Secret Word!

I'm not really sure how I feel about WikiLeaks entirely. I give them points for having a name that makes 9-year-olds giggle, certainly. Entertaining my kids while teaching them about current events is not as easy as it sounds.

I'm kind of a nearly-unreasonable First Amendment guy. Not like ACLU unreasonable, and by that I mean I lack the physical courage to actually do anything to support my slighty out-of-mainstream crackpot beliefs. Plus, while I support free speech in close-to absolute terms, the idea of associating myself in any way with those most in need of free-speech protection makes me feel all unclean. Why does it always have to be homophobes and white supremacists and zealots and other assorted purveyors of scumbaggery who need my protection? You almost never find anyone making outrageously controversial and inflammatory public comments about rainbows or pie, unless it's to deny access to either one for gay black atheists.

The WikiLeaks guy is in a weird position because he's not even an American, so I'm not sure where I stand in regards to his rights. As far as I know he's an Australian living in Europe. Scandinavia I think I read. So I'm not really sure what kind of danger he's in other than to be tackled by state agents and forced to undergo a medical procedure at a reasonable price which is then underwritten by the government.

The Obama administration, in my opinion, is already suprisingly squirelly on this issue. I'm sure the rationale is something along the lines of the "fire in a crowded theater" exception as they keep telling us the leaks will cost lives. Although I can't help wondering if they don't just mean Julian Assange's.

But I'm not sure if the problem is less that this kind of public document leaking happens at all or just whom it happens to be embarrassing at the moment. When it's the U.S. government, it's painted as life-and-death, sure. How much more muted will the reaction be when other kinds of information starts surfacing, say about bailed-out banks? We won't know what principles are actually at stake until we get something that really flicks at our prurience. If the public evil suddenly becomes a public good, I'll have a better idea about how and where to go shoving my First Amendment umbrella, unsolicited.

Like for instance, if WikiLeaks had a document or two about how the fuck Qatar won the right to host World Cup 2022 over the US, I'll be the guy on the barricades, defying the tanks in the street.

Well, OK, probably not defying as such. But certainly there. At least in spirit. And my God, what a whithering tsk of disapproval I'll let fly when I see it unfold on TV.