more bong hits

The Bong Hits for Jesus is an example of performative politics. That is, the substance of the slogan, that one should get tight on Jesus' behalf is absurd. The school Principle how sees a "message that encourages drug use" is either tragically earnest or misguided. Probably both. The political statement is about free speech, not about religion or drugs.

Bong Hits 4 Jesus

The Supreme Court today hears arguments in a case about a teenager's right to annoy his principal by displaying a banner saying: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." The youth was suspended, thus starting a five-year free-speech battle. The dispute between Joseph Frederick, who in 2002 was a high school senior, and principal Deborah Morse has become an important test of the limits on the free speech rights of students.

The Court famously ruled 40 years ago that students do not leave their First Amendment Right behind when they enter school. Schools do, however, have a legitimate interest in maintaining an educational environment and they are allowed to define the educational purposes of the school.

The Bush administration, backing Morse, wants the court to adopt a broad rule that could essentially give public schools the right to clamp down on any speech with which it disagrees. Principal Morse suffers from having no sense of humor, but are there limits to free speech in the public schools? For instance, should schools be allowed to limit religious proselytizing for the sake of the educational environment? Would this case be different if a student held up a sign reading "Jesus Died 4 U"? What are the dangers of too much free expression in schools?

pardon me

In his column in today's paper, Frank Rich essentially agrees with my position that Scooter Libby will certainly be pardoned sometime after election day 2008. There is no reason to think that President Bush will err on the side of the Rule of Law thereby allowing Libby to serve his debt to society. But the Rule of Law is the citizenry's protection against the capriciousness of rulers. Far too often President Bush has used Fear itself to coerce the result he desires instead of allowing the processes of the democracy. The Republic is ill served when leaders the law into their own hands--a pardon is nothing if not vigilantism. Although Libby's crime was against the Institution of the Judiciary, the subtext is deeply political. The President will give Libby a get-out-jail card because political calculations are more important to him than upholding the principles of due process and the rule of law. That the President will wait until December 2008 to pardon merely Libby betrays the White House lack of principle.

Jean Baudrillard dies

The French critic and provocateur Jean Baudrillard, whose theories about consumer culture and the manufactured nature of reality were intensely discussed both in rarefied philosophical circles and in blockbuster movies like “The Matrix,” died yesterday in Paris. He was 77.

New York Times article

An Inconvenient Truth

When asked whether he would watch "An Inconvenient Truth" President Bush said he had no intention to do so because there was a "fundamental debate" about whether global warming was "manmade or natural." It was a willfully ignorant statement in contradiction of scientific consensus. Now the White says, "President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem." The White House revisionism is a reaction to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which said that there is a 90 percent certainty that greenhouse gases are heating up the planet.

We should have started years ago working to stabilize carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, but it is certainly progress to have the Administration's head out of the sand. The difficulty is now with climate-change legislation. Only toothless bills have much of a chance getting past a republican filibuster in the Senate. The best bill right now is sponsored by McCain, Lieberman, and Obama. It has no chance of passing, but Congress should embrace truly meaningful action and force a White House to veto or a Senate filibuster as a way to raise public awareness for 2008 elections.