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(The episode was inspired when Jerry’s dentist converted to Judaism and within seconds, began telling Jewish jokes. Jerry took offence at the too-quick joke-appropriation, which the dentist promptly damned as anti-dentitism.)

In any case, probably not since the release of Marathon Man has so much ink or so much thought been devoted to those who poke about in the human mouth for a living with their weird little metal instruments, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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Judging by the few posts I have read, I would say the comments appear despicably coarse; that they seem to emerge from a hyper-crass, immoral sexual culture with which we are constantly inundated; and that making such comments on the Internet, even on a private site, is unimaginably stupid and naïve. But there is, so far as I can at this point gather, zero evidence that these students committed any crime.

I wish to avoid further discussion of the content, but rather to draw attention to a principle that is here at stake, a principle that is foundational to the just governing of a free people. I wish to ask Canadians the following question:

Are you prepared for anything you have ever said or written, anywhere, at any time, in the privacy of your own home, or on the telephone, or in an email, to be used against you in your public life? Imagine the angriest, meanest, basest or most ironic, pushing-the-limits thing you have ever said or written — that is, the thing you would least like the world to know of — and now imagine those words broadcast in national media, probably out of context and twisted and misunderstood, to the person or group most likely to take offence.