Many countries, including the United States, have constitutional law that protects free speech. In the case of the U.S., we have it in our first amendment to the constitution.

The Right To Free Speech – What It Means and What It Doesn’t

Many people are a bit misguided when it comes to what constitutes freedom of speech. Especially since it’s a right that was given to U.S. citizens via the first-ever amendment to our constitution. There is also a significant amount of case law that defines what speech is protected and what isn’t

In a nutshell, as U.S. Citizens, within certain limitations, we have the right to express ourselves without being stopped by our government.

It does not mean, that we have to subject ourselves to the thoughts and ideas of every other person.

Recently, I got a spate of whining comments from a blog reader about how bad the Biden administration was. Mostly, it was inflation and cost of food and prescriptions. But the commenter also complained that they were considered ignorant or bigoted because of their views and that all opinions should be respected. I opted not to approve these comments because I did think much of what was written was ignorant. And I didn’t want to give the person a platform here to express their ideas about this.

I was considering approving the comments. I was deciding if I really cared to argue the points in the comments. Six hours after not seeing their comments appear, they went to my old blog site (queerjoe.blogspot.com) and posted a comment on the old commenting software that tried to judge, insult and berate me for being someone that judged, insulted and berated people. Plank in your own eye much?

I couldn’t determine if the commenter was unwell mentally. So, I’m not going to make their comments public. But I thought it was a good opportunity to remind readers that this is my platform. I get to decide what appears here and what doesn’t.

Commenting Tips and Tricks

Here’s how my commenting is set up. If you’re commenting using an email address for the first time, your comment will automatically be held back until I approve it. Once I’ve approved any comment with that email address, all future comments will post automatically, unless I opt to unapprove the comment(s) at a later date.

Interestingly enough, I had approved a comment for the person noted above. Had they used their same email address, the subsequent comments would have all posted immediately. Now both e-mails are back in the status that requires approvals.

So if you ever find your comment doesn’t get posted immediately, it may be because you’ve used a new email address. I usually approve tentative comments within an hour or so.

Current Knitting

Recently I’ve been wearing a lengthwise, garter-stitch scarf that I think I knit for craft show sales a while ago. It’s been getting a lot of compliments, so I’ve decided to knit a second one in fun colorways.

I still have quite a bit of leftover remnants of sock/fingering-weight yarns. And I’m loving how this is looking so far.