“The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum.”

I don't know that there is such a first principle but, if the sentiment is anywhere near accurate, and I believe it is, what does that say about the U.S.? To merely scratch the surface, only atheistic forms of liberal/conservative, democratic/republican, socialist/fascist rhetoric is used or even aloud in political or publicly scholastic forums. The events of history and the vocabulary of freedom concerning liberty have been banned from public education thus trammeling any flow of words on the subject.

A great truth spoken by one who knows and understands the meaning of a free society. Now if we could only divorce news media from the corporations that use them for bottom line profit---that means making it illegal for any news medium to be allied with any other business---we might begin to learn what goes into the making of a free society.

Spoken like a true socialist and espouser of democracy. The first principle of a free society is that a person’s wealth is his own and neither the government’s nor another citizen has a claim on it. The freedom to whine about the government stealing it is not at all helpful unless you have the power to do something about it. Second Amendment anyone.

Wow! Helorat...gotta love what you said. Ditto. Hmmm...guess that kinda knock's Algore's claim that the debate over global warming is over and his desire to close it huh? Then again...we must all be politically correct shoudn't we?

Whenever a "liberal" declares a debate is over, that simply means they can't refute the facts. It also means it won't be long before they try to silence the opposition by any means necessary.

True, but what good is free speech without the wisdom to discern truth from BS? Free speech is a liberal stronghold -- requiring the conservative to be resolute in defending Liberty despite the tunes of the pied piper.