Friday, March 17, 2006

Hollywood, France Squelch Free Speech

Flippin' hypocrites...first, a story from today's NY Post on how Tom Cruise forced the cancellation of an episode of South Park:

HOLLYWOOD bully Tom Cruise got Comedy Central to cancel Wednesday night's cablecast of a controversial "South Park" episode about Scientology by warning that he'd refuse to promote "Mission Impossible 3," insiders say.
Since Paramount is banking on "MI3" to rake in blockbuster profits this summer, and Paramount is owned by Viacom, which also owns Comedy Central, the tactic worked.
The "South Park" episode, "Trapped in the Closet," pokes fun at Scientology and shows Cruise, John Travolta and R. Kelly (who is not a Scientologist, but has a song called "Trapped in the Closet") literally in a closet.
The episode, which first aired last November, was set to rerun Wednesday night, but was mysteriously pulled at the last minute.
Now, hollywoodinterrupted.com reports Cruise went straight to the top - to execs at Viacom - and warned he'd boycott the promotion for "MI3" unless the "South Park" episode was pulled.
Series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been told not to discuss the matter - to avoid embarrassing Cruise as they did Isaac Hayes last week when Hayes, also a Scientologist, quit his role as the voice of the Chef character.
Hayes claimed he couldn't stand by while "South Park" made fun of religion, but Stone pointed out that Hayes had cashed plenty of checks while the show made fun of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Stone hinted that Hayes was pressed to quit by his minders in the Church of Scientology.


Now the question is whether Comedy Central will ever again air "Trapped in the Closet" and whether it will be included on the DVD of the show's ninth season

Remember - showing respect for other people's religion only extends to Islam and Scientology, not to Judiasm or Christianity. Got that straight?

Now let's look to France, where E-Nough! keeps us abreast of the latest attempts to appease the Islamists hordes:

[A] text recently submitted to the French National Assembly by a member of parliament . . . proposes an amendment to existing law, making it a crime to insult or defame a religion. It specifically mentions that no cartoons mocking religious beliefs will be tolerated. The author of the proposed law makes specific reference to the Danish cartoon controversy. . .
The Member of the parliament
explains:
The freedom of expression could in no way give the right to ridicule, to misinform or to slander religious feelings of any community or any State. Hence, the French Republic must penalize, by a proposition of law, any speech, shout, threat, document, leaflet, drawing or poster voluntarily offending the foundations of religions.

So now speech which hurts someone's feelings is about to become a crime in France. This is the liberal utopia of Western Civilization? Let France's decay be an example to America of what happens when you give the Left an opportunity to create their PC dream state...

The irony, of course, are that France and Hollywood are the two biggest screamers against Nazi Fuhrer George W. Bush and his Republican Police State. They are the only ones that should be allowed to determine what free speech is, you see?

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