Holt McCallany and Adam Carolla
This was one of the cooler things I witnessed on the show, even if, as you can see from the photo, I was arcing away from the action so as to not catch a stray punch to the head. I’m somewhat accident prone but I see it more as accidents seeking me out as opposed to the other way around.
In other news, I feel I didn’t give a thorough enough breakdown of the Westboro first amendment decision on Thursday’s show. I agree with the Supreme Court ruling even if it’s odious. The whole point of the first amendment is to protect unpopular or endangered speech. It’s great that we’ve come so far that hate-filled bullshit like that of Westboro is now unpopular but it wasn’t too long ago that civil rights protests were unpopular. It would be nice to only protect the speech you agree with, but whose sensibilities would we be putting above all the others?
On the show I said the decision had to do with public versus private space, which it does in that the protesters have to be on public land and have to keep a specific distance from the funerals but moreover it has to do with public versus private interest. Unfortunately it was determined that Westboro’s vitriol involves matters of public interest: the role of the US government and military and its actions abroad, homosexuality in the military, religion, which is the kind of speech protected by the first amendment.
Below is the first amendment. The funny thing is realizing from day one it was put in place to make sure irritating nutjobs will forever be allowed to yammer on about religion:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
