Freedom of Speech or Terms of Use

Today I awoke to a pleasant notice from today.com, they have terminated my blog due to failure to comply with terms of use. I confess, I find free speech more important than the today.com terms of use. Today.com had advised me that I must edit one of my postings because “courtesy is more important than freedom of speech”. Since I could not disagree more with that statement not only did I refuse to edit my posting I proceeded to post their email to me. Well that was the last straw they terminated my blog. I could not be more happy about our separation, I can not without shame be associated with a site that places such little value on free speech. I will reproduce the relevant content below for you to judge for yourself what is important in the blogosphere. 1st is their email to me and after that is the blog posting that started the trouble and below that you will find the blog posting that got me knocked off.

We've edited the following post and deleted the banned Entrecard widgets.Sincerely,Today.com SupportOn Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 10:51 PM, Today.com Support<http://us.mc1112.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=support@today.com> wrote:> We are concerned with your most recent post> http://nakedemperor.today.com/2009/07/05/christian-mullah%E2%80%99s-invade-todaycom/> copied below. If you want to address the issue of Christian/political> blogs and websites on the web in general in a more constructive manner> that is fine. However to pick on a particular group within the network> you work for is unacceptable and hurts the network and discourages> others from blogging in the Today.com Community. Please edit the title> and post appropriately.>> Please note that Today.com is diverse, a global blogging network with> blogger friends from around the world as well as at home with multiple> blogger personalities and backgrounds. All races, genders, sexual> orientations, religious denominations and political affiliations are> welcome. We ask that bloggers are constructive and maintain a> respectful nature with other members you may disagree with. Courtesy> is more important than Freedom of Speech.>> In addition we need to ask you to remove the two Entrecard widgets in> both of your sidebars. It was added to the banned widget list because> too many bloggers are running 3rd party paid ads.>> For more information on content guidelines and widgets visit:> http://today.com/wiki/index.php/Content and> http://today.com/wiki/index.php/Widget.>> Sincerely,> Today.com Support>>> Christian Mullah's Invade Today.com>> Recently Today.com has seen a rash of religious posting. I have> noticed that there are not a few who find this objectionable.> Personally, I feel like they are inane and irrelevant, sometimes I> play with them sometimes I just laugh at them. But it is interesting> that we see people using religious beliefs to make arguments about> politics. It appears there is a considerable number of people in this> country who would like to see the US become a Theocracy. And I do> wonder if to some extent the US is a Theocracy, I can’t recall any> President being elected who didn’t believe in Jesus. Some more extreme> in their beliefs than others but all claim to be xtian.>> Can religion be kept out of politics? I’m not so sure. The vast> majority of the world has a deity. Now if these people actually> believe that their god is real then I suspect they feel it is> incumbent on them to attempt to make their world and their respective> governments in a fashion that is pleasing to their god.>> Being a dyed in the wool atheist, this trend is a little disturbing> to me. I feel very much surrounded by people with beliefs that seem to> me to be one step away from schizophrenia. I mean these people have> invisible friends that they talk to and many feel their invisible> friend answers them. They believe in disembodied spirits, the devil,> miracles and Armageddon. These beliefs are irrational and no one can> achieve national office with out claiming acceptance of the basic> Christian tenants or at least not in my life time so far. I guess I> would be less disturbed about what I consider wide spread> irrationality if people had the good sense to keep it to themselves,> but when people feel no shame about espousing ideas that are entirely> irrational, it makes me wonder, just how far can this irrationality> go, and then I look at the state of the world and US actions in the> world and I get some idea how far it can go.>> It’s about time for humanity to grow up and realize that religion is> an evolutionary phenomenon and that god stories are culturally based> stories and that none of the god stories are real but rather they are> mans feeble attempt to deal with a mysterious universe, the complexity> of consciousness and fear of mortality. Just the idea of god is so> HUGE that for a human to attempt to explain god is amazingly arrogant> and ignorant. But that’s a funny thing about ignorance it is usually> accompanied by arrogance.>
Finally this posting brought my relationship with today.com to an end.
The Most Disgusting Email I Have Ever Read is From Our Site Host
Today.com is attempting to censor my blog. There reason? Because “Courtesy> is more important than Freedom of Speech.” Maybe the people at today.com are unaware that Free Speech is a constitutional RIGHT and that courtesy is no where in the constitution! Not that I am ready to concede that my posting was discourteous. You know I could go on but I think I shall let these fascists speak for themselves. You be the judge I will reproduce their Email in its entirety. (Oh and I refuse to edit my post) If they want to forcibly CENSOR, I can not stop them. But this is BULLSHIT! I am suddenly ashamed to be associated with today.com.

After this I posted their email to me where they stated that “courtesy is more important than freedom of speech”