What the heck is ‘vulgar and harsh’ language, anyhow? As much as I prefer language that does not use words that are considered profanities, the fact of the matter is that all language is simply made up of symbols if written, and sounds, if spoken. The only ‘vulgarity’ or ‘harshness’ is that which is formed in the mind of the reader or listener. Nothing can be ‘vulgar’ or ‘harsh’ unless the reader or listener decides it is in their own puny minds. Perhaps some courses in semantics may be in order for some of our ruling idiots.
Anyhow.. there’s more to this, obviously, and you can read Wendy Woudstra over at Everybody Knows Joe Clark Should Join The NDP.
Read it, and weep for free speech. This is just to absurd, even for Fiberal Ontario.
“If you’re writing your MPP, be polite. Or else.
The National Post today had a short article (Page A8) about Ontario resident, Jack Carleton, who was charged with having some unregistered firearms and two marijuana plants. Police probably make arrests like this every day, and it hardly seems newsworthy. Three unregistered firearms and two marijuana plants don’t exactly make Mr. Carleton a big-time drug dealer and gun smuggler.But what makes the case of Mr. Carleton interesting is why the police were in his house executing a search warrant.You see, they were there because Mr. Carleton wrote an email to Dalton McGuinty.The email, as far as I can tell from this article, did not contain a full confession. The topic was Mr. Carleton’s feelings about the Ontario Liberal’s budget. He was pissed off.And you’re probably thinking he sent McGuinty a death threat.Nope.Threat of violence? Terrorist threats?Nope. Nope.The police were investigating Mr. Carleton, and managed to obtain a search warrant for his house, because his email “contained vulgar and harsh language expressing displeasure with the recent provincial budget and its tax increases.” How dare he! That foul bastard! (Oops, would that be considered vulgar and harsh?)None of the charges Mr. Carleton is now facing have anything to do with the email. It was, as I mentioned, not threatening, and so far there’s no law against vulgarity in Ontario. Which leads me to wonder…. how did the police get a warrant to search his home? I’d be willing to bet that the judge who authorized the warrant wasn’t a Conservative.In any case, a reminder to my friend Ian and all other folks who like to write letters to politicians: try to reprove your elected officials gently, and avoid four-letter words. Politicians are a sensitive lot, and they have thugs with guns on their side.” – Wendy Woudstra