The Angry Scotsman: First Amendment 101

Posted by Brian McLain on 05.04.2006

Loud mouth, alleged preachers who direct hateful protests at soldiers' funerals are bad, but legislation to shut them up are much worse.

It's that time, everyone. Put down your pencils and sit quietly with your arms folded, and behold the power of the Angry Scotsman in all his grammatically incorrect glory! We have some reader mail for you concerning the immigration article


Angry Scotsman's Mail Sack
Reader Doug McCoy had some interesting things to say about the illegal immigrant issue:

You write "...think about it your caught here illegally get deported and then try to do things the right way only to find out you have no chance due to your previous illegal entry. So you cross illegally again..." I believe you should "think about it". Your in Mexico or where ever considering illegally entering the U.S. As it stands right now 1) There is almost no physical barrier blocking your path. You would think if the U.S. wanted to keep you out there would at least be a fence. After all people's homes have DOORS/WINDOWS WITH LOCKS AND WALLS and walls/fences around their yards to keep unwanted people out. 2) So it is "illegal" to enter the U.S. without proper documents, who cares? It seems you will be forgiven and rewarded for breaking the law in America. And while your waiting on your amnesty you get to partake in all the benefits legal immigrants and American citizens enjoy without contributing anything except suppressed wages. This is because in order for you to pay taxes you will have to break another law...Identity theft...to pay those taxes.

Now consider this......as many illegal immigrants as is humanly possible are rounded up and deported with the punishment being they will NEVER qualify for even a one hour visitor's pass much less citizenship in the U.S. If they are caught here again they are simply shot after a very quick hearing to make sure they are here illegally for the second time. An impenetrable barrier is erected along the Mexico boarder. Now what do you think the potential illegal immigrant will do? I am betting they seek out and attempt every legal way to gain entry to the U.S. because the consequences of illegally entering are too high. Of course severe punishment for those who knowingly aid, abet, employ, etc. illegal immigrants will further erode their desire to come here illegally.

Offering those here illegally ANY path other than deportation will be a seriously grave mistake. For one, it worked so well last time didn't it?
Went from 100,000 a year to millions a year. Yea that was the intended effect. Secondly if you listen to the excuses being paraded about for amnesty; they only come because there is a demand for them, sending them back will split up families, they are good for the economy, etc. then I would expect every hooker currently in jail to be released and any that have charges pending should have those charges dropped. I mean they are only out there "working" because there is a demand for them, sending them to jail splits up families, making some money on their own as opposed to totally sucking off the public tit helps the economy, etc. I could go on citing how drug dealers and those in jail for simple possession were a benefit to the economy but I think you get my point.

My response to Doug was simple and to the point. I decided to spare him the long-winded response that I had given others on other topics:

Wow that seems a little harsh if you ask me. Though I do believe deportation is the answer and weakening our system is the last thing we should do there are a few points I want to mention:

(1) Yikes! Shoot to kill...not cool. I don't like the fact that our own government does it to us if we get to close to certain parts in our country, let's not give the government any more pull on the death penalty a they seem to be trigger happy as it is.

(2) A fence is a waste of money. I'm a dog owner; I know this for a fact. Unless you are going to put shock collars on all Mexican citizens, it won't work. Good fences only make good neighbors if the neighbors aren't fixated on climbing your fence to get into your yard.

(3) When we deport these illegals, why don't we educate them a bit on how they can actually get into the U.S. legally? My guess is a good chunk of these folks have little or no idea how to go through all the government red tape.

(4) Feed, clothe, and shelter is the mantra of a lot of good-hearted people. I think that goes a long way from aide and abet.

(5) I never advocated blanket amnesty. It was a nice try, but you're right, it didn't work.

Thanks for the response!

My views on immigration are simple. If you enter the country without the due process required to become a legal resident, therefore entering illegally, you are showing no respect for this country's laws, nor are you respecting its borders or sovereignty. Further it is unfair to all the other immigrants who have signed up to come to the United States and are still on the waiting list because the country is literally full. Those who enter this country illegally have human rights, as all of us do, and these natural human rights must be recognized in any situation, however they have no CIVIL rights, nor right to invoke OUR Constitution, or gain access to services provided by our government. This is not because they are second-class citizens; it is because they aren't even residents, let alone citizens. However, illegal immigration continues to be a bit of a "bread crime" type issue to me, and I see no reason to upgrade the charges to a felony, and give these people who might have been doing what is best for their family, no chance to enter the country legally later down the road. Desperation causes desperate actions. Educate people so that they might know how to enter this country legally. To those who are residents and newly sworn in citizens that still consider themselves immigrants, this is disturbing at best. Simply because you feel that removed from this country that you consider yourself a second-class citizen and far from being an American. American companies who pay less than a family wage and hire illegals are taking part in nothing more than good old fashioned slavery, and the company should be severely punished, if not have their license to operate revoked. The ACLU should be ashamed for getting their panties in a bunch over this instead of concentrating on being a watchdog for the Constitution, which, mind you, has been a worthless effort at best.

Speaking of civil liberties:

Freedom of Speech! Except…

I'm sure, by now, everyone has heard of media-whore, bigot, piece of trash, alleged Pastor Fred Phelps and his motley band of followers actually PICKETTING THE FUNERAL OF SOLDIERS. Phelp's bunch was last in my town a couple of years back protesting at a local high school because the Valedictorian was openly homosexual, and they have had a habit of picketing the funeral of openly homosexual individuals. Apparently they have gotten a bit bored with the lack of homosexuals' funerals, because they came back to town so they could picket the funeral of an old business acquaintance of mine who lost his life in the Iraq conflict. Why? Because American's aren't beating up, killing, lynching and are generally friendly to homosexuals. This has occurred at many soldiers' funerals, sadly enough, throwing taunts such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates America", but it had raised the ire of several great human beings who took matters into their own hands and actually use their motorcycles to drown out the protesters slogans. This is the greatest example of free speech that I have ever seen in my life. You have two groups, obviously of conflicting views, who are actually using their own means and resources to get their point across, however unusual, strange, or vulgar it might seem. When I heard this I was overjoyed, honestly, but then the hammer came crashing down and steam started flowing out of my ears. Recently my state, along with others, had passed a law restricting protests within ½ mile of any funeral, with consequences ranging from stiff fines to imprisonment. The question I have for my legislature is WHY?!! Things were going so well! The citizens were actually taking care of their own matters and now we have this piece of crap legislation taking up space and violating the Constitution of both state and country! It is a revolting irony that the same rights that these soldiers are dying to protect, are being stripped away to protect THEM, and this is just a slippery slope waiting to get steeper. I know I trashed the ACLU in the last subject, but they still have some good points, actually challenging one of these state laws in a effort to protect the dwindling civil liberties we still retain.
Now I can see the hate mail flowing in as I even type this, but honestly, what's next? It's already fairly indecent to protest within a square mile radius of the president, a la "free-speech" zones, and now at funerals because we can trust the American people as a whole to act respectfully toward the dead. Should we just eject any person who's questions or comments might seem "demeaning" or "inappropriate" from a public function? Who will determine what is "inappropriate"? This is the type of law that is good intentioned but actually destroys the very foundation of a republic. Whether it is a popular belief or not, political speech is PROTECTED SPEECH! The only good thing that could come of this law is a trip to the US Supreme Court to be struck down as unconstitutional and re-affirming the First Amendment rightfully, and I'd enjoy watching the whole "free-speech zone" bullshit get taken down with it.
Tell me what you think, everyone, I DARE you to challenge me on this one. A law restricting political speech within an area for the sake of protecting the feelings of another is bad law and must be struck down, PERIOD!

Super Search Words of the Day

*Author's note* The original words of the week were brought to my attention as being counter productive to intellegence and common sense by reader Brian from Illinois. I quote a bit of his email to me:


I agree that such laws are a bad idea and are just adding fuel to the fire. So, instead of challenging your opinion, I offer a solution: just ignore it. I know that ignoring such blatant hostility and stupidity is a difficult task indeed, especially considering the circumstances, but every time anyone discusses Mr. Phelps and his ilk, they are playing into the game. He wants attention and free publicity and newspapers and legislators are more than happy to oblige unfortunately.

So with this being brought to my attention, the last thing I want to do is direct people to this Phelp's crew in any way shape or form, and in essence, scoring one for the wrong side. If anybody has ever watch soccer, you will know what happened to the poor Columbian sap that did that against the U.S. I credit this weeks NEW super search words of the week to Brian. Thank you for being a proactive reader, Brian. That is the sort of thing that make a Republic strong.

The new words: First Amendment



In closing

Like the famous quote from "Ghostbusters": "Better late then never". Hopefully Easley isn't losing too much hair over my late article, but then, it's not like anybody reads it anyway. I've noticed a bunch of clones popping up around the zone too; I wonder what's up with that? That's all the excitement I have for this week, but if everyone is really good I might do something special in the near future. This is the Angry Scotsman, signing off.