January 24, 2006

Idiots Need Not Apply

François-Marie Arouet, the French Enlightenment writer and essayist perhaps best known by his nom de plume, Voltaire, wrote in his Essay on Tolerance, Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too. As someone who enjoys not only Voltaire's sharp wit, but also admires his unrelenting support of free speech, I have, in the past four years, never censored a single comment on this blog, regardless of how ridiculous, disparaging, or libelous, provided, of course, that it's not for online poker, porn, or Viagra (bastard spammers!). However, as I was doing my weekly purge of comment span this weekend, I came across several comments that would perchance be better served by a oft-quoted aphorism not by Voltaire, but by Hubert Humphrey, U.S. Vice President under Lyndon Johnson, who said, The right to free speech does not imply the right to be taken seriously.