Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today

Description

A lawyer, social critic, and columnist at The American Prospect, Wendy Kaminer has said that she likes to think words have power but knows they don't cast spells. She argues with her readers and expects them to argue back. Her taste for liberty, her legal training, wit, and innate contrarianism help her elude the usual political labels and inform her writings on censorship, feminism, pop psychology, religion, criminal justice, and a range of rights and liberties at issue in the culture wars. In this new collection, Kaminer has her sights set on the fate of civil liberties in America. Opening with a powerful overview of liberty's tenuous hold on this "land of the free," Kaminer offers incisive, original investigations of political freedom in our frightened, post-September 11 world and reviews perennial threats to sexual and religious liberty, free speech, privacy, and the right to be free from unwarranted, unprincipled prosecutions. "Wonderful Wendy Kaminer! With wit and style and cold hard facts, she skewers contemporary credulity." -- Katha Pollitt, author of Reasonable Creatures "Kaminer, a wonderfully funny social critic, takes on a host of threats to rational thought." -- Molly Ivins, author of Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush Wendy Kaminer is the author of many books, including I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help Fashions and Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of lrrationalism and the Perils of Piety. Her articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, and Newsweek, and her commentaries have aired on National Public Radio. Cover Back Cover Title Contents Introduction Author's Note 1. HOMELAND OFFENSE, POST-9/11 Patriotic Dissent Safety and Freedom Fear Itself An Imperial Presidency Ignorant Bliss 2. NO PLACE TO HIDE Someone to Watch over Me Public Lives 3. CAN WE TALK? Toxic Media Toxic Media vs. Toxic Censorship Screen Saviors Courting Unsafe Speech Virtual Offensiveness Grand Old Rag Freedom's Edge The Root of All Speech The War on High Schools Don't Speak Its Name Virtual Rape 4. WHOSE GOD IS IT, ANYWAY? The Joy of Sects Faith-Based Favoritism Good News? The AG Is Their Shepherd 5. CRIMINALLY UNJUST Ordinary Abuses Victims vs. Suspects Pictures at an Execution Secrets and Lies 6. WOMEN'S RIGHTS Equal Rights Postponement Reproductive Emergency Abortion and Autonomy 7. WOMEN'S WRONGS Feminists, Puritans, and Statists Feminists, Racketeers, and the First Amendment Sexual Congress Sex and Sensibility Reproductive Entitlement Fathers in Court 8. ANTI-INDIVIDUALISM/LEFT American Heritage Politics of Identity Gun Shy Guilt of Association 9. ANTI-INDIVIDUALISM/RIGHT When Congress Plays Doctor Law and Marriage Gay Rites Bad Vibes in Alabama 10. HOMELAND OFFENSE, PRE-9/11 Author's Note Taking Liberties Games Prosecutors Play Acknowledgments