Another Indication of the Breakdown of Civil Discourse in the US.

So, it's not big news, but maybe it is.

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Rosemary Port had an anonymous blog. In it, she said some very unkind things about people. Very unkind things. Things that had she said them to their subject's faces would have probably resulted in a fist fight or worse. But because she was hiding behind a screen name or assumed identity, she felt that she could do so without fear of reprisal.

Except, when the individual that Ms. Port was saying unkind things about was model Liskula Cohen. And Ms. Cohen was starting to get pretty angry at this anonymous person that was saying very unkind things about. Things like 'ho', which is a very unkind thing to say to a woman, rap music's popularity notwithstanding. Ms. Port conveyed this message on her blog which was uncharitably titled "Skanks in NYC". So by association, Mr. Port also called Ms. Cohen a 'skank', which is also a very unkind thing to say to anybody, much less a woman.

So Ms. Cohen, who has considerably more money than Ms. Port, hired a lawyer who wrote a very convincing letter to Google strongly requesting the email address of the blogger that owned the blog. Google said "OK", and now Ms. Port is known to the world.

Her argument for her actions is that she believes that blogs are a forum for discussion and that Google did not do enough to protect her identity. As outrageous as her vitriolic postings defaming Ms. Cohen were, this is far more outrageous. As a friend of mine once said, "You're first amendment right to expression ends where my nose begins." Translated, in the United States your freedom of speech is only protected as long as said speech does not unfairly demean or slander the reputation of any person who is not deserving of such speech. And those that commit slander should be made to pay for it.

The right to free speech should never be allowed to impede any other citizen's right to pursue happiness. Ms. Port's blog did just that by making vicious and slanderous public comments, which are apparently a reprisal for a comment made by Ms. Cohen to Ms. Port's boyfriend. How does the fact that Google and other companies provide venues for web logs ever get interpreted to mean that you can say whatever you want, no matter how cruel, about somebody and not fear any reprisal?

I'm reminded of Thumper from the Disney movie "Bambi" and his famous sage advice: "If you can't say somethin' nice about somebody, don't say nothin' at all."