Q.) What has chainlink fences, armed guards and razor wire?

[Preechr]

A very good friend of mine nearly tore my head off over a disagreement we had over the protest conditions imposed at the G8 Summit down here. He was all "Free Speech!" and "Freedom of Assembly!" and I was all "They have all the access to cameras they want!" and "It seems you want the freedom to physically threaten world leaders with mobs rather than the freedom to spread your message!"

Are the days of the effective protest dead? I think effectiveness began being rated on a scale of inconvenience to the public a while back. Participating in a protest can serve to liberate one from the feeling of looking like a principled idiot in public, but isn't that just a first step to a larger, more substantive goal? Shouldn't the protester then move on to something beyond hassling passersby?

Take the podium at the convention rather than picketing it, maybe... Not that I agree with the Free Speech Zones, especially when instituted by Democrats of all people... though I don't share the idealism with which you guys seem to regard the party... but they're at least supposed to ACT like hippies, aren't they?