In 1996, Milos Forman’s film “The People vs. Larry Flynt” showed the world that exercising one’s right to free speech can be dangerous. There were a lot of people who had a lot against Larry Flynt, the owner of Flynt Publishing, a company specialising in the production of visual stimuli like the rather well known “Hustler Magazine” [the first porn link in this blog…]. Even when he barely survived an attempted assasination that left him paralyzed, Flynt did not give up to defend his rights and challenge America with Voltaire –

“I may not like what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”

Now Mr Flynt seems to be about to make an expensive bet about how many people will not just let him say what he sees fit, but let him say it in their name – on Monday, he announced that he would enter the now likely Schwarzenegger-void race [the Terminator will make an announcement on Wednesday] for the succesion of Californian governor Gray Davis.

It would be easy to see this campaign as a passtime for a old and rich publisher, as the electoral system does not seem to impose too many restrictions on prospective candidates, according to CNN. And rather likely, it is just that.

But given Flynt’s record of fighting against the people, it would certainly be interesting to see what he would do for them.