Jun

9

Put on your reading glasses!

Filed Under free speech | 1 Comment

Hi zinesters! Here’s your roughly once-a-month update on free speech in the U.S.

If you would like a copy of Green Day’s new CD, don’t expect to find it at Wal-mart. The store says it won’t carry the record unless the album is edited for language and content, which the band has refused to do. According to the article, although Wal-mart has a history of selling artists known for their controversial content, it doesn’t sell records with parental advisory warnings on them.

The Supreme Court yesterday refused to review the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prevents gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military. The Court decided to throw out an appeal by 12 veterans who argued that “don’t ask, don’t tell” denies their constitutional right for privacy and free speech.

A writer named John David California wrote a book called 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, which is about a 76-year-old Holden Caulfield-like character who breaks out of a retirement home, and J.D. Salinger, original author of The Catcher in the Rye, is not happy about it. The book is not published yet, but J.D. Salinger is taking Mr. California to court over it, claiming that Holden Caulfield, the character, belongs to Salinger only.

On June 1st, a federal judge ordered the U.S. to release documents detailing the allegations and evidence justifying the imprisonment of about 100 detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Previously, those documents were only available to judges, attorneys and government officials.

A federal appeals court in Pennsylvania has decided that a mother cannot read to her son’s kindergarten class from the Bible during show and tell, even though it’s his favorite book. The school did permit the boy to talk about a poster that included references to his church.

And last, but not least, the ACLU has filed two lawsuits against two school districts in Tennessee for blocking Web sites about gay-rights issues. They are arguing that it is a violation of free speech for students in those districts to only be able to access anti-gay Web sites.


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1 Comment so far

  1. Buddy on June 11, 2009 8:39 am

    how is the new zineworld coming along?? How about some postings on that.