The differences between Europe and the U.S. are staggering. As much as Europe would love to emulate our success, they will never succeed as long as they don't respect even the most basic individual freedoms. While most people know that guns are banned all across Europe, few people realize that so is freedom of expression.

The Sun Times reports that Katarina Witt is in hot water with German authorities over her political beliefs.

Katarina Witt, the former Olympic ice-skating star and communist sex symbol, has come under fire from conservative German politicians for wearing a "politically provocative" blouse on television.

Gunther Nooke, culture and media spokesman for the Christian Democrat Union, has threatened to prosecute the double gold medalist for wearing a blouse of a communist youth group, the FDJ, while presenting a show extolling the delights of the former East Germany.

As much as I hate communists, I would never want to see them held for criminal prosecution. While American had her own Red Scare in the past, it is hard to imagine a modern day Western nation seeking criminal prosecution for political beliefs. Then again Germany, as well as the rest of Europe, isn't exactly Western. They've long censored anything with a swastika or pertaining to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Rather than explore the mistakes throughout history, Germans bury their head in the sand and are thus, doomed to repeat it.

The rest of Western Europe is also full of modern day censorship. Modern day censors want to cite people for 'hate speech', or any speech that someone might find "offensive". Even in America, freedom grabbers want inflammatory and unpopular speech to be made illegal, despite the fact that political and unpopular speech are exactly what the First Amendment was created to protect.

In fact, our own Congress recently passed the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act, which limits political speech 60 days prior to a general election. It's no surprise that politicians would pass a law that enhances their job security, but it was sad to see the President sign it into law. It was even more depressing to see several Federal judges uphold the speech ban provision, which may ultimately be left up to the SCOTUS. If the Supremes uphold the law, what then?