John McCain has made a number of heroic contributions to American politics and life, but this law isn't one of them. How in the world did he ever wind up sponsoring this monstrosity?

The only excuse I can come up with is that he got involved with bad company. Namely, the very epitome of liberal -- excuse me, progressive -- excess, Russ Feingold. Sen. Feingold's proposals regularly disappoint, but by now they no longer surprise.

Justice Kennedy now has figured it out: The whole statute fails the constitutional test. It is an infringement on free speech -- an injury and insult to the First Amendment. But how long will it take the whole Supreme Court to figure that out?

Let freedom ring. Also shout, stutter or even film if it wants to. Let a robust exchange of opinions proceed unhindered, trusting to the people, not the government, to judge their worth.

X X X

Wild Freeborn, which is a perfect name for an American, is an 8-year-old girl in Asheville, N.C., who may have just learned a thing or two about free trade and its discontents.

The young lady had the bright idea of using a YouTube video to sell enough Girl Scout cookies to send her troop to summer camp. Recession or no recession, it worked -- at least for a while. She got 700 orders, YouTube being what it is and American free enterprise being what it is.

Or was. Because she was ordered to take down the video by scouting officials, who'd banned Internet sales. Is that a Scout law or just a conspiracy against free trade?

Dear Miss Freeborn, free citizen and future tycooness: I'll take two boxes of the Trefoils (that's the shortbread), and a couple of the Do-Si-Dos (those peanut butter ones, um umm) and ... I'll keep finding any excuse I can to write about an American named Wild Freeborn.