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Discuss “Free speech rights don’t end where offensiveness begins”

Free speech won a rare victory last Friday when the editor-in-chief of Colorado State University’s student paper, The Rocky Mountain Collegian, was chastised but allowed to keep his job. The editor, J. David McSwane, okayed an editorial stating “Taser this, fuck Bush,” which ran in a very large font in a space the size this article takes up. The story made worldwide news as those four little words outraged and infuriated. Shocking, I know — who knew that people actually read college newspapers?

The First Amendment can use all the victories it can get; things aren’t going so well. At the end of September, the Senate condemned MoveOn.org for their “General Petraeus or General Betray Us” ad, and Congress seems on the verge of awarding...

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