Our Extremes vs. Their Extremes

Ours have some concept of how freedom works. A lefty from the London Times, who got savaged on air by Rush Limbaugh for critical comments against President Bush notes:

Despite the hypersensitivity of the Americans who showered me with linguistic ordure, nobody would dream of suggesting that insulting America and its President should be banned. These 300 right-wing nuts wanted me sacked for my ignorance; they wanted The Times used as toilet paper, but none of them would suggest that I should be legally prevented from saying that President Bush was a fool.

We Westerners get to say things we want to say, and very little can be done about it. This can be frustrating when institutions like The New York Times become incapable of fair news reporting. But in the best sense this means intellectual over physical melee, and that the best ideas win out over the biggest thug. Michael Moore has made several highly critical and dubiously researched films. He has no doubt made a plethra of enemies, but there has never been an army of fanatics setting his house on fire.