I'm fighting mad right now. I normally don't watch Good Morning America due to the overly liberal slant they put on the news, but this morning was different somehow. I felt compelled to listen to Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts talk about Hillary's "comeback" for the umpteenth time, and saw a story that just riled me up like nothing else.

http://lookatmypugs.livejournal.com/

The guy that writes the above linked blog has been ordered by a divorce court to remove his site via a restraining order, because the content is offensive to his soon to be ex. I will admit, I have not read the entire blog, nor do I know the circumstances of his divorce. All I do know from what I have read is that he was hurt by the situation. But none of this matters to us as Americans. What matters is his right to free speech has been violated, and if this process endures it will set a dangerous judicial precedent that could lead to half the web sites in this country being shut down.

I know that sounds alarming or preposterous, but one who knows even a smidgeon about the history or tendencies of the American judicial system knows one thing - the courts are constantly seeking more power, and will follow judicial precedent to bypass or rewrite either a law or even the United States Constitution. We already know from the McCain-Feingold* bill that politicians are more than willing to side-step our rights to keep us from talking about them. So any political blog that goes "too far" could face this same kind of restraint. But for me the situation is even more personal.

Those of you who have been reading me from the beginning or have perused my archives know that I have made a great many of references or posts involving my ex and her treatment of my children and myself. And I feel I have every right to do so - from my point of view (and anyone else grounded in reality) I have said nothing that isn't true. Lookatmypugs even went so far to place his thoughts in a fictional environment in a concerted effort to spare her any more harm or embarrassment, but that wasn't good enough. I have taken no such measure, because I couldn't give less of a fuck if my ex died tomorrow. So if he can have a restraining order filed on him for content that vaguely resembles his experiences with his ex, what would stop my ex from filing a similar suit against me? And how many of us bloggers and rant writers, or just people expressing their feelings in general, could find ourselves under the gun for exercising our freedom of speech?

I'm sorry, but this is a direct assault against the First Amendment. Even though Congress isn't trying to make a law about this, we must remember how our courts - local, state, and federal - like to legislate from the bench. Their biggest weapon is judicial precedent. Once one judge gets away with it, they all get away with it. As Americans, it is our duty to stand behind Lookatmypugs and remind the courts and this country that we hold dearly to our rights, and will not allow some misguided judge and a vindictive person take those rights away. We have the right to say we hate our ex's, our jobs, other races, or even the President. And to impugn those rights in a situation where the author was concerned enough about his ex's feelings to generalize and fictionalize his feelings is offensive to me.

So find a way to support this guy. Go to his page and run the hits up. Message him with a word of support. Email news sources and the court involved with your feelings on the case. And if there were ever a situation to get Rush Limbaugh involved, this is it.