[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Originally Posted by August

You know what Kaz. I reject your analysis and I resent your insulting characterizations.

There is nothing at all wrong with an employer giving his opinion and that's the same whether and while you may object to the idea,

Sorry, the idea that our friend was merely innocently giving his opinion by sticking it into his employees' paychecks has less credibility than the idea that all those American recce planes that went into the Eastern bloc (and vice versa) did so due to "navigation error".

It would be ignoring human nature to deny that a boss expressing his opinion on any issue, even in a far more innocent manner than employed here, has a chilling effect.

Given this, if we take Freedom of Expression as a good to be maximized as much as possible, then we may argue that a boss' chilling effect is great enough that the net loss of partially muzzling him may be less than allowing him to shoot his big, powerful mouth off in public. A similar consideration has led to restrictions on governmental officials. I don't see why a boss, with similar de facto power over his subje ... err employees, should necessarily be exempt from such considerations.

We may also conclude if a boss has to express himself, he should endeavor to minimize the loss of Freedom of Expression. Which, uh, is not, by the most generous interpretation, happening here - in fact, he seems flat out set to maximize it.

(while completely ignoring the fact that unions do the exact same thing and to a much greater degree).

I'm not very familiar with American unions, but if you can show me them threatening (whether you think the threat is effective or not) their members, I'll consider the merits of the case.

In any case, even if the world does raise louder screams over Israeli strafing of Palestinians than the inverse, it does not mean Israel was not evil in strafing the Palestinians. Same thing here.

The bottom line is that the "mob" won back part of Congress. We now have shared power. Live with it.

Well, I don't have to live with it either way (at least not directly), since I don't live in America, so I get to look at this issue on its merits.