If You're Going to San Francisco, Summertime Will Be a "Free Speech Zone" There

"Free Speech Zones" are just about a perfect match for "Free Trade," and today's San Francisco looks more like a redneck mother and less like some cradle of hippie love:

The city known worldwide for its spirit of protest and dissent has denied permits for demonstrators and plans to restrict them to "free-speech zones." People critical of China's human-rights record and spurred by the recent uprising and subsequent crackdown in Tibet are organizing alternative torch run events and rallies and, despite the restrictions, plan to line the route ....

city officials coordinating the main torch relay event plan to designate areas for people to protest the Chinese government or other issues. The designated "free-speech zones" have been used at large events in other cities but have not had a significant presence in San Francisco.

There's just something fundamentally wrong about San Francisco putting barricades around social protest.