Yet I think that while we as Americans shake our heads over such blatant denials of free speech (even if, like George Will, you find Irving to be ‘reptilian’), the atmosphere here can be just as hostile to open discussion of certain topics. Rather than be stuck in jail, you’ll be dismissed from your job or faced with a lawsuit. Perhaps there is merit in saying that limiting free speech is necessary for keeping the peace in a multi-ethnic, multiracial, multi-faith society. If you can’t insult Judaism, you can’t insult Christianity, you can’t insult Islam, and so on like dominoes. But that then leads me to question whether, as President Bush insists, “diversity is our greatest strength.” As Tucker Carlson has asked, where, exactly, is the evidence of that? It is an article of faith (breach of which is heresy) that “diverse” societies are superior in every possible way, yet they seem to be negatively correlated with freedom of expression. Not to mention a whole lot of other things we once took for granted.