Edward Snowden Appears at Flagship TED

Lessons from the fall of Thunderf00t

Once upon a time there was a young man named Phil Mason. Using  the pseudonym Thunderf00t, Phil became famous on the interwebs by making a series of  youtube videos he dubbed "Why people laugh at creationists." Over and over he pleased his audience, pointing out the absurdly backward logic adopted by young-earth creationists. His audience watched in awe as he pwned one crazy zealot after another. One of the my favorites was his  refutation of Ray Comfort and his assertion that the banana is proof that god designed all living things in their current form and plopped them on earth's surface around six thousand years ago. Thunderf00t made many a video where he was the hero and his vanquished enemies were exposed as utter slime-balls. The Westerboro baptists, Ray Comfort, and VenomFangX being some of the most egregious creationists he refuted over the years.

But making yourself look good when pitted against idiots is an easy task I suppose. It is much more difficult to convince someone who you mostly agree with about some subtle point you happen to differ in opinion over.  As Thunderf00t and his droves of fans made their way to a new internet venue, Free Thought Blogs (FtB), things got a bit hairy. Phil Mason decided to test his boundaries in this new internet-hood right off the bat. Keep in mind, he was invited to this forum in an attempt to include more video participation at the FtB network.  He came in at the same time as other famous free-thinking rationalist video-bloggers like Cristina Rad.

Phil decided to make his debut on FtB by taking serious swings at some prominent feminist bloggers, namely the founder of the Skepchick network - Rebecca Watson. Phil accused Rebecca of causing unnecessary rifts in the skeptical community by shouting "Rape" at conferences without warrant in his opinion (Google 'elevatorgate'). Less than a week after publishing his first few blog posts at FtB Thunderf00t was stripped of his blogging privileges there and banned from the network.

Edit: Ian Watson kindly points out in the comments that Phil is not banned from commenting at FtB just writing a blog there.

I understand why the FtB leaders (namely PZ Myers) gave Phil the axe almost immediately. FtB is turning out to be a Juggernaut in the identity-politics coalescing around the freethinking, humanist, atheism+ community. Thunderf00t is free to keep on making you-tube videos and writing at whatever internet venue he creates, but the leaders at FtB decided they did not want him as a front-man on their network. I get it, and I do not see this as a violation of his freedom of speech or press or whatever. We are all allowed to choose our associates especially on the internet. We can choose to ignore whoever we want. The bigger your tribe the harsher the effects of a public shunning. 

Now, I’d like to explain why I see the demise of T-f00t on FtB as a good thing even though I am a staunch advocate of free speech. What are we (free-thinkers) fighting for? The big issues for me are the anti-vaccination movement, any kind of faith healers, homeopathic quackery, religiously induced bigotry and a slew of other social justice and environmental issues. I have witnessed self-proclaimed hardcore feminists also argue against vaccination and talk about how western medicine is "patriarchal" and how they need to fight it tooth-and-nail. Please do not get me wrong, I am not saying all feminists do this, just a vocal sub-group. As a white, able-bodied male in my late twenties it is nearly impossible to even start a conversation with a person in this camp because I am written-off before I open my mouth. So, rather than having a front-man on FtB loudly defending his rights to be a bit sleezy at skeptic conferences I’d much rather have strong feminists like Rebecca Watson and Jen McCreight who also speak out against anti-vaxers and other charlatans front and center on the most prominent free-thinking forum in the English speaking world. 

The biggest lesson I take from the fall of Thunderf00t is “Choose your battles wisely.”

Pussy Riot takes down Putin

I would love to read that headline in the coming weeks.

A Russian punk-rock band named Pussy Riot has been sentenced to two years at a penal colony.  The trio of women were convicted of hooliganism after performing their music at an orthodox cathedral wearing masks. 

Their conviction is resonating with people across the globe who hold human rights above the power of governments. Their lyrics are strongly femisist and highly critical of Vladamir Putin and his lingering control of the country.

They cry out to expose the fascism that accompanies an internally rotten government backed by religious institutions.  As life imitating art they are now prisoners in in the very chains they sing to break.

"The phantom of liberty is in heaven" - one line reads from their new single.

Below is an excerpt from  Miriam Elder's article appearing in the Guardian.

The three women were arrested in March after performing an anti-Putin "punk prayer" inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The case against them is seen as serving two functions: a warning to other dissidents, and an appeal to Putin's conservative base. Russia's growing campaign against gay rights is seen as a part of that effort, and on Friday Moscow's main court upheld a 100-year ban on gay pride rallies.

In the spirit of Thomas Paine join with me in reading the story of Pussy Riot as it unfolds and calling on the Russian Government to stop being such ass-holes.    

Incidentally, Chess-master turned politician Gary Kasparov was arrested outside the court for protesting when the verdict against Pussy Riot was announced. Crazy.

Read the lyrics to one of their songs below and see a video the Guardian so kindly put together.

Punk-Prayer "Virgin Mary, Put Putin Away"

(choir)

Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away

Рut Putin away, put Putin away

(end chorus) ...

Black robe, golden epaulettes

All parishioners crawl to bow

The phantom of liberty is in heaven

Gay-pride sent to Siberia in chains

The head of the KGB, their chief saint,

Leads protesters to prison under escort

In order not to offend His Holiness

Women must give birth and love

Shit, shit, the Lord's shit!

Shit, shit, the Lord's shit!

(Chorus)

Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist

Become a feminist, become a feminist

(end chorus)

The Church’s praise of rotten dictators

The cross-bearer procession of black limousines

A teacher-preacher will meet you at school

Go to class - bring him money!

Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin

Bitch, better believe in God instead

The belt of the Virgin can’t replace mass-meetings

Mary, Mother of God, is with us in protest!

(Chorus)

Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away

Рut Putin away, put Putin away

(end chorus)

We were anonymous

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What is the World Science Festival?

MISSION OF THE WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL 

To cultivate and sustain a general public informed by the content of science, inspired by its wonder, convinced of its value, and prepared to engage with its implications for the future. The World Science Festival takes science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theaters, museums, and public halls of New York City, making the esoteric understandable and the familiar fascinating. 

So said my volunteer handbook last year anyway. I am excited to be going back this week for a third consecutive year of blogging the World Science Festival. Please have a look at the event list and help me decide where to focus my attention while on Manhattan. My love affair with this smörgåsbord of science continues to mature. From my first year of volunteering where I darted back and forth over the island, via bus, subway, or taxi carrying VIP packages to festival speakers, to last year's adventure blogging about the nature of uncertainty, the Moth Story-telling series at the Player's Club, and the troubled history of portrait two chemists. The ubiquity of the maestro overseeing it all - Brian Greene - like a symphony conductor with an entire city as his stage, has been a perpetual pleasure to observe. I have no doubt that this year will be filled with as many new connections, dialogues, and overall syntheses as year's past.

Bonus! This year I will be there for the famed Manhattanhenge! Score :)

Daniel Ellsberg on Wikileaks

Free Speech: South Park Censored

This story has a special place in my heart as it echoes the origin story of Tom Paine's Ghost. Since Comedy Central will be bleeping it out let me reiterate Jon's eloquent language. "To anyone who is threatening death in the name of religion or politics... GO FUCK YOURSELF"

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Speaking of vulgarity

A good friend of mine lamented today about the decline of journalism as he took offense to the use of the phrase "getting shafted" in this Star-Telegram headline. Though I think it unprofessional I also see a kind of merit in using it for dramatic effect. Though I can see it could be argued that this particular phrase pangs of misogyny, in general I think it safe to say people get too uptight about vulgarity in print or any other media for that matter. This brings us to a controversial film - Blazing Saddles. Perhaps knowing that my parents' first date was to see this film can explain my fascination with it. Can you imagine?!?! But when I saw this in the NYT movie critics corner I thought of my friend and how oversensitivity can sometimes have a chilling affect on the issues that need to be talked about the most!  The concept of a lampoon is too frequently lost in translation.

Great Conversation

This past May as I sat in the audience at the Unity Church in Boulder, Colorado listening to Michael Pollan speak about food and the negative global impacts of cheap food for Americans I could not help but think him a bit pretentious. I do have incredible respect for his cause and his scholarly work in clearly explaining the whole story when it comes to the American food web, but asking cash-strapped regular folks to spend more on food pangs of self-righteousness.

The conversation that follows (below) provides a contrasting opinion to Pollan's but I do have to say Charlotte Allen sounds a bit too far out on the opposite slant. Her argument that the environmental problems associated with products made in China are China's problem is isolationist, selfish, and flat out juvenile. Geographical separation does not mean that our global resources/responsibilities are not shared.

Still, this conversation is one I find myself having with my own organic-food-loving friends. Right here in Fort Collins this very evening our local food co-op is having a community meeting to decide whether or not to buy into a national food co-op in order to get better prices on bulk organic products. Are we selling out to save a buck when we should be thinking about the farmers next door just scraping by as it is? In a population whose percentage of church-goers is dwindling (which I have no problem with) we have to ask ourselves as humanists where should we put our tiny bit of extra income if we have any at all that is. A convincing argument could be made to keep it as local as possible. How do we do that most effectively?

Freedom of expression: gene expression that is

By Kristopher Hite

Life is written in a language of chemical sentences. In 2006 a group of researchers began the process of engineering new letters to be incorporated into the genetic alphabet. The naturally occurring genetic alphabet is made up of 20 chemical letters (amino acids). These letters are arranged in the correct order by molecular machines, called ribosomes, into words that make sense (proteins). There are words of all sizes that perform key functions in all organisms, from two letter hormones to the epic 26,000 lettered titan titin muscle protein.

Each of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids is known by the translating machinery to correspond to a sequence of three specific nucleotide bases (codon). Because there are four nucleotide bases and they come together in groups of three (4x4x4 = 64) there are 64 different combinations of these base pairs. Because there are only 20 naturally occurring amino acids and 64 ways to code for them that leaves 44 options left open to code for other things.

Nature uses most of these extra codons as redundant codes for the same amino acid so some letters will have 2-6 different codes all calling for the same letter. But there are some of these extra codons that are nonsensical and do nothing apparently useful. What this research group did was take advantage of these extra three letter codons and engineered a special translator molecule known as transfer RNA or tRNA that they attached to new unnatural letters - (man made amino acids).

The mind blowing novelty of this expanded genetic alphabet is only now being realized for practical purposes. With new man-made letters within nature's alphabet of life researchers are taking this patented technology and using it to create Frankenstein proteins with diverse and useful features like hemoglobin mimicry and in-cell localization. This process will be at the heart of synthetic biology.

The question stands... Is a patent for an unnatural letter allowed? Apparently it is, according to the US government's patent office. But does that mean that I could invent new letters for the English alphabet and patent them to make a profit if others eventually use them? How do you think the ethics surrounding this technology will be considered when the future of human gene patents is decided?




Xie, J., & Schultz, P. (2006). A chemical toolkit for proteins — an expanded genetic code Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 7 (10), 775-782 DOI: 10.1038/nrm2005

Note: I have posted these thoughts before but I thought the topic relevant to current discussions stemming from last weeks issue of Nature. Also, TPG has experienced a large increase in its viewing audience since last I mused on this topic.

The Four Horseman

OK, which one of these guys came up with that name? Next they'll be "the four horsemen - men in tights"

Anyway, I couldn't help posting this mainly because of two new YouTube features - one - the colored border and - two - the HD button - you can watch it in high definition! Vimeo is cool but I knew YouTube wouldn't be that far behind.

Within the first two minutes of this video I was reminded that the UN is considering a resolution banning blasphemy. Talk about the religious folks playing the "hurt feelings card." Now it will be illegal in the eyes of the UN to question any religion's authority anywhere in the world.

Freedom to Write in Stone

USA Today has announced that humanists are happy about the recent supreme court decision regarding free speech. I consider myself a humanist yet I am not so happy about it.

The supreme court in essence ruled that a city government can decide which religious monuments to allow in public places. The issue at the center of this case began when a small religious group in Pleasant Grove, Utah known as the Summum church requested that the city display a three foot granite slab outlining its core principles, the "Seven Aphorisms" next to a monument listing the Ten Commandments that has stood on this public park since it was donated by eagle scouts in 1971. I have posted about this case before and you can find all the quarks surrounding this religion described in detail here.

The problem with the supreme court decision is that it allows city governments to choose which religions are allowed to mark up public places. In my mind when one religion is allowed to display their beliefs carved in stone then that automatically makes the surrounding space a public forum and therefore any person or peaceably assembled group of people have the right to place their words in that public forum as well.

As I said before...

"In the case of the Summon religion and their granite slab I feel like the only fair thing to do is tell the city of Pleasant Grove to either remove all religious writings from the public land or allow those tasteful and aesthetically pleasing views of other religions to be erected as monuments of equal size and equal real estate value. The city still has the right to refuse in this instance but has to be an equal opportunity censor."

What do you think?

Information Revolution

The following video is found on I want my rocky.com. This web site is dedicated to preserving the Rocky Mountain News, a paper that's been a Denver staple for 150 years and is on the verge of collapse.



The speed of information flow has increased in such an exponential fashion over the past three decades that I do not know what to tell people who make their living pressing ink to paper. It comes down to the ink and paper infrastructure rapidly going extinct. Like the fossil fuel infrastructure this arcane system will go the way of the dodo eventually. This does not mean the end of journalism however. With droves of citizen reporters we are entering an age of unprecedented interconnectedness. In the process we are tearing down the fiscal walls that were so long maintained by the information gatekeepers. The fear is that the quality of reporting will plummet without full time people devoted to investigating newsworthy stories. This is understandable, but this shift to people-powered media is the final verdict on over 50 years of media giants squandering their massive public exposure on cheap advertising and dumbed-down content. Along with print journalism, broadcast journalists are also facing the selective bottleneck of transition. But from the ashes of the fallen newspapers a gleaning meritocracy may rise, where credit will be given only where it is due and consciousness is raised at the speed of light.

As we collectively move beyond the age of corporate media may we heed the words of Edward R. Murrow and prevent a relapse of his already fulfilled prophecy told 51 years ago.



P.S. As a consequence of writing this piece I happened to stumble on this clip of young Marlon Brando playing the conga drums during and interview with Edward R. Murrow. No wonder McCarthy called these guys commies. More power to 'em.

Thomas Paine on The Writer's Almanac.

On the 233rd anniversary of the publication of Common Sense, Thomas Paine's famous pamphlet is commemorated by Garrison Keillor on The Writer's Almanac. This pamphlet explained the reasons the American colonies should declare their independence from Britain and was originally published anonymously. It sold roughly 500,000 copies in its first year. Thomas Paine did not profit from the sale of his work and donated all the proceeds to provisioning the continental army thus illustrating the old adage - the pen is mightier...

Burned Iraq War Vet Makes Cameo on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve

History Deciding.

Plato wrote - "the penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves." The remorse I feel in having spent the last eight years under the tyranny of a hereditary ruler in a country founded on the abolishment of monarchy ignites the flame of revolution buried deep within my genome.

If all the lamentations from the past eight years regarding President George W. Bush were collected into a singular sonic boom of public outcry, it would pail in comparison to the echoing legacy of shame he leaves festering all over our planet. Indeed, actions (and by the same reasoning - inactions) speak louder than words. All the strong words that have been flung his way in recent history are but whispers when compared to the resounding emotion that comes from witnessing consequence first hand.

Moments into the new year, during the broadcast of Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve on ABC, a certain scene resonated and has been smoldering in my mind ever since. The cameras had turned to American Idol star Kellie Pickler, where she was surrounded by three Iraq war veterans celebrating the new year in Times Square. The man in the center was staring into the camera intensely through the skin of his face pulled taught around his cheek bones by severe third degree burns. He raised his hand and cheered at the camera, while Ms. Pickler hurried to step between him and the camera to "shield" the American public from the manifestations and real consequences of war. George W. Bush has asked that history decide if his presidency was bad or good, but someone forgot to send him the memo - nowadays history is written in real time.

A Microcosm of Communism in China

A Peace Corps volunteer in Guizhou (贵州), China shares his story of a first hand encounter with the Chinese government and its control over the press. Specifically, Dustin Ooley describes the government manipulating water supply to the school where he works in a blog post entitled Water Monopoly! (or Where is Teddy Roosevelt When People Need Him?). Particularly pertinent to TPG is the role that the reporter played, or in fact did not play in this scene. A resounding illustration of the functional role of an unfettered press in a democracy.

Cheers to Dustin for the composition and Phil for the heads up.

The culture wars hinge on reinforcing stereotypes. One popular stereotype is that liberals are communists, socialists, marxists, and what have you. Well, my friends, I would consider myself a liberal thinker but this story scares me. The issues that unify us will help end the culture wars and the most paramount of these issues is outlined in the first amendment. Liberty and justice for all requires free speech and a free press whether you are liberal or conservative.

Igniting Passion for Free Press, Advocacy and Activism.

Last September the Colorado State University school newspaper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian, ran an editorial with a heading that garnered immediate national attention. Ultimately, the editorial heading resulted in many citizens calling for the editor-in-chief of the Collegian to resign and others signing a petition urging that the editor-in-chief be fired. In the spirit of advocacy and activism, I would like to reference you to a blog account of Kristopher Hite's thoughts on his experience with this situation.

The photo of Kristopher Hite shown above, engaging in debate with the college republicans student group, appeared in the Rocky Mountain News on September 27, 2007 with a story entitled "300 at CSU urge firing of editor."  It is from this experience that our blog, Tom Paine's Ghost, would be born.

Free Press at Colorado State University

Prologue: I know this is a long post with a lot of possibly unnecessary details, but I am sick of the media spin that happens in mainstream media and has been happening right in front of my eyes. So, here are all the facts, take from them what you will.

This story begins on Friday September 21, 2007. The Day began at 12:00 AM when the 7 member editorial board of the Rocky Mountain Collegian (The student newspaper at Colorado State University) approved and printed a four word editorial that received instant national media attention. It read - Taser this... F___ BUSH. Except the f word was spelled out. This was not on the front page, but on page four, the Op/Ed page, in large font ( I just measured it.. the font used has letters 4 cm tall and 2.5 cm wide). The editorial stated underneath the large lettering that "this column represents the views of the collegian's editorial board." The front page of that issue of the Collegian had the headline FREE SPEECH LIMITS. I took this to mean that the issue would be a discussion of exactly that. The use of the profane word sparked immediate national media attention. Michael Moore put a censored photo of the editorial on his website, and camera crews headed for Fort Collins, Colorado.

When I go into the lab in the morning I usually pick up a copy of the Collegian as I did on that Friday. After showing my colleagues, they thought "well, that's immature" and didn't really give it another thought. I watched the media coverage of all of this with curiosity at first, and then I decided to get involved. On Saturday the 22nd CNN aired a video clip online and on television which had the title CSU students split over controversial editorial, or something to that effect. This piece included four interviews with CSU students. Two interviews where the interviewee thought the editor in chief should resign and two in which the interviewees stated they supported the editorial boards right to speak their minds.



I thought that this was a fair interview but I continued to watch the media coverage. This next bit is what motivated me to get involved.

The college republicans, a chartered student organization on campus, announced on Sunday the 23rd that they would have a booth on the student plaza from 10:00 AM until 3 PM where they would collect signatures on a petition calling for J. David McSwane's resignation. The college Republicans announced this to the local news media and were interviewed on Sunday announcing their intentions to hold this public petition. I did not hear about this public petition until I was at home Monday eating lunch and reading the Collegian's website. As soon as I heard about this I rode my bike to the student center to engage the republicans in a conversation. This conversation lasted for about 45 minutes from about 1:15 until 2:00 Monday. While discussing with them their rationale for calling for his resignation I was photographed by The Rocky Mountain News and subsequently interviewed. My pictured appeared the next day, Tuesday, on page 8 of the Rocky Mountain News accompanying an article titled "300 at CSU urge firing of editor." I am pictured here having a "heated debate" with the college republicans. During my conversation with the 9+ people manning the booth on Monday I asked them how I could set up my own booth to collect signatures supporting J. David McSwane and the entire editorial board and their right to free speech and free press as guaranteed under amendment 1 of the U.S. Constitution. They said it was easy and all I needed to do was contact the EPO (events planning organization) at CSU and get a chartered student group or department to call in a reservation for me. So even though I'm not affiliated with the republican or the democratic party I started calling.

I thought that the logical place to start calling was the "Young Democrats." I got a contact number from the CSU website but the problem was that this was an out-dated number and I ended up calling the president of the young democrats from last year. her name is Nicole and she did want to help me so she gave me the contact information for the current president and vice president. After calling, and sending e-mails to both I received no reply. I also wrote e-mails to the "allied students for peace" and a group with the word zen in their title to see if someone would step up and sponsor a booth for me. I did all this with no luck. I don't know if they just didn't get my messages or they did not want to involve their group with the controversy. So I started calling individual professors to see if I could get a department to reserve space on the plaza for me. I contacted a few who were willing but could not get their department to agree in that short a time frame. The one professor that was most willing to help me was Pamela Jackson of the journalism department. After many failed attempts to get a booth set up I called the EPO back once again and asked them if it was OK that I, as an individual, go to the plaza and and ask people to sign a petition. They said "oh yes that is perfectly fine" as long as you don't have any "equipment" - meaning a table, tent, chairs or any amplification. So with this information I wrote out a petition which I will quote here verbatim.

This petition is in support of Rocky Mountain Collegian Editor in chief J. David McSwane, and the freedom of the press, guaranteed to all U.S. citizens in the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.Neither J. David McSwane, nor any other member of their editorial board should be penalized by any governing body for their editorial published Friday September 21st 2007.

Amendment I: 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.

I printed out about 30 pages and went to the plaza at my lunch hour on Tuesday. I did not have any signs at this point It was just me a pen and a clipboard. I was hesitant to approach people at first and I only collected about 20 signatures on Tuesday from 12 PM until 1:30. those twenty signatures meant a lot to me though because for each one I had a few minutes of conversation about the issue with the signer. I started feeling more confident that I could get a lot of signatures by 7 PM Wednesday (when the board of student communications, aka the BSC, would have their public opinion hearing). While collecting signatures on Tuesday I noticed I was not alone in my idea to start a petition as an individual affiliated with no group. Ben Whiner is a freshman computer science major I met on the plaza on Tuesday. Our petitions were almost identical, so we decided to team up to double our potential total petition tally. I told him to meet me at this cottonwood stump that sits almost at the center of the plaza the next morning at about 10:30 AM.

I want to take a second here to tell you about the national media coverage at this point. I talked about CNN having an even-handed video piece that aired Saturday the 22nd. Well, since the college republicans had collected over 300 signatures on Monday calling for J. David mcSwane to resign, CNN decided to run another story on Tuesday the 25th which had the title which read something like "CSU students call for editors resignation." This completely shocked me and made me sick that a puny 300 signatures gathered on a campus of well over 20,000 students had come to mean that the entire student body was calling for him to resign. This really lit a fire under me. So Tuesday night I went to the local radio station on my bike (KRFC) and asked them how I could set up an interview tomorrow to inform the community of what exactly was going on on campus. The woman at the office told me to call the station between 7-7:30 AM the next morning and ask for David Peterson the news director. I did this and we set up an interview where he brought a tape recorder to the student plaza meeting me there at 11:00 AM Saturday. After meeting Ben and getting some signatures between 10:30 and 11 I conducted my interview with David Peterson. I did not get to hear whether it aired or not because I spent the rest of the day gaining signatures on the petition I wrote out above. Between 11-1 on Wednesday Ben and I had attracted an entourage of people who not only wanted to sign the petition but wanted to help spread the word about free speech and free press. When I went home to grab a quick lunch my roommate and I both counted the signatures independently. we agreed that at that point the tally was 435. When I returned to the plaza the group had grown and we totaled the signatures gained at 3:30 at this point the count was at 734. this is the number that appeared in the rocky mountain news article released online last night (Wednesday night) entitled Group of CSU students rallies around embattled editor. as classes ended that day we did not continue to get the volume of signatures we had been getting all day but they were still being added. Throughout the day our group had been telling people to go to C101 Plant sciences for the BSC hearing at 7:00 PM that night. I showed up to the hearing at about 6:15. Ben had saved me a seat close to the front. With our petition in hand we prepared for the hearing. I had printed off a copy of the BSC by-laws before heading to hearing.

A large portion of the hearing was captured on tape by independent media outlet InTheoryTV. The cameraman ran out of battery as I was speaking.



The hearing began promptly at 7 and the board began by asking questions of J. David McSwane himself. Then there was a period for public comment in which speakers that signed up could share their opinion on weather or not J. David McSwane should be fired or not. We all had to sign up ahead of time. If you apposed the editor you signed up on a sheet of gray paper, if you supported you signed up on a green sheet. I signed up on the green. everyone who signed up was given a chance to speak. 19 signed up to speak in support of McSwane while 12 signed up to oppose him. All the major news companies had large cameras rolling in the front left side of the room. each person got 3 minutes to speak. However, after a man from the community said the N word about Barack Obama. all the major news crews packed up their cameras. The man pictured in this article printed in the Rocky Mountain News today (titled Editor's fate in the hands of CSU panel) is the person who used the N word in reference to Barack Obama. (which I found extremely offensive as I feel that that goes into a related but wholly different issue of hate speech). Anyway after his talk about 3 more people talked and then it was my turn. I had been thinking about what I wanted to say all day. I decided to keep it short and to the point. There were three specific points I wanted to make. First: after all the toil of getting nearly 800 signatures to support the editorial board and their first amendment rights I thought that should be the first order of business. The first thing I said was "I have in my had a petition that supports J. David McSwane, and the entire editorial board, and their right to exercise their first amendment right." I said (to be conservative and not give an over-estimate) that there were over 700 signatures on the petition (if you count those signatures that were gained from the people outside the hearing which Isaac Burbank (a friend of Dave McSwane's) brought to me later we had actually over 800 names on our petition. I submitted this petition to the board because I thought they would enjoy reading the comments. After that was handed in I made my second point which was to read to the board excerpts from their own bylaws which demonstrate that J. David McSwane was within his rights as editor in chief to use the four letter word. I will quote these excerpts here.

29 PROFANE, VULGAR WORDS, EXPLICIT SEXUAL LANGUAGEAlthough the intended primary audience of the Collegian is adults, the newspaper is widely circulated on- and off-campus and is available to minors (as are Student Media television programs). Even though profane and vulgar words are part of everyday conversation, they are not to be used in news accounts or letters to the editor unless they are considered by the editor-in-chief to be essential to readers' understanding of the situation. Use of words viewed as vulgar and profane also should not overshadow other, more important facts of the story. Profane and vulgar words are not acceptable for opinion writing. Though they may be vulgar or profane, individual words are not obscene. Explicit language -- but not vulgar, street language -- describing sexual activities and human body parts and functions should be used for accurate reporting of health stories and, in a limited way, for sexual crime stories.

This comes from page 17 of the BSC's bylaws at CSU. I specifically addressed this point to the woman named Jaime (dressed in a reddish purple blouse, I don't recall her last name). I addressed her because I heard her say in her initial questions to David (I'm paraphrasing here) "you knew that profanity was prohibited under the BSC bylaws, so why did you choose to run the editorial and ignore that." It clearly states in the bylaws that the editor has the choice to use profane language if the editor-in-chief deems it essential to readers' understanding of the situation. The second point I made regarding the bylaws was that there are things flat out prohibited from appearing in the Collegian and those include things considered to be "obscene as to a minor." These prohibitions are listed on page 5-6 of the bylaws. For the third point I wanted to talk about all the adjectives that had been used during the hearing to describe the F-word. "Profane, vulgar, sophomoric, these are all words that describe the F-word and I would agree with that assessment. Let's not forget that in June 2004 Vice President Dick Cheney directed the F word at a senator on the senate floor." This next bit I was encouraged to dig up after I had read the day before a conservative blogger who thought the Cheney F word usage was justified because it was off the cuff and not intended to be in print. So I looked for an instance where the President himself had used the F work in print. It was not hard to find an example. During an interview in 1999 while still governor of Texas George W. Bush was quoted in print saying the F- word at least three times by Tucker Carlson (Mr. Bow Tie himself) for TALK magazine. this appeared in the September issue 1999, p. 106. So I finished my speech by saying that I do not believe that an editor of a college newspaper should be held to any higher standards than the President of the United States of America.

I was sick of hearing everyone talk about money last night. When is our country going to start churning out well informed, alert citizenry, that care about some basic core values that transcend country, race, or religion, rather than a bunch of "good business people."

The last thing I want to say here is I have been inspired to start talking openly about my opposition to the war in Iraq recently because my best friend, since we were 3 years old, is stationed at Camp Speicher in Northern Iraq right now. He will be there for the next 14 months. Anyone who tells me to be quiet and wait until the election of 2008, so I can voice my opinion at the ballot box, I say "no I will not be quiet." Everyday my best friend spends in that country is another day he risks his life to make the oil industry more wealthy. It is unacceptable to me that I should stand by and watch as the leaders of our country do what they please with our military might without listening to the calls of the citizenry. Please heed the words of a great President.

"We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together"

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Peace
Kristopher Hite