An earlier post on the bill extending protection from those who want to protest near reproductive health clinics raises the question of the extent, limits and consequences of the First Amendment.

It seems to me that any "freedom of" something necessarily includes a "freedom from" the same thing. For example, I can print anything I want, but you don't have to read it. My "freedom of the press" includes your "freedom from the press;" otherwise that "freedom" is a chimera.

When it comes to reproductive health clinics, the freedom people have to protest some of the services they provide must end when it interferes with the freedom those who would avail themselves of the services have to get to the clinics. Unfortunately, all too often the protesters impinge on the freedom of women to go to the clinics, which is why this bill was not only good, but necessary.

A few years ago, I was in a subway car where a woman was preaching, loudly. There were two police officers in the car, and I complained that she was disturbing the peace. The police, being either too lazy or too stupid to enforce the law, said she had the right to freedom of religion. The problem was, she was forcing her religion on me, thereby impinging on my freedom of religion as well as my freedom from her religion, but the cops couldn't -- or wouldn't -- understand that.

We all understand the need for the protections of the First Amendment. We must also understand the consequences of those protections. Those consequences mean that Rush Limbaugh can mock Michael J. Fox's ailment, or call on people to hope that President Obama fails. But those same consequences also mean that the Obama administration can take advantage of Limbaugh's idiotic rants to score political points.

We live in an imperfect world with evil (insert picture of Dick Cheney here) all around us. (See? I just exercised a First Amendment freedom there.) The First Amendment makes the world, or at least our part of it, a little less imperfect, but only if it protects not only those who exercise their freedom, but also those whom they would victimize.