ROWAN ATKINSON, the British actor, spoke out recently against Britain’s draconian hate speech law, which has led to hundreds of arrests for those who have violated liberal rules of etiquette, such as the man who called a police horse “gay.” The “right to insult and offend” is basic to British tradition, Atkinson said. He stated:

“‘I’m not intolerant,’ say many softly-spoken, highly educated liberal-minded people. ‘I’m only intolerant of intolerance.’ And people tend to nod sagely and say, ‘Oh yes, wise words, wise words.’ And yet if you think about this supposedly inarguable statement for longer than five seconds you realize that all it is advocating is the replacement of one kind of intolerance with another.” (more…)

ERIC writes:

Your post on the women reclaiming lost identities as Southern Belles was a fine counterpoint to the stories about the untimely death of singer Amy Winehouse. I have a hunch that Winehouse’s unhappy life and wretched death are a watershed of sorts, a point at which the tide begins to recede. (more…)