"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens" -- Thomas Jefferson. Consider a scenario. Imagine me entering a cake shop and asking the proprietor to prepare a sheet cake with the text of the Second Amendment printed on a background of the U.S. flag. Put the National Rifle Association emblem in one corner for emphasis. If the cakemaker refused to make the cake on the basis that it offended his leftwing "morals," what should I do? A civil man would take his order to another cake maker. That's what civility looks like. But too often, civility has been supplanted by incivility manifested as the brass knuckles of law. And when law relieves certain people of the responsibility of civility, many behave uncivilly. Witness the experience of a cake maker in Colorado who declined to create a cake with a pro-gay marriage message requested by a gay couple preparing to take their vows. Rather than take their business in elsewhere, they sued and the courts forced the cakemaker to do the couple's bidding/Michael Costello, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Thoughts?