You have it all wrong. The spirit of liberty is in your heart, obvs, and if it's not there then it's not anywhere. FTW!

Excellent!

Thanks for reminding us of these wonderful words, spoken only about two weeks before D-Day.

One thing he said raises an eyebrow, though. "Some of us have chosen America as the land of our adoption; the rest have come from those who did the same." Am I to understand that there were no descendents of African-American slaves present?

More likely, considering when it was said, no one even considered former slaves.

A bunch of white people once gathered here to affirm an oppressive patriarchal faith, a faith in a common purpose, a common conviction, a common devotion. Some of them had chosen Amerikkka as the easiest place to get rich by robbing the natives and the land; the rest came from those who did the same. But we have some right to consider ourselves a picked group, a group of those who had the courage to break from the past and brave the dangers and the loneliness of a strange land full of mouth-breathing Christianists. What was the object that nerved us to this choice? We sought equality; freedom from oppression by white people, freedom from want, freedom to be ourselves and have others provide for us. This we then sought; this we now believe that we are by way of winning. What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek equality? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Equality lies in the hearts of men and women of color and other Democrats; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, for it has the Court to save it. And what is this equality which must lie in the hearts of men and women of color and other Democrats? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will, like Republicans want; it is not freedom to do as one likes (unless one is in charge). That is the denial of equality, and leads straight to some people becoming much better off than others. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few, and not the good smart people like us; as we have learned to our sorrow as voices of protest like mine have been silenced for the past seven years.

BGates, bummer of a life for the past seven years, eh? Solely to stave off an impending suicide, I pray for your side in the upcoming general election.

@NicholasV:
Have a glance at "Liberal Fascism" for a review of other threats.

Chris - I was doing my best imitation of an internet troll, I guess I did a reasonable job of it ;)

Your post is amusing, but I wonder to what extent our experience with the Internet refutes the "marketplace of ideas" model that underlies much First Amendment jurisprudence. From what I've seen online, reasonable and informed speech rarely wins out; it's usually shouted down in a deluge of capital letters and misspelled words and everyone goes away without having really evaluated their own assumptions or considered opposing views at all. Does the First Amendment leave room in the marketplace of ideas for "banning" the real-life "trolls"? If not, should it?

Neurodoc,

Gerald Gunther's biography of Hand strongly implies that Hand's wife had a long-term affair, but (if I recall correctly), stops just short of stating that as an assertion of fact. Essentially his wife spent a lot of time with a male "friend," including trips to Europe while Hand stayed in New York, but Gunther leaves open the possibility that it was platonic.

the assumptions regarding the marketplace model that underlie First Amendment doctrine

No they don't! LMFAO!!!!11!1!onE! Oh noes! U can't handle the Frist Amendment which our fourfathers died for then u don't deserve to be American! Ur just upset no one wants to buy ur stuff in the marketplace.

The marketplace is for all of us and secures our liberty. U and ur jackbooted thugs will come 4 us then we'll be ready. LOL. It all starts with academic talk like the 1st Amendment's no good NEmore. Then the opression beginz.

alias: dood!

MGA,

I think Hand was probably the greatest judge in the 20th century. Let me know what you think when you read more than one of his opinions.

mga wrote:

That [Alcoa] is as economically illiterate an opinion as I've ever read.

I won't try to defend Alcoa (because I don't remember ever reading it), but before you knock Hand's economic creds, read United States v. Carroll Towing Co., 159 F.2d 169 (2d. Cir. 1947):

"Since there are occasions when every vessel will break from her moorings, and since, if she does, she becomes a menace to those about her; the owner’s duty, as in other similar situations, to provide against resulting injuries is a function of three variables: (1) The probability that she will break away; (2) the gravity of the resulting injury, if she does; (3) the burden of adequate precautions. Possibly it serves to bring this notion into relief to state it in algebraic terms: if the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B; liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by P: i.e., whether B < PL."

BGates:

Your plaint is 346 words long. Out of curiousity, how long would it have been if you hadn't been 'silenced'? And would it have had paragraphs?

It's starting to get to the point where I can't tell which comments are satire.

Learned Hand had a great name for a judge.

Yes, he did, but not as great a name for a judge I think as had Minor Wisdom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Learned Hand was referred to by some as the Tenth Justice in recognition of his legal mind, but imagine Justice Minor Wisdom, no matter how brilliant a jurist he might have been.

Oh, and I recently read a Canadian case that was really messed up because the judge who decided it went off with logically indefensible dicta. That was Judge Twaddle. (And no, he wasn't one of Dickens' characters.

neurodoc: Wasn't poor Learned regularly cuckolded under his own roof for many years? Or am I thinking of some other renowned jurist? (Yeah, irrelevant, unless it somehow affected his outlook on life.)

In flame wars, NOTHING is irrelevant.

ORRIN: Excellent. But can you now compose "SoL" in the form of an IM message?

I'll get the ball rolling:

NYHandy-Man72:

Liber-T? :-S IANAL (SCNR! ;-P )!!!!!
AFAICS Liber-T noze not all GMTA.
Whos spirit? STFW!

"Wasn't poor Learned regularly cuckolded under his own roof for many years? "

That's the only way to do it. Otherwise, a perfect stranger might barge in and find them.

Orin, I notice you haven't even tried to defend Alcoa.

As far as I know, I have never heard of this opinion and have never read it; it would be weird to try to defend it without knowing what there is to defend or not defend.