But as I’ve long suspected, it turns out all you really need is a penis, perhaps even a vestigal one.
So Charles Glass gets to write:
When a military officer orders his men to go into action, he is not exercising free speech so much as he’s issuing a command. Moreover, he is held responsible under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions for his orders. When Ayatollah Khomeini issued the death sentence on Salman Rushdie, he was not giving an idle opinion but instructing those who accepted his proclamations to take action. When Al Capone told one of his heavies to rub somebody out, that heavy had to do some quick rubbing or be rubbed out himself. If someone comes to your house with a firing squad and declares, “Ready, aim, fire,” the First Amendment would be no defense in court against a murder charge.
All true.
However, Glass conflates those individuals with Tom Flanagan, Sarah Palin and Bob Beckel — all of whom have wondered more or less aloud, “Why is Julian Assange still alive?”
Note, however: none of them have the means, power and authority to order anyone’s assassination or to command or carry out a similar operation.
Unlike… “a military officer,” the Ayatollah and Al Capone.
Shoddy.
Then we discover that Glass “was ABC News Chief Middle East Correspondent from 1983 to 1993” — and SNAP! So many things fall into place…
