Intolerant laws

On its way to the USA

[Reprinted from Issues & Views February 25, 2002]

P.C. is now very big bucks, and those little tin dictators of the European Union are playing it for all it’s worth. The EU recently announced plans to outlaw "racism and xenophobia." All that really means is that one can be thrown in jail for calling me, say, a dirty little Greek, or when in the land of pasta calling some Roman lothario a wop. Public insults of minority groups will be outlawed by draconian laws being written as I write. As everyone is now part of a minority, all this legislation means is that the EU can jail one with impunity, and if the political case is convenient, throw the key away. People like Jean Marie Le Pen and Jorg Haider will really have to watch their step. Mankind’s long battle against intolerance will now end with the most intolerant laws of all being applied to 350 million supine Europeans. Whether these laws will be brought to bear on Islamic groups is not clear. Anyone insulting Christians is, of course, immune, as is anyone insulting whites per se. . . .

So eager are those who make the rules to keep us in line that even in Poland, a country not as yet enslaved by EU legislation, one has to be awfully careful with one’s choice of words. A main Eurosceptic (anti-EU) politician, Andrezej Lepper, was fined $5000 for calling the president of Poland "a layabout." A previous verdict on the same charge, which Lepper appealed, had sentenced him to 16 months in prison. Imagine, 16 months in jail for calling someone a layabout. God help us.

-- Taki, excerpted from "Watch Your Tongue," New York Press.

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