Free Speech in the World's Most Tolerant Country:

Where else would the freedom of speech face its most troublesome issues: Holland. Ian Buruma, the author of a book about the death of film maker Theo van Gogh, recently addressed the thorny problem in an editorial in The New York Times, which is well worth the time to read.

The important questions always address problems. As soon as you make laws prohibiting people from saying hateful things, all of the things that you find uncomfortable to hear becoming hateful.

Decades ago, when I was a young man, many of my friends wanted to ban stupidity. I thought that a fine idea, but first we'd need to define stupidity and then we'd need someone to enforce the anti-stupidity law.

This took some considerable thought. Eventually my friends decided that I should be the one to define and enforce. This seemed a brilliant solution to the problem, until everyone realized I was too stupid for the job.

In the event you have any doubts in this matter, I'll be happy to connect you with my children. They have never hesitated in making this judgment perfectly clear to me.