The score on ‘South Park’: 1 for terrorists, 3 for free speech and 4 for wag the dog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj4LnfkdJDM

Actually it is 72 guys named Virgil waiting for him that all say "You got a purty mouth. Come on over here and let me hear you squeal like a pig!"

Thanks for that laugh. Virginians.

That kinda depends on the reason for it. I have no problem with Comedy Central using editorial control for quality like newspapers or publishers but from extortion is a different thing.

It is a lot like Toyota making sure all the features of the car work properly and excerising quality control to remove all the defects.

But it is a whole other thing to have someone come in and threaten to burn down the factory if they don't take out the radio because they don't like the songs it plays.

That is the re-education that people need about free speech that it isn't just all one side or the other because the right to free speech also includes the resposiblility to use it properly.

Why would it be alright for them to compromise the quality of their product just to bend to threats that affect their profits? Why would they give their right to put in radios to others that want control of that decision?

Take another example, if someone threatened them to take out the seatbelts or they would blow up their factories. Which are they going to choose danger to the facories or the danger to the people that drive the cars with defective safety equipment?

Does the profit they make on the lesser cost to their cars and saving their factories outweigh the lives lost in crashes?

It is not as much a free speech issue as it is a crime issue since it is illegal to try and use force to take the control of those rights from those private companies.

And then Howard Roark Laughed.

JJ...what difference does it make if you go by JJ or sokka...anyone who has used this site for any length of time knows it's you when you post, and there is something to be said for that. You created such a unique personality online that you are recognized by what you say, not who you say you are. Very few people use their real identity on sites like this anyway, if you have something to say, pick an identity, and just say it. Let the current thing go, it doesn't matter. Life is not fair, never has been, never will be.

We should not have to give up our freedoms because a certain group gets pissed off if we say something they don't like. If we continue to give in to their whims they will own us and we will only be able to say the things they say we can say. Don't you see this?

The problem is that Parker and Stone didn't realize that there would be a problem with Comedy Central, this is the first time that CC has so blatantly censored them. Had they thought CC would do this, they probably would have done as you suggest.

But it is also not extremely intelligent to let them get away with that kind of extortion either.

Which are you going to stand up for? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danegeld

As it is wisely said "That if once you have paid him the Danegeld, You never get rid of the Dane." since people that use that kind of threat never go away once you have given them the power to make policy they'll just keep on threatening more and more if you prove that making threats is an effective method

I am free and not afraid of death. I will stand with the creators of south park. Is a joke at the expense of someones faith, however misguided, ever worth death? What greater good is done by speaking of or showing the joke?

No, I would not create a joke to purposely ridicule any religion. They should all be ridiculed equally.

They all have been ridiculed equally, just some have reacted to that differently.

It is by showing that difference and that the threats are just as ridiculous that the power of the threat is diffused.

It is only by caving in to the threat that grants it to be effective

Still you don't go poking a giant in the eye and not expect a bad reaction.

A ridiculous threat is one that cannot be carried out. Threats are used very effectively everyday.

They aren't giants, they are just bullies. The fact that threats are used all the time and still work just goes to show that bullies are very widespread.

Eventually though everyone has to grow beyond them and knuckling under just delays that

Or unless your corporate profits are at stake like Viacom

The world is full of bullies and that is NOT going to be changing soon. I say print it; if that is what turns YOU on.

Not soon but evolution is a steady progress since there are less bullies than there used to be.

Apparently it is what turns ARTISTS on and has been for centuries

Compared to the Mongol Hordes yes there are a lot less. Societies have evolved so that they are more the exception than the rule. There are less now even than in the Wild West also.

Even Islam has since they are they extremists now not the majority, during the Crusades they were the majority

The news only deals with the very short term so it is not a very accurate guide for that.