Free speech?
For what may be the first time in my stupid little life, I managed to hit upon a highly topical zeitgeist. Yesterday I wrote about the ludicrousness of America's massively defective concept of "Free speech" that it is desperately trying to push around the world.
And then the news broke. Jimmy Kimmel has been kicked off the air.
I, actually, have no idea who Kimmel is. I think he is one of those late night comedian/chatshow hosts like David Letterman or Conan O'Brien. But, whatever, those sorts of programmes usually begin with a monologue to camera riffing on whatever is topical. Kimmel suggested that maybe the MAGA cultists wanted to exploit the situation with Charlie Kirk, quoted in The Guardian as saying:
"The Maga gang [is] desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it"
A little later on, just to rub salt into the wound, he asked Trump "do you want to be a dictator or just a dick?".
Let it be known that Kimmel wasn't attacking Kirk, he was calling out the way that the man's death is being turned into a "cause".
In response, the Trump-appointed FCC chair said that Kimmel had made a "concerted effort to try to lie to the American people" (as if Trump doesn't nearly every time he opens his mouth).
The TV station, being leaned on by the FCC, made a pathetic excuse, calling the comments "offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse", and pulled the programme.
People may point out that the FCC didn't intervene and that what really happened was Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group both decided to pull the programme from their networks and that didn't leave ABC much choice. What they won't point out is that both of those organisations are currently trying to find favour from the FCC for a merger (Nexstar) or repealing an ownership rule (Sinclair). So you can see that even without the FCC chief directly screaming "fire him!", it has undue influence and the entire story stinks to heaven and back.
Let me quote for you the text of the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
We'll skip over the religion part and home in on the free speech part. This does not mean that you can open your mouth and say anything you want. What it very specifically means is that you may engage in the free and public expression of opinions without censorship, interference, or restraint by the government.
If you recall how the US was founded, the pilgrims and guys with funny hats and all of that, you'll understand why freedom of religion and speech from government interference was the very first thing, before even the right to cuddle cold hard lead.
Thou shalt not permit the government to interfere...
You know, like the FCC just did, even if indirectly. Like Trump just did by his comment that maybe they ought to look into revoking the broadcast licenses of stations that don't like him. That degree of control of the media would be the final nail in the coffin of free speech and, it must be said, American democracy.
Was Kimmel's monologue distasteful? Yeah, probably. And I'm sure it ruffled more than a few feathers.
However if good taste is a measure of whether or not a person can speak freely, than Charlie Kirk would have been censored and cancelled long ago. Let me quote you two things Kirk is on record as having said:
If I'm dealing with somebody in customer service who's a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action? [January 2024]
→ personally, if there was a moronic person in customer service, regardless of gender or ethnicity, I would assume that (s)he was the only person willing to do it for the lousy pay being offered.
Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You're not in charge. [August 2025]
→ I'm not a Taylor Swift fan, but I know enough about her to have the opinion that I liked her more as the bubbly country singer; but whatever, Swift is an international superstar and I only know Kirk exists because he just got assassinated. So, yeah, I think Swift is in charge of Swift and anybody who thinks otherwise is delusional.
It goes on in much the same way, he was - not to put too fine a point on it - a racist misogynistic turd. And, yet, nobody seems to be suggesting that maybe, just maybe, going to a university to indoctrinate young people into his horrible world view might be a slightly bigger problem than a comedian on a late show mocking MAGA?
As for scoring points, Trump himself blamed "the left" before the identity of the shooter was even known, saying that comparing "wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals" is something that is "directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today".
The deputy chief of staff of the White House tweeted:
It's a real treat to see all these Liberals condemn political violence now. You called us Hitler. You called us Nazis. You called us Racists. You have blood on your hands.
Other people have called the Democrats a national terrorist organisation, with Alex Jones (the Sandy Hook denier, not the Welsh woman) saying "This is war." three times for emphasis.
Which looks to me rather like the MAGA crowd are, indeed, trying to milk this for all it is worth.
Which also means that these people care not for their own Constitution, and that the only speech that they value is their own. Any dissenting voices, particularly those calling out the bull, have to be shut down. That's not freedom, that's censorship. Just like over in China.
So, with that in mind, I would like to put out here to my European comrades, that the next time JD Vance, Trump, or Putin's Pathetic Puppet (Farage) come around talking about how we have a Stazi-like limitation on free speech in Europe, everybody tells them that they can sod off posthaste and go pontificate about this sort of thing in their own country, not in any of ours.
Oh, and note well that Elon Musk is very much in step with all of this (to the point of nearly having a bromance with Trump, but two egos that size were never going to get along for long...) and he is the guy running the social media network used by many Europeans. This, and their clear disdain for following European rules in European countries, ought to be considered a direct national security threat. We already know from Germany and his blatant support for AfD that he's willing to stick his nose in where it doesn't belong. Keep a very close eye on this or it will come and bite you in the arse. Foreign interference in our democracy is not a theory, it's something that is happening right now.
What ought to be painfully clear is that the current American Administration does not believe in rule of law, it does not uphold the Constitution, and it does not support the freedom of speech they pretend is so important.
What it believes in is strongman antics, retribution and personal vendettas, and blaming the bogeyman (immigrants, gays, Democrats...) for everything that has gone wrong.
Unfortunately, I think it is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. ☹
Gameboy Advance
I found my old Gameboy Advance. And very sadly, there was a game cartridge inserted that contained an AA battery for a rumble effect. It's a Pokemon game, actually for an older Gameboy, so I'm totally blaming mom for this. ☺
Anyway, I managed to strip the thing down and clean up a lot of the corrosion using rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush. Clearly not the recommended way of doing it!
The main casualty was the power button, that had completely corroded. I was able to find a schematic which allowed me to make an ugly solder hack using the leg of a resistor to hardwire the thing to be 'on'.
Where a slide switch once was.
At that point, the GBA powered up and displayed the logo with a little jingle. It did not, however, react to having a game cartridge installed.
Well, the slot was pretty corroded, but some gentle action with emery cloth knocked the corrosion off in order that the cartridge could be 'seen'.
The usual result was a failed read, which was visible as a corrupted logo underneath the "GAME BOY" startup logo. That usually says "Nintendo".
Corrupted data.
Once in a while, if the stars align, it'll read from the cartridge and the game will play. Everything seems to work, except my ability with games - I still suck.
Once in a while it actually worked.
Looking into the slot, it looks as if a pin is not in the right position so it's more luck than design whether or not it contacts with the game card.
It's pretty grotty, isn't it?
So I took a sewing pin and gave it a gentle nudge to unstick it from the corrosion. Unfortunately that was about all that was holding it together. The pin fell right out.
Well, bollocks, that's Not Good.
It's surely fixable. But it'll be complicated and, really, I have to wonder if I would use the thing enough to bother? I think, given the game, the last person to play it was mom and next weekend will be the sixth anniversary of her cessation of existence. Yeah, six years already. Point is, if I've not used it on over half a decade, would I miss anything continuing to not use it?
Looking back, I got them (GB and GBA) dirt cheap in 2009.
The GBA wasn't exactly bad for a small game console, but for me its major - almost critical - flaw was that the LCD wasn't backlit. There wasn't even an option like a switch on the side that would turn an LED panel on and off in order that the user could choose how to consume their batteries. Outside in the sunshine, I could play games. But inside? A lot less useful.
It's worth noting that I got a cheap little arcade console that is a Super Famicom clone with 240 knock-off games built in, and it has a backlit display. I find it hard to conceive of how Nintendo thought the GBA would be fine without such a thing.
The Great Strike!
It happened. There are plenty of pictures in the media of angry Frenchies wanting their President and all he stands for to take a long walk off a short cliff.
But here? Everybody was at work, as far as I could tell. No blockade, no nothing. Even the farmers were in the field bringing in the sunflowers (that looked like they should have been harvested weeks ago).
Maybe there were dead bodies, Holden wrecks and boiling diesels, fallen Martian tripods, and burning oil drums all around Rennes and other large cities. But out here in the Nowhere? Nothing. Life went on like the day before and like it will tomorrow.
However, given that the problem is Macron and not whoever is dumb enough to agree to be the PM, I have a sneaking suspicion that we might get a Christmas present of yet another face to shout ire at. It's almost as if Macron saw what the Tories got up to and was like "Hold my beer". Well, guess what, the Tories got kicked out. Get the hint Macron, there's the door, don't slam it on your way out, m'kay?
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| C Ferris, 20th September 2025, 13:39 |
No such thing as 'Free Speech' in my opinion. |
| Rob, 21st September 2025, 01:03 |
The LibDems have dubbed Farage a 'plastic patriot' and distributed a Lego version of him to journalists. I like this!
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd11n14zz1o |
(Felicity? Marte? Find out!)
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