The first amendment protects free speech, but if you don't have freedom of thought, do you really have freedom of speech?
If money is free speech, the big interests are sitting in front with megaphones and the average citizens are sitting in the back.
Freedom of speech doesn't protect speech you like; it protects speech you don't like.
You can't be selective about freedom of speech. If you say you believe in freedom of speech you have to acknowledge the people whose views you disagree with, people whose views you may detest, nevertheless have the right to freedom of speech.
It's like freedom of speech - they can't tell you not to do it. When no one will put you on at a club or venue, you can go to the street, just start singing, and get a lot of good feedback from people as they walk by. I got really good at lip reading and seeing if a song is working. It was a good way to start.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
I think it's just funny, the things that come out of people's mouths, whether it's a politician, whether it's an average person on the street - and to be honest with you, sometimes these politicians sound like average people on the street.
Reagan never cottoned to dictators. He was pure in this notion in a true belief that democracy was the best solution in the world because it spoke to people's hopes and dreams and aspirations, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.
We still have a First Amendment that protects your business and free speech.
We aren't as divided as we think we are. We're not just Republicans sitting in one corner, and Democrats sitting in the other corner.
But I - and I just think it's very - one of the problems of defending the extraordinary principle of freedom of speech is that you have to defend freedom of speech for people like that too.
Every legislative limitation upon utterance, however valid, may in a particular case serve as an inroad upon the freedom of speech which the Constitution protects.
I'm defending free speech pretty much all over the place because you still have freedom of speech.
Our job isn't to defend freedom of speech, but without freedom of speech we are dead. We can't live in a country without freedom of speech. I prefer to die than live like a rat.
In most Western democracies, you do have the freedom of speech. But freedom of speech is not an entitlement to reach. You are free to say what you want, within the confines of hate speech, libel law and so on. But you are not entitled to have your voice artificially amplified by technology.
I've always said when I broke in I was an average player. I had an average arm, average speed and definitely an average bat. I am still average in all of those.