Max Baucus Quotes
Protecting basic rights such as freedom of expression enhances social stability.
Baucus, Max. Statement on Human Rights Day. U.S. Embassy & Consulates in China, 10 Dec. 2014.
As hard as it is for us to imagine today, while her husband was President of the United States, the First Lady wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column every single day with politics frequently the subject. While she usually agreed with the President, there were occasions where they seemed to not see things exactly the same. She tended to be more liberal than he. However, there were those who believed that when she criticized politicians, it was with FDR’s knowledge and blessing and she sometimes did his “dirty work.” Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most influential people in the country—certainly more-so than any First Lady before and since.
Said was commenting on the furor that developed in 1989 when Iran Ayatollah Khomeini issued a Muslim legal opinion—a fatwa--calling for the death of, and offered a bounty on, Salman Rushdie whose book, Satanic Verses, contained material to which they objected as blasphemy:
Peace on Earth
Danish fundamentalist Muslim Groups were demonstrating, protesting, and threatening Danes who wrote or published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Other Europeans who had committed what Muslims thought to be blasphemy had been attacked and even murdered by Muslim fundamentalists. Led by Nasim Rahnama, some Danish Muslims, braved attack and possible death, and produced a petition of Muslims defending the right of freedom of publication. See {59932} & {59919}.
This has been one of the fundamental debates in America since its founding. Which is more important, the preservation of civil rights and personal liberty or the supremacy of the law and the stability of our institutions. In war, the tension is always existent. In law enforcement, there is also a common conflict. Prohibition, like the later War on Drugs, was not able to be enforced without the invasion of personal rights. Americans decided that Prohibition benefits were not worth it/ The debate is ongoing with respect to the War on Drugs.
Maxwell Sieben Baucus is an American politician and diplomat who served as a United States Senator from Montana from 1978 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a U.S. Senator for nearly 36 years, making him the longest-serving Senator in Montana history. President Barack Obama appointed Baucus to replace Gary Locke as the 11th U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, a position he held from 2014 until 2017.
