Freedom of speech is not the liberty of blubbering anything that pops to your mind, on the spot.

It is the freedom to be able to say what you want from amongst many correct and rational alternatives.

Basically freedom of speech is what Alpha says it´s "freedom of speech", nothing else.

 But it is not "freedom of speech" when you do not allow others to comment on what you have just said.

 Is it not possible to comment on the forum.....quoting what you feel you want to comment on?

 But when thehandsom wrote the column he probably knew that others would want to comment, so why did he disable the comments and not allow people to reply in the proper place?

 I am also disappointed that thehandsom felt he had to disable the comments, and I concur with Bydand and others on that . 

My Comments:

I must say it is not one of my favourite columns and it is disappointing for me, in comparison to the others that you have written with a certain "joie de vivre" which this one lacks.

 +10000

Im sure they will close this thread too as they hided

 Of course it is possible.  The issue is, when one comments directly to the column, the comments stay with the column instead of scrolling into oblivion.  IOW if someone wants to comment directly to a column, it stays with the relevant column,  where comments are connected to the column.  As you, no doubt, most have noticed, subjects in the forum scoll away from sight.

 Meaning...?   You can´t find them/read them??  If enough people are interested in a subject it rarely leaves the ´latest discussion´ page.

thehandsom probably knew who would comment what on his column and maybe he just wanted to spare you the trouble.

once again -- that is the nature of our columns -- columnists post their articles and they may choose to have comments or not. if any of you want to be serious columnists, you will have the same option.