I thought he was dead

That was my Dad's reaction when I told him I was going to hear former US Senator from IN, Birch Bayh, speak today in downtown Evansville.

I did go, and it was really, really cool. He was in town to promote the re-election of Govenor Joe Kernan. He did his little schpiel as did a few others like the Mayor, and city-council people.The really cool part was afterwards.

I went with my Political Science professor. He told Bayh afterwards there was a group of students. The Senator was excited and came over and told us to sit down. He ended up talking to us for about a half hour.

Sen. Bayh was very active in the civil rights movements of the 60s and 70s. He told us about him writing the ERA, reforming the Indiana public school system, and helping block the approval of two Nixon Supreme Court appointees. He also let us ask questions.

Q: Does your son (Sen. Evan Bayh) consult you for help with his re-election campaign?
A: Is he running again? (Very telling. Shows The Junior Bayh should have no worries defeating Republican challenger Marvin Scott.)

Q: Is it likely that if Bush is re-elected, he will appoint judges to overturn Roe v. Wade?
A: No, it's not likely. It's certain. If there is only one issue in this election I would say it's making sure he doesn't get the opportunity, besides being a bad President, to foul up the judiciary, which is supposed to be our last line of defense against the government.

Wow! What an indictment of this President. It's one thing when Kerry or Edwards flings harsh words like this. Or even if a partisan like myself said it, it wouldn't be so bad. But when a respected 3-term Senator and former Presidential candidate offer harsh criticisms like this, I think it is very telling. I think a man like this knows a thing or two about Washington. He was there for Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, and part of Reagan.

Anyway, y'all already knew I wasn't voting for Bush. But now I feel very good about it with a old Washington vet on my side.

As promised, my take on Larry Flynt:

I thought to understand his case, it was important to try to understand the man. Interestingly enough, he spent a portion of his childhood right here in Indiana. By the age of 10 or 12 he was basically on his own. He spent about 6 years in the military, including a year in the Army before they discovered he was too young (16). He then opened up several strip clubs before eventually starting Hustler.

Getting to the case, the basic question in Hustler v. Falwell was this: Are celebrities entitled to collect damages when they are made fun of.

Of course if you're even reading this post, you probably already know that the Court ruled in favor of Flynt and Hustler.

So here's my take:

By protecting a publisher's right to satire, the Court properly guaranteed 1st Amendment Freedom of Speech. While many of us may be offended by parodies of the nature of that found in a porno magazine, those parodies certainly have the right to exist. The idea that a celebrity has equal rights to protection from slander is also somewhat, for lack of a better expression, fucked up. Celebrities by their nature have to understand that they have given up their rights to "normal" life. They live under public scrutiny, and nothing is going to change that. Besides without publicly scrutinized celebrities, who would we have to make parodies of anyway?

Maybe you were looking for something more indepth, but I finished that paper like five weeks ago, and now I'm struggling to remember some of it. Sadly, I don't care enough to go back and look up what I wrote.

That's my take on the King of Porn's most important legal battle.