Previet Tavaritch Bannister,

I would guess that you're the only one calling censorship wrong because you're the only one who believe's that censorship is wrong. I won't presume to speak for the rest, but as for me, whether censorship is right or wrong depends largly on who's doing the censoring, and what it is that their censoring. First and foremost, in order for censorship to be bad it is requisite that it be imposed by a government. Even then it is only bad when that censorship is of, for example, political dissent. Censorship is not bad, even when imposed by the government, if it is for the purpose of upholding standards of common decency, or for protecting national security.

Of course, to distinguish between matters of national security and matters of political dissent one must recognize the difference between loyal opposition and subversion. Unfortunately, these days, with certain of our leaders and most in our media engaged in outright enemy sympathizing, this is a dangerous assumption to make.

In any case, if you want to talk about being ashamed, with regard to free speech, let me tell you what I find shameful. People who abuse the ideal of free speech as an excuse to justify vulgarity and pornography, them I find shameful. For the most part these are the very same people who've never read a single one of the Federalist Papers and who couldn't explain what it meant if they did, the same people who are intellectually incapable of recognizing either the self-defeating or the self-contradictory ramifications of the phrase "it's only fair that the rich should pay a greater percentage of their money," these are the people I find shameful.

Finally, you may be wondering about my invocation of the salutation/title combination of "Previet Tavaritch." So let me be plain, just in case the implications exceed you. Yes, this is the English transliteration of the Russian phrase, "Greetings Commrade." Anyone who condones the usurpation of private property rights for the sake of the collective is a socialist/communist. Notwithstanding the volume with which you chant key phrases like "free speech," the context of your overall position belies both a profound lack of comprehension of the very tenets you assert and your true political colors.