Ted Poe: “the curtain has dropped on the stage of free speech in Paris, France for actress Brigitte Bardot. The birthplace of…”

“the curtain has dropped on the stage of free speech in Paris, France for actress Brigitte Bardot. The birthplace of enlightenment has now become home to conformity and political correctness, and rigid speech control. In France, if speech is offensive, a person can be fined and imprisoned. That's what French prosecutors are trying to do to Brigitte Bardot, claiming she incited racial hatred toward the Muslim community. Bardot wrote comments in a letter to Nicolas Sarkozy that offended Muslims. Bardot, an animal rights activist, denounced a Muslim festival that included slaughtering sheep by saying she was ``fed up with being led by this population which is destroying us, and destroying France.'' Now the French speech control police claim it's a crime to speak ill of Muslims. So much for freedom of speech in progressive France. Speech control is a throwback to the Dark Ages when no one could say anything bad about the king. Gone is the citizen Voltaire's philosophy of ``I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend it to the death for you to say it.'' But today French citizens that speak their mind may face the modern day Bastille if they offend Muslims or hurt their feelings. It looks like the last curtain call for actress Brigitte Bardot and free speech in France. And that's just the way it is.”