bad news in an important Institute for Justice-launched lawsuit defending the right of free speech on the Internet about matters of diet and nutrition. A state licensing board in North Carolina tried to suppress a blogger who talked up and advised people on the health benefits of the "paleo" diet (that is, eating as we think cavement ate, no grains or processed foods), telling him directly what he could or could not say about his belief that the high-meat, low-carb diet helped him with his diabetes. The case was dismissed by a federal court late last week.

American Airlines allegedly did not permit a teenaged boy with Down Syndrome board a flight from Newark, New Jersey to Los Angeles this weekend, and his parents believe it was because of discrimination.

16-year-old Bede Vanderhorst was booked with a first-class ticket on flight with his family Sunday to LAX, but the airline labeled the teen a "flight risk" at the gate, claiming his behavior was erratic, according to KTLA.

The BBC is considering making an appeal against a court order which stopped it from broadcasting a dramatized film on last year’s riots in London. The film, which features actors portraying anonymous rioters sharing their experience of the events, was due to be broadcast on Monday evening, but was banned by a court order hours before hitting the airwaves. Its script was written by award-winning playwright Alecky Blythe and is based on interviews from some 270 people conducted by the Guardian and London School of Economics as part of a study into the massive public disorder.