You have a right to my opinion

"I am highly tolerant of your right to think and say anything you want to, just as long as I agree with it." That's the oeprating principle of the progressive thought police, who are really out in force these days. First up, we have the ACLU, normally a fearless fighter for free speech rights, taking the side of New Mexico's "public accommodations" discrimination law instead of the side of the phtographers who didn't want to shoot a gay wedding because it went agains their beliefs:

I asked Louise Melling, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union, which has a distinguished history of championing free speech, how the group had evaluated the case.

Ms. Melling said the evaluation had required difficult choices. Photography is expression protected by the Constitution, she said, and Ms. [Elane] Huguenin acted from “heartfelt convictions.”

But the equal treatment of gay couples is more important than the free speech rights of commercial photographers, she said, explaining why the A.C.L.U. filed a brief in the New Mexico Supreme Court supporting the couple.

In a country in which the government can order you to buy something you don't want, I suppose it's not all that strange that a private business can be ordered to do a job it doesn't want to do. That's how far we've strayed from the very idea of freedom. But, seriously, the Constitution requires equal treatment by the government, not by anybody in the private sector. The ACLU doesn't get that anymore? Or does political correctness trump everything, even bedrock principles?

And then we have, of course, "Duck Dynasty's" Phil Robertson suspened by the A&E channel for expressing his "hurtful" view that homosexual behavior is a sin:

“We are extremely disappointed to have read Phil Robertson’s comments in GQ, which are based on his own personal beliefs and are not reflected in the series Duck Dynasty,” A&E said in a statement, which was reported byThe Hollywood Reporter. “His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.”

Imagine that. A man well-known for his conseervative Chrsitian views expresses a conservative Christian opinion! Some actual reality from a reality show star!

Robertson is free to say whatever he wants, and A&E is certainly free to respond however it wishes. They both have free-speech rights and seem to know how to exercise them. But, come on. With 14 millions viewers "Duck Dyansty" is the most popular cable TV show in history. Didn't it occur to the A&E geniuses that the show's audience might not be offended by Robertson's views and that they just might need him far more than he needs them.

Oh, well, If you don't get on the bandwagon, you'll end up under the bus, to mix a couple of metaphors.

This just in:

The social news site Reddit is banning climate change deniers from its science forum, a moderator for the site said.

Nathan Allen, the moderator for the forum /r/science — which provides a digital space for people to discuss recent, peer-reviewed science publications — wrote about the move to ban skeptics of climate science on Grist. A representative for Reddit confirmed the decision with The Hill.

While the science forum is a small section of Reddit, it has 4 million subscribers, Allen noted, which is nearly twice the circulation of The New York Times.

"After some time interacting with the regular denier posters, it became clear that they could not or would not improve their demeanor," Allen said in his post for Grist.

Allen said that while some commenters did object to the move, given Reddit's claim to preserve free speech at all costs, most users have welcomed the change.

He said the news industry should follow suit.

Yeah, come on, fellow journalists, let's control that debate by keeping one side out of it. Damn those skeptcis anyway.

"Reddit's claim to preserve free speech at all costs." Heh, that's a good one.