Ring out the old, Ring in the new, Ring out the false, Ring in the True!!

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson

These lines from Tennyson have apparently been lost on the government of Ireland. Today rings in the imposition of a new "blasphemy" law, making it a criminal offense to utter or publish "matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion..." This is obviously an attempt to stave off the sort of riotous behavior that took place in Denmark over the publishing of a cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed that was considered "blasphemous" by Muslims and sparked another spate of "bad craziness" in the UK a while back. This law is yet another instance of selling out the principle of free speech in an attempt to gain some security from those who oppose freedom to do anything but submit to rule by a mob of zealots who want nothing less than a return to the llth century. This is hardly the way to "ring in the new," much less a way to "ring out the false, ring in the true."

Michael Nugent of the group, Atheist Ireland, has initiated a campaign to repeal this law and has published a list of 25 Blasphemous Quotes which have previously been published by or uttered by or attributed to such people as Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Randy Newman, Monty Python, Rev Ian Paisley, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Frank Zappa, Salman Rushdie, George Carlin, Richard Dawkins, Pope Benedict XVI, Christopher Hitchens, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Dermot Ahern among others.
(read the list)