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Inside Liberty Watch Today - Feb. 16, 2006

Last week, we published what I personally considered to be the three best of the 12 cartoons which have Muslim panties in a wad all over the world.

We got a few threats, a few attaboys and a whole lot of, "what are these clowns yelling about?"

To the threats I would reply, "come on down!"

In my career, I have taken on mobbed up developers, crooked politicians, mobbed up politicians, crooked developers and the occasional pissed off baseball player who didn't like an error I "awarded" him as an official scorer.

If somebody is unhappy enough to try and do harm to me over a cartoon, they are liable to find out why we firmly believe in the second amendment as well as the first.

To those who thanked us for actually publishing the cartoons, I would observe that is what newspapers are supposed to do—something which the New York Times apparently forgot. You can punctuate your thanks by advertising with us.

And to those who wonder why all those Muslim panties are in a wad, here's something to think about: We finally found their weakness. They have no sense of humor whatsoever.

But it appears that the biggest thing which Muslims seem to have in common is a desire to make our behavior conform to their expectations. 

And they're getting some help—in an odd sort of way—from the Clark County Commission and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

It seems that those organizations, too, have a desire to control free speech.

Specifically that speech which is conducted in front of the Bellagio.

Once again, despite being zero for the last century on such issues and zero for this century as well, metro is arresting street preacher Jim Webber for picketing and proselytizing in front of the Bellagio, this time because his sign was too large.

No kidding.

And right next to a street where billboards drive that say, "1-800-CALLGIRLS".

In the past three weeks, we have had three shootouts with armed gangster rap idiots which involved both their deaths and the death of a Metro Sergeant, our traffic rivals IED injuries in Iraq as a cause of death but we still have time and manpower to try and intimidate demonstrators in front of the Bellagio. This time on the basis on the size of the sign they are carrying.

Gee. Do you think that somebody at MGM/Mirage is using their influence at the County to get this done?

It is pretty hard to complain about people who demonstrate against cartoons when we are trying to suppress preachers who want to demonstrate against sin in front of the Bellagio.

It is even harder in the context of the events of the past three weeks.

And of course, when this came to light in the newsroom of the Las Vegas Review Journal, guess who had no comments for the RJ. Would you believe that metro's spokesman could not be reached? And that the massive public relations operation which Clark County maintains had no comment? That appears to be the fact.

Frankly, it's time for Sheriff Bill Young to exercise some adult supervision here.

It is time for the elected Sheriff of Clark County to say publicly, "that's it."

Metro is there to enforce legitimate laws and, given that the public treasury is not unlimited, we probably ought to set our priorities somewhat differently from what big shot CEOs like Terry Lanni at MGM/Mirage have probably communicated to their buddies on the County Commission.

Because if we can't do that, maybe it's time to revisit that additional sales tax we give police agencies.

If we're using that to abridge the first amendment rights of street preachers, maybe we need to take it back.

Fred Weinberg, Liberty Watch, Contributing Columnist