A Brief Note on the Silencing of TJIC

I'm sure my fellow wingnuts have heard that Travis Corcoran (also known as TJIC) got in trouble for a blog post:

In the wake of the recent shooting in Tuscon, Travis put up a post on his blog about how he didn't particularly feel like shedding any tears over the shooting of a politician, entitled "1 down, 534 to go!" Provocative? Inflammatory? Even tacky? Sure. But it was just speech. Political speech. The kind that's protected under the 1st Amendment, even when it's about politicians further up the food chain than congresscritters.

………

Some people were so butthurt, however, that they went to the authorities, and Travis received a knock on the door: It was the Arlington, MA po-po, there to relieve Mr. Corcoran of his guns, his ammunition, his firearms license, and his 2nd Amendment rights, all for having the temerity to use his 1st Amendment rights in the former Cradle of Liberty, now its grave.

Meanwhile, TJIC has taken down his blog, possibly on the advice of his attorney. I hope this is straightened out soon. The courts have been getting more supportive of formerly-untrendy civili liberties lately.

As for precedents… I recall the acquittal of Angela Davis being described at the time as an example of the reluctance of Americans to convict somebody on the basis of a bull session. Apparently, the Arlington police have other ideas.

Another possible precedent is that nobody (as far as I recall) called for the confiscation of Stephen Sondheim's poetic license as a result of musical glorifying assassins.