Voltaire misattributions

Voltaire was quoted often in the past week: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." But Voltaire never said that, as can be read in the "misattributed" section of the Wikiquote page on Voltaire.

Still, at least the quotation is from one person's attempt to sum up Voltaire's position on free speech. The same cannot be said of another Voltaire attribution that just crossed my path: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." This turns out to be a quotation from an American white supremacist named Kevin Strom (see the Wikiquote page again).

Voltaire did actually say a few things. Here's one of them (found by skimming that Wikiquote page): "Un bon mot ne prouve rien." Or as that page translates it, "A witty saying proves nothing."

Charlie Hebdo and the State Monopoly on Violence

A hypothesis for discussion:

Charlie Hebdo is not about freedom of speech. It’s about the state monopoly on violence: “the right to use physical force is ascribed to other institutions or to individuals only to the extent to which the state permits it” (Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation”). The caricaturists’ “freedom of speech” protects them from state suppression or punishment of their speech as speech. Because they were offended by what the Charlie Hebdo caricaturists drew, the murderers claimed the state’s “right to use physical force” as their own. Such vigilante justice is what should be condemned here; no defense of “freedom of speech” is necessary (or even appropriate?).

Erasing "Bringing It All Back Home"

It's the 50th anniversary of recording of Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home. I listened to the whole album this morning while working out, looking for something to write about it. I found myself overwhelmed by how many individual lines and images would be worthy of lengthy posts. So instead of writing a blog post, I have done an erasure of the lyrics.

-->

        homesick   it
It’s          it      alley

              away

       back, write
              hit

       it all took  back
                      back
       take          fall
                      fall
                      all

       Halloween

It’s          with

It            all
                      Limit

Without    faithful     situations   wall  all

        all    bring              with

       it

       it
Especially  it’s

        it

       really

It            take

       all    away

              call it
              hit
       took
Writing                   with
              all    editor
       waitress     kitchen
       without

       all    back alley
       invited

With               front
       it

       all    with
       Call
       ball
It     it

       bringin’ back
       either
Back               back suit
It

It             with
       it back

              back  took
              it      away

              all

Take
Wait                      it

It’s                  it’s
                      it’s
              it
It’s   take
With all

Its
With        lit 
       its
All           with
Its    it
All    all    fall
With with

With
Sits with     hermit
All    wait  with

It            it      totally

With ditch
It's                  balloon

                      with

       waterfalls pity

It’s                         downfall
                      small        call
       all           nothing      all

It’s          without
              really        waits
                      its

It’s    it’s                        it

All                  nothing
              with         really

                             lit
                             fit
                             quit
       it
        it                          it

       nothing

Nothing                          criticize
        nothing            with

        it’s

Limited                    it
Obscenity  really
              all

With                      security
It                    bitterly
        fall         naturally

                       it

        it’s          it’s

It's All                    take
                                     it
                             with
        it’s all

Take         it’s all

All                                 home
All                          all    home
        taken all
        it’s all                            calls

       it’s all