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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Monday, October 6, 2008

Tour Guides Don't Want To Be Tested

Philadelphia's plan to test and license tour guides is on hold. Lawyers for three tour guides who challenged the plan say a federal judge Monday temporarily blocked the city from enforcing the testing law. It was scheduled to take effect next Monday. Mayor Michael Nutter signed the law in April amid concerns that some guides were telling Philadelphia's history inaccurately. The three guides say it violates their free speech rights. The guides' lawyers say the judge's order prevents the law from being enforced for six months or until the litigation is resolved.

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Give me a break ... I need an aspirin - things like this give me a headache.

Take the test fools.
Knowing the correct history is not an abridgment of your right to free speech.
It is however, a prerequisite for a tour guide who dispenses that same historical data to those who entrust that they do so (and pay them to do so) ... the tourists via the city of Philadelphia.
Now, if the city proscribed a entire dialog to be cited verbatim with no deviations that the tour guides must follow - then that would be an abridgment of their right to free speech and self expression.
Barring such ... the tour guides are at liberty to present the historical data as they see fit- the correct data.
So where in the bloody blazes does taking a test on the history of Philadelphia interfere with their right to free speech?

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