LATimes: Will voices of dissent still be heard?

[NoPasaran]

In the summer of 1956, Russian poet Boris Pasternak — a favorite of the recently deceased Joseph Stalin — delivered his epic "Doctor Zhivago" manuscript to a Soviet publishing house, hoping for a warm reception and a fast track to readers who had shared Russia's torturous half-century of revolution and war, oppression and terror.

Instead, Pasternak received one of the all-time classic rejection letters: A 10,000-word missive that stopped just short of accusing him of treason. It was left to foreign publishers to give his smuggled manuscript life, offering the West a peek into the soul of the Cold War enemy, winning Pasternak the 1958 Nobel in literature and providing Hollywood with an epic film.

These days, Pasternak might not fare so well.

In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American firms from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first get U.S. government approval.

The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the 1st Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States, a country that prides itself as the international beacon of free expression

-more-

http://www.calendarlive.com/cl-et-dissidents7dec07,1,7285804.story

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Isn't this just a first step

towards not publishing books of dissent written by American authors?

[Dulcinea]

2. Voices of dissent must be heard! eom

[xchrom]

3. our lords and masters will do all

the speaking for us.
and they'll set up the terms of the freedom they say they want for everybody.

[KingChicken]

4. Democracy is an illusion in America

They just keep us entertained so they can continue to make cash off us. It's on big economic hacienda, you’re free to leave, if you can afford it.

[Guaranteed]

5. THAT...

is most definitely a violation of the 1st Amendment.

Oh, but they're not CITIZENS, they'll say.

[noshenanigans]

6. Cause for concern..

I'm starting to get more and more scared that we *really are* heading for a "We know what's best for you" kind of situations.

A few moments ago (on Fox News, of course) they had a guy on there dispelling "myths of politial correctness". The one I heard was that McCarthy wasn't such a bad guy because, y'know, there *actually were* some Communist Spies. So, if a few (hundred, thousand) people's lives are ruined, we're still all better off for it.

It stunk of PATRIOT Act-ness, and I wanted to cry.

[Tangledog]

7. Here's a link about a particular case

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/12/02/iran_inanity/

Boston Globe. Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, can't get published here because of her opposition to the Iranian regime.

[Massachusetts]

8. Remember what Jimmy said

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." - James Madison

And that is our thought for the day as we continue our course in " Finding America?":mad: :mad: :mad: :wtf:

[neweurope]

9. I have been reading a lot about what happened to the generation

of my parents in Germany. I now see what happened to them and how it happened.

And no protest, because nobody ever sees that the rights of your neighbor and even of your enemy are your own rights...

Have at least any of the publishing houses protested openly against this new "Reichsschrifttumskammer"?

[Massachusetts]

10. Sad but true

:thumbsup: :(