As my regular readers are aware, I have often expressed my feeling that we are living in a world that is “through the rabbit hole”. Today, dear reader, that feeling is overwhelming. Today I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with, of all people, Camille Paglia, an outrageously outspoken lesbian feminist. If you are a regular reader of mine you will understand that it is not Ms. Paglia’s saphic preferences that I have an issue with but rather her previous political leanings and history of bizarre comentary on topics ranging from feminism to women’s role in society.

In the latest episode of our fall down the rabbit hole Camille Paglia and I are agreeing on the treatment of Phil Robertson, the patriarch of A & E’s Duck Dynasty, over his comments in an article with GQ. His offending comments are shared here:

“It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s  anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to  offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not  logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

The interviewer asked for clarification on the topic of sin:

What, in your mind, is sinful?

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality,  sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he  says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the  adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the  greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the  kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

For the record, do I agree with the judgement and tone in Mr. Robertson’s comments? Certainly not. Are they justification for his firing from the A & E show based on his business and family life? Certainly not.

Here is why. In this nation we have something called the Constitution. In the Constitution we have something known as the First Amendment which states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

In short that means that even if I find Mr. Robertson’s speech offensive (which I do), it-and his right to express it as he did in the GQ interview-is protected by the Constitution. What A & E chooses to do with the show is up to them. They may be able to discontinue Mr. Robertson’s contract based on a non-discrimination clause. Society in general though would benefit from remembering that we do have a Constitution in this country and all types of inflamatory political speech are protected as a result. As much as I deplore the speech of the Westboro Baptist Church* or the Aryan Nation* they are protected as free speech.

This is exactly the position that Ms. Paglia took in an interview in the Daily Caller yesterday, albeit in her own unique fashion. The actual quote was:

“To express yourself in a magazine in an interview — this is the level of  punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist, OK, that my liberal colleagues  in the Democratic Party and on college campuses have supported and promoted over  the last several decades,” Paglia said. “This is the whole legacy  of free speech 1960’s that have been lost by my own party.”

In this, we agree Camille. The culture of this country has become facist when it comes to political correctness, as illustrated by multiple Facebook memes picturing scary screaming liberals with taglines that say things like “I am a tolerant liberal, but if you do not agree with me you are a homophobic, Islamiphobic, intollerant redneck” or something to that effect. And now I have to go take some Tylenol and wash it down with a glass of wine since I have thumped my head upon landing on the rock bottom of the rabbit hole. Merry Christmas dear readers! See you in 2014!

*CLARIFICATION: Just so that we are on the same page, I am not comparing Mr. Robertson to the Westboro Baptist Church or the Aryan Nation-simply stating that there are some opinions that we find offensive expressed in our society. The price of the freedom we all enjoy is the risk of being offended by someone else’s Constitutionally protected free speech.