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By DAVID P. GUSHEE
& WILLIAM S. SESSIONS
Twenty-five years ago, President Ronald Reagan vigorously championed U.S. ratification of the international Convention Against Torture, which he signed on April 18, 1988.

Reagan acclaimed it as having marked a significant step in the development of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment.

By GENE POLICINSKI
First Amendment Center
So how “free” is free speech, really?

By law, under the First Amendment, speech is very free. Government can only stop us from speaking, or punish us for what we’ve said, under very limited circumstances.

Sometimes, those limits on free speech are pretty clear and generally agreed upon. For example, speech that is involved in a criminal act like extortion or blackmail finds no shelter in the First Amendment.

As our ship of state sails away from ill-advised foreign entanglements, her hull battered and holed, her crew war weary, bloodied and ill-paid, the captain scans the distant shore for safe harbor ­— a place to mend her wounds and bind up shattered sails.

Weddings have become anything-goes affairs these days. I guess that’s as it should be.

I attended a fine outdoor ceremony at the Chattanooga Nature Center recently. Guests wore everything from dresses and coats and ties to blue jeans, hiking sandals and untucked shirts.

And bug spray. Our hosts were thoughtful enough to provide plenty of DEET-infused repellants.