Other Works
Do Ask, Do Tell
Speech Is a Fundamental Right; Being Listened to Is a Privilege
Do Ask, Do Tell: Speech Is a Fundamental Right, Being “Listened to” Is a Privilege is the third of a sequence of my Do Ask, Do Tell books. The general themes of the books are individualism and personal responsibility, and especially how these precepts apply to “gay equality” and free speech issues.
The first book was Do Ask, Do Tell: A Gay Conservative Lashes Back in 1997. The book was motivated by the early fight over gays in the military that ensued after President Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. There is a long narrative going back to my own expulsion from a civilian college and then my experience with the military draft, which makes for a certain irony. The book, toward the end, switches from historical and autobiographical accounts to policy discussions on discrimination in other areas, which are presented in a manner concentric to the military issue as like a “superstorm core.” One important concept is that individual rights are connected to the ability to share risks (like availability for military service) that belong to the common good.
In late 1998, I published a supplementary booklet, less than a hundred pages, called Our Fundamental Rights, which does not carry the Do Ask, Do Tell prefix.
In 2002, I published Do Ask Do Tell: When Liberty Is Stressed, a set of essays that respond to the issues accentuated by the 9/11 attacks and by new legal threats to Internet speech (such as the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, or COPA). One idea that I covered in the book was a “Bill of Rights II.”
The latest book traces these widely dispersed issues centered around individualism further, particularly in areas like various threats to Internet freedom that we take for granted, gay equality (including marriage and parenting), the workplace, and eldercare, the latter driven by rapid demographic change.
READ AN EXCERPT ORDER A COPY NOW!
Do Ask, Do Tell: When Liberty Is Stressed
Updates to Bill of Rights II; Essays on Challenges to Free Speech and to Other Liberties
As our culture has placed increasing importance on the individual, it may be time to consider reinforcing our rights. Individual liberties have recently come under severe stress; not only from the necessary war on terror but also from corporate misconduct and well-founded concerns about managing exploding technology, as well a more traditional questions about culture and family values.
Many of the affirmative protections in the original Bill of Rights are largely procedural. It would be well to list and review our fundamental rights with a conceptual bottom-up review. These rights would include psychological rights to express to others who we are as individuals and would invoke social rights to ensure basic fairness to all people.
How do we reinforce individual rights and, simultaneously, maintain stability. Security and social justice in our society? With many issues, the free market provides a much more dependable means of regulation than can government. But there are some areas where law is essential to maintain real freedom.
This book comprises ten essays about balancing individual liberties with increasing concerns about security and stability.
READ AN EXCERPT ORDER A COPY NOW!
Other Works
Speech Is a Fundamental Right; Being Listened to Is a Privilege
Do Ask, Do Tell: Speech Is a Fundamental Right, Being “Listened to” Is a Privilege is the third of a sequence of my Do Ask, Do Tell books. The general themes of the books are individualism and personal responsibility, and especially how these precepts apply to “gay equality” and free speech issues.
The first book was Do Ask, Do Tell: A Gay Conservative Lashes Back in 1997. The book was motivated by the early fight over gays in the military that ensued after President Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. There is a long narrative going back to my own expulsion from a civilian college and then my experience with the military draft, which makes for a certain irony. The book, toward the end, switches from historical and autobiographical accounts to policy discussions on discrimination in other areas, which are presented in a manner concentric to the military issue as like a “superstorm core.” One important concept is that individual rights are connected to the ability to share risks (like availability for military service) that belong to the common good.
In late 1998, I published a supplementary booklet, less than a hundred pages, called Our Fundamental Rights, which does not carry the Do Ask, Do Tell prefix.
In 2002, I published Do Ask Do Tell: When Liberty Is Stressed, a set of essays that respond to the issues accentuated by the 9/11 attacks and by new legal threats to Internet speech (such as the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, or COPA). One idea that I covered in the book was a “Bill of Rights II.”
The latest book traces these widely dispersed issues centered around individualism further, particularly in areas like various threats to Internet freedom that we take for granted, gay equality (including marriage and parenting), the workplace, and eldercare, the latter driven by rapid demographic change.
READ AN EXCERPT ORDER A COPY NOW!
Updates to Bill of Rights II; Essays on Challenges to Free Speech and to Other Liberties
As our culture has placed increasing importance on the individual, it may be time to consider reinforcing our rights. Individual liberties have recently come under severe stress; not only from the necessary war on terror but also from corporate misconduct and well-founded concerns about managing exploding technology, as well a more traditional questions about culture and family values.
Many of the affirmative protections in the original Bill of Rights are largely procedural. It would be well to list and review our fundamental rights with a conceptual bottom-up review. These rights would include psychological rights to express to others who we are as individuals and would invoke social rights to ensure basic fairness to all people.
How do we reinforce individual rights and, simultaneously, maintain stability. Security and social justice in our society? With many issues, the free market provides a much more dependable means of regulation than can government. But there are some areas where law is essential to maintain real freedom.
This book comprises ten essays about balancing individual liberties with increasing concerns about security and stability.
READ AN EXCERPT ORDER A COPY NOW!