March 18, 2004
howard stern
Great post from Jeff Jarvis about Howard Stern.
“To Howard, he said, it’s a simple First Amendment story — ‘not an issue of him going too far but of the government going too far.’ Amen.“
In case you don’t know the full story, Stern, a very popular US radio talkshow host, was fired from his job for being too controversial. Later it emerged that his bosses, Clear Channel (big media conglomerate) fired him because of political pressure from Washington. But Howard’s fighting back, and doing a great job.
One of my favorite things about America, in all seriousness, is that an American wrote this:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
“But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we may take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.“
–Abe Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
"Hugh's Daily Cartoon" Newsletter.
A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.].
A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.
I think there is much that we were handed by the WW2 generation that we throw away with both hands.
I often heard my late father say, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it.“
Where’d that go, exactly?
It’s still around. As long as there’s enough Jarvis’s out there, causing a fuss
(trivia: that “defend your right” quote was originally Voltaire’s)
Nifty… Dad probably thought he was quoting FDR.
“Voltaire. Is that a Plymouth?“
And two notes:
1. gapingvoid is in my Daily Visit folder. It’s very good.
2. there is no “e” in Gettysburg. :-O
Oops. You’re right. Fixed it. Thanks