In West Virginia, a fifteen year old young woman, Katie Sierra was suspended from her high school for promoting an anarchist club and for wearing t-shirts with anti-war slogans. The Circuit Court upheld the suspension, but Sierra promises she will pursue the dispute [Salon]. I don’t know that this story needs to be commented on so much as just pointed to; we cannot tolerate this kind of silencing of dissent in the name of wartime security or unity — indeed, in times of war, dissent must be guarded and held sacred more than ever, since the moral debate is no longer about laws but rather about profound moral crises, about tanks and dropping bombs, about the lives of women and men, both civilians and military. You’re damn right that anarchism and anti-war protest is a disruption — and that is precisely why we must defend to the death the right to express it.

For further reading:

• Tom Tomorrow on civil liberties in a time of crisis
• GT 2001-09-17: Fears of Domestic Fascism

If you’re a fan of retro marriage manuals — and who isn’t? — you’ll enjoy this review of the genre and its modern-day incarnations [Salon.com]

Teen crime down, but more girls are going to jail [Salon], often for no clear reason other than overt gender bias. As it turns out, young women are much more likely to be arrested than young men if they are committing public disturbance or other behavior that cops can attribute to boys being boys. The message: Shut up, girls, and be good! Go on out there and have some fun, boys.

I laughed out loud at reading the latest riposte to David Horowitz’s BS, as David Mazel tests the free speech mettle of Right-wing campus newspapers (including the University of Alabama’s own Crimson White) by submitting an ad proclaiming in bold letters that 1) abortion is not murder and 2) God is an abortionist [Salon.com]. The results?

In an April 2 article in Salon, Horowitz wrote that his own ad had been accepted by 14 of 48 papers. His 29 percent acceptance rate is certainly nothing for the left to cheer about, but it sure beats my own paltry 9 percent.

Of course, I should be clear that I don’t think Right-wing campus newspapers should have to run left-wing outsider ads any more than neutral or Left-wing campus newspapers should have to run Horowitz’s crap. But I do love a good skewering of the Right’s hypocrisy from time to time. (Oh, damn, I’m criticizing David Horowitz, but I’m not running a David Horowitz banner ad on my page! I am such a PC thug that I am censoring his free speech!)