Civility Disobedience

Ever noticed how those who hew to political correctness (which, after all, is another form of censorship) and who want to curb/control free expression often haul out the "civility" card? Take President Obama, for example. During a National Prayer Breakfast, he not only warned against "the erosion of civility," as he called it, he urged folks to pray for its demise. From the WaPo (with my snarky, incivil comments in brackets):

President Barack Obama, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, says the country needs to regain a sense of civility and that prayer can touch our hearts with humility. (In that case, better start praying like crazy, Barack, since "humility" ain't exactly your forte.)

President Obama bemoaned the "erosion of civility" in the nation's political debate Thursday, telling an audience at the National Prayer Breakfast that there is a growing sense that "something is broken" in Washington. (That "something broken" is the bank, since you cleaned out the nation's treasury for many decades to come.)

"Those of us in Washington are not serving the people as well as we should," Obama said. "At times, it seems like we're unable to listen to one another, to have at once a serious and civil debate." (In other words, stop fighting me on Obamacare.)

Obama contrasted the sense of duty and service summoned in response to disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti with the seeming inability of the nation's policymakers to answer "the slow-moving tragedies of children without food and men without shelter and families without health care." (In other words, stop fighting me on Obamacare.)

The president criticized a political culture where disagreement on policy quickly morphs into questioning one another's motives. Obama, a Christian who was born in Hawaii, alluded to the undercurrent of allegations that he is actually a Muslim who was born outside the United States, saying, "I am the first to confess that I am not always right. . . . But surely, you can question my policies without questioning my faith, or, for that matter, my citizenship,"...(It's called "free speech," Barack. It can be ugly, messy, nasty, insulting, rude, snide, derisive and downright offensive--and huzzah for that! If you don't like it, you're in the wrooooong country. Why not come to Canada? We have Thought Police here who troll Websites looking for "erosion"--and who mete out punishments to the eroders.)