In this country, there is a widely accepted notion that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion and has a right to share it. The first right guaranteed in the Bill of Rights is that of free speech. As such, discussions in this country, political or otherwise, allow for everyone to contribute his or her thoughts and insights.

Recently, Stephanie Eisner, a cartoonist for The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at University of Texas at Austin, was forced to leave the staff over a cartoon that editorialized the Trayvon Martin case.

Yale professor Matthew Smith didn’t expect much when he posted a letter promoting students’ rights to nonviolently protest on his Facebook wall last week.

It may have been somewhat obvious to some that burning the Koran, however stupid, offensive and despicable it might be, falls within the realm of protected freedom of speech. However, Europe has taken a quite different, and much more, restrictive view on freedom of speech.

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is one of the go-to stereotypes of uber-nerddom, along with mouth breathing, a lack of social skills and glasses thick enough to repel lasers. The image of geeky groups of pimply, reclusive geniuses sitting at home on a Saturday with manuals detailing the adventures of trolls and knights pervades pop culture.