Regardless of your political stripe, I’m sure you’ll agree that free speech and free press are vitally important to any liberal society. You might not like the things I say, but, knowing this crowd, most of you believe in my right to say them.

Andy says things about Christians and Christianity that don’t always sit well with me. Mr. Lady has political beliefs that stump me. The late Acidman said things that I thought were brutally offensive. It has never occurred to me that I should try to silence their speech with lawsuits because the law doesn’t exist to ensure that I go through life with my delicate sensibilities and fragile opinions completely unaccosted by the Godless, left-leaning, and rude-as-hell masses.

Which is good because if the law did take such a stance, I would most certainly have been sued into insolvency long before now. Every once in a while I manage to offend even myself--which takes some work.

Apparently Canada is taking a different view on free speech now, though. I’ve been watching this since Mark Steyn’s well-documented problems began and I keep expecting some grown up in Canada to stand up and put a halt the idiocy--apparently the late Mr. Buckley’s unique history-thwarting talents are in great demand up there.

For the record, a few years back I met one of the defendants (Kate from SmallDeadAnimals.com) when she came through Denver for, if memory serves, a dog show. Not only was she smart, funny, and nice, but she was far from the most offensive person at the table. In fact, she might have been the most polite person there.

Anyway, this would be a good time to put aside politics and rally around free speech and these bloggers who are being sued by a free range idiot.

Michelle Malkin is talking about it, I found out from the Corner, and I’m sure there are a million other links to be found.

Branching Update: Of course, free speech at American colleges seems to take big hits regularly. Some day the kids that are learning to hate free speech at placed like Colorado College will learn to hate free speech in the wild. And when those kids start making the rules, people will start getting ticketed for saying completely innocuous things in their own front yard. Oops. Too late.

Update: Kindly linked by Mr. Lady--who--after running away to the great white eh?--has found her own list of issues. And, let me tell you, the girl has issues.