Now there was the 'barring harm' caveat to that, but what do you consider 'harm' and who decides?

Well, obviously the government will have to through legislation, but not all will agree with that. That brings us to the heart of the argument which you ask below, "Where do you draw the line?" It's a very good question.



Just to be clear here, these weren't tats - just regular ink-pen. So not permanent.



That's really the heart of the matter isn't it?

Here in Canada, free speech doesn't have quite the same force it does in the US. Being racist is generally considered illegal, but it's borderline. You have to DO something racist in order to be arrested - however Canada, unlike the US, does have 'hate speech' laws.

In this case, the parents violated the hate speech laws - which triggered an investigation, which also found the parents to be unfit in a multitude of other ways. That made the outcome pretty easy.

However, even here with laws against such things, which the US lacks, this was a real hot potato over whether or not the parents should lose their kids over being skinheads. It sat firmly right ON the line and the outcome was by no means clear at ALL. Could have gone either way.



Naturally not, but teaching someone to 'like' someone is hardly negative.

Teaching hatred and bigotry gets very very dangerous - it's been proven (categorically) that people that thoroughly indoctrinated will often act on those beliefs. They've been taught that they should, after all.

My wife and I had an interesting discussion the other day on the differences in how someone is raised. Being raised in the US I was taught the value of personal freedoms and that a person should stand up for their rights. Most Canadians aren't really taught that, at least not with the same emphasis (many do and are held as heroes anyway, but it doesn't penetrate as far into their culture). Because of my American upbringing, I'm a lot more likely to act than many Canadians, which sometimes causes conflict. The question is - is it worth it and what is right?

We didn't really come to an answer on it, but it was an interesting discussion.

Mind you - I'm probably more likely to stand up to 'the man' than a lot of Americans too, so there you go. I'm cranky that way.