Once when I was a kid I gave my sister a Chinese burn. My mother said, "Stop annoying your sister". But I kept on twisting. So my mum called the New South Wales police and they arrested me.

I grew up but never grew out of my annoying habits. Just the other day I was walking down the street with a t-shirt saying, "Ain't Free Speech Great". A member of the constabulary found it annoying. So he arrested me.

I tried to reason with him but he found my whining even more annoying. So he read me my ‘rights' and threw me in jail.

It meant I missed an episode of Family Guy which I found really annoying. But apparently there's no reciprocal right of arrest so I couldn't cuff the copper who cuffed me.

I'm not alone. As you may have already heard, new regulations in New South Wales have been stealthily passed giving police the power to prevent people "causing annoyance" during the Catholic Church's World Youth Day extravaganza.

So, if you step out wearing one of those silly t-shirt's saying, "I like the Pope, the Pope smokes dope," you're likely to be, er, ‘prevented'.

Or if, god forbid, you were a victim of sexual abuse by a priest and you came out and stood on the street outside the World Youth Day event with a sign or t-shirt pointing to the abuse you'd suffered well the police theoretically could and probably would move you on. And if you refused then, it's "hello handcuffs" for you. Sometimes unpalatable truths can be, well, so damned annoying.

There seems to be an emerging belief that free speech is ok as long as it doesn't annoy or offend anyone. Well that's just baloney. Free speech is all about argument, sometimes offensive argument. If nothing else it's a safety valve, an outlet, a release. If you shut people up eventually their frustrations boil over anyway ... how do you think we got Pauline Hansen?

"Master! She's alive. SHE'S ALIVE".

You know, we live in a wonderful democracy in a world where wonderful democracies are pretty rare (just ask Zimbabwe). What amazes me then, given how precious this gift is, is just how quickly our law makers rush to plunk their pink pudgy fingers on the authoritarian button when given half a chance.

"Hey everyone APEC is coming to town, let's lock down Sydney".

"Yeah"

"And build a really ugly steel fence".

"Yeah"

"And pass those stop, search and arrest powers we saw in that North Korean handbook".

"Yeah"

"Now let's go to the pub".

"Yeah"

(I made the pub bit up).

It's like a gag reflex. They do it seemingly without thought. As if in the garage sale of freedoms free speech is the first and easiest to put on the bargain bench.

Perhaps it's because our freedoms, unlike America, weren't born out of blood and sacrifice and therefore aren't valued as much.

Who knows? Whatever the reason, we should resist their creeping attempts to take what's ours from us. Yes, resist their mealy mouthed assurances that this or that draconian law is only for this event or that week and you'll all be a lot happier if you stay at home and out of harm anyway, wont you?

So for those inclined to defend free speech, fight on. Because every time they take something from you it's a little less you've got left.

Meantime, if the new regulations are to stay in place then I say apply them without fear or favour. I demand the immediate incarceration of anyone at World Youth Day caught singing, "Kumbaya My Lord ".

Is there anything more annoying?

My case rests.
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah!
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah!
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah!
O Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's laughing, Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's laughing, Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's laughing, Lord, kum ba yah!
O Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's crying, Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's crying, Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's crying, Lord, kum ba yah!
O Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's praying, Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's praying, Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's praying, Lord, kum ba yah!
O Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's singing, Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's singing, Lord, kum ba yah!
Someone's singing, Lord, kum ba yah!
O Lord, kum ba yah!
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah!
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah!
Kum ba yah, my Lord, kum ba yah!
O Lord, kum ba yah!

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