This is outrageous. A scandal. They claim to be offended by a play that is said to mock the bible, and by their offence they claim the right to shut-down that play. In a pluralist, democratic society there exists no right to not be offended. Free speech provides a license to offend.

The hardline Calvinist and Caleb religious tradition speaks for a minority in Northern Ireland (although a disproportionately large segment of political unionism) and makes very grand claims for itself. That the bible is the infallible word of God and that it is not to be made fun of. That the bible is the first, last and only book and that all reason, scepticism and inquiry must capitulate to one man's niche interpretation of a religious text. 

Claims that are to many absurd, outrageous and preposterous. Claims that are outright offensive to many people. 

Upon this conflict of ideas between the religious and irreligious, and by their grand claims, the religious open themselves up to scrutiny, criticism and mockery. A basic right and function in a healthy liberal democracy. 

However, not only do these religious fundamentalists claim to know the absolute and last word of god, but they hold their grand claims to be immune from scrutiny, criticism or mockery. They claim a special right, a special privilege and special protection. 

Again. This is outrageous. For too long people in Northern Ireland have bent the knee to this kind of madness and religious fundamentalism. It's high time people said no more. Up with this we will not put. 

One, on the matter of free speech. Since John Milton in the 17th Century the freedom to entertain and express opinions, no matter how offensive to others, has been cherished as a necessary pre-condition for a political society. 

And here's the first irony. John Milton wrote his famous defence of free speech in Areopogitica during the English Civil War, and directed it against Calvinist Presbyterians who were trying to turn the country into some sort of Presbyterian theocracy. 

Since then free speech has been defended and built upon in the face of religious moralists by great men and women like John Stuart Mill, Thomas Paine, Rosa Luxemburg and many others. It has been upon their work and upon the known rules of ancient liberty that have given us our distinctive western culture and freedoms. 

And here's the second irony. The Protestant tradition is supposed to be an authentic expression of the hard won civil and religious liberties gained through England's Glorious Revolution. Yet why do they deny others their basic civil liberty? Why oh why have the age old lessons of the Enlightenment and classical liberalism continually escaped evangelical Protestant theo-unionism in Northern Ireland? 

It's like the American Dad episode, Stan of Arabia. Stan the archetypal misogynist, super-religious Republican suddenly finds himself right at home in Saudi Arabia where there exists oppressive laws against women, gays and basic liberties. 

http://americandad.wikia.com/wiki/Stan_of_Arabia:_Part_1

Four, by the decision to ban the play, people have make a rod for their own back. They have given a license to every Muslim and religious fanatic who wants to ban every last piece of art & writing that could be deemed offensive to their precious feeling and religion. By doing this, Christians have elevated religious freedom far and away beyond freedom of expression. 

They would have it that the dumbest things be pumped into people's heads, and that nothing be said of this. We owe it to ourselves to have a media and civic debate that is not staid, dull and conformist and terrified of offending people; but that is disputatious, uncivil, rude and even offensive. 

There is a difference between disapproving of something and banning it and in that difference lies a free society.

Now the DUP have decided what you can and can't see. They've done the thinking for you. Are you happy with that? Will you stand for that?

Before the LAD bunker had even warmed up this morning, a call came through on the Twatphone (strange, as it's only the Chief of Police who has that number) from none other than top local hunger striker, failed rally driver and messenger of God, Jamie Bryson.

He was talking that way five year olds do when they're trying to tell you everything they did on holiday, in no more than 5 minutes, you know, all excited and can't quite coordinate their breathing with getting the words out, which made it quite difficult to understand what he was trying to say.  Eventually, after the offer of a bag of jelly babies and a kids meal from MacBurgers, he slowed down and the story unravelled.

It would seem Jamie has been working in conjunction with a secretive republican cover group, known as  Faisean Nuacht (FN).  While FN has been sending members deep cover in front line and civilian roles within the PSNI, Bryson has led a social media campaign to shame Chief of Police, Mark Bartlett, into giving up on trying to convert the proud upstanding men and weemin of Loyalist Ulster, into kind and neighbourly liberals.

Although Barratt has managed to resist this double pronged attack, the revelation that finally broke him is Bryson's discovery of a secret plan involving the PSNI, An Garda Síochána, dissident publicans and the Irish government.  In a recent blog, Bryson has exposed the PSNI as being a publican organisation, infiltrated to the highest level by the FN and EMI.  This is the first stage in a publican cue, with the backing of the Irish government, to overthrow the Loyal and Pradistan people of Ulster and impose a publican Roaming Cathlic state on us.

Pradistan Unionist Loyalist People

Bryson can prove that the war has already started, pointing to the obvious evidence that the Sinn Féin/IRA/PSNI murder squads have already eradicated the UVF in Ulster.  This means us good  Pradistan Unionist Loyalist People (PULP) have been left defenceless, at the mercy of themmuns marching all about the place on Saint Patrick's Day, culminating in the genocide of the PULP just before the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016.

Yes, good Loyalists, heed what Bryson says.  He has all the proof right there inside his head and he can prove it.  Given the overwhelming evidence, is it any wonder Baggott doesn't want to work in this land of crazies anymore?

LAD would ask that everyone thank Jamie for ridding us of the oppressor of the PULP.  Now we can rely on the PSNI only removing publicans and GARCs from the road and letting us march as we used to.

This is a guest post by Ann Travers. We communicated with Ann on Twitter last week when she (again) suffered an enormous amount of online abuse. As a result we offered Ann the opportunity to write a blog for us. These are her words and her story.