a website for the conservative librarian

  

  Thursday January 15, 2004

 

  (06:05 pm) Home

 

     I'm out, and I'm off tomorrow. I still have plenty of reading to do so hopefully I'll have plenty to post Saturday.

       

         Night.

 

   (05:15 pm) re: A Question

 

      In relation to the point below I'd like to add this: my high school social studies teacher always liked to say that 'the government is us. To complain about the government is silly because what the government does is based on our own actions or inactions.' Not a direct quote but it was something along that lines.

     I'd like to expand that thought to say that the concept of 'Big Brother' is actually us, not just librarians but everybody. In the realm of books it is us specifically. There truly is no privacy because somebody somewhere is going to see you do the things you do.

    As members of the communities in which we live if we know certain kids have been looking up diagrams on potato guns and suddenly there is rash of broken windows in the area caused by flying potatoes we have an obligation to share that information. 

    On the more severe side there have been instances where library computers have been take by law enforcement in tracking down child porn. Whether staff knew about it and reported this in advance I don't know but if they did know I have to assume they were willing to report it.

    Its a new kind of world out here and you can demonize Ashcroft all you want but he's doing his job and that job belongs a little bit to all of us as well. Don't shirk it. 

 

   (05:15 pm) A Question

 

      The Jan '04 issue of American Libraries is out. It contains an opinion piece by Robert S. Mueller, director of the FBI. Pretty straightforward piece backing the Patriot Act. The primary argument being there are plenty of safe guards in place both before and after a person is investigated so the odds of abuse are slim (most reasonable people knew this). Unfortunately he does make the same mistake as Ashcroft in citing that it has not been used in libraries as of yet.

     The truly fascinating part of it is when he makes the argument that crime and terrorism does occasionally come in contact with the library. In doing so he offers this:

 

    "The Unabomber, who was at the time unidentified, sent a manuscript to the New York Times with an offer to cease terrorist actions if the paper would print the manuscript. Included within the manuscript were references to an obscure book, The Ancient Engineers, by L. Sprague De Camp. A librarian in Montana near Kaczynski's home told FBI agents that Kaczynski had ordered "tons of stuff" on L. Sprague De Camp. Kaczynski was subsequently arrested and convicted for his role in a string of bombings."

 

   Okay, now at first I chalked that up to an interesting bit of trivia but on further thought I see something else there. Ask yourself this: was it okay for the librarian to tell the agents that Kaczynski had a thing for De Camp? 

   If its okay, then how is it different from agents getting the records to check for themselves?

   If its not okay then what you are saying is that a killer's right to read is more important than a society's right to feel safe from said killer. And that's just nuts. 

   

 

  Wednesday January 14, 2004

 

  (05:15 pm) Home I Hope

 

  Its 3 degrees out so I'm outta here before it gets colder (plus I want to be settled before Enterprise comes on). The car barely turned over this morning. She did though and considering she's a '72 Maverick that's pretty darn impressive.

 

 'night

 

  (05:12 pm) Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished

 

     via OpinionJournal's Best of the Web comes this...

 

  (05:08 pm) Articles

 

     2 good articles in the Read Dept. One dealing with libraries and the Patriot Act and another by Robert Samuelson on journalism and excessive education. Its a great article but here's the money quote:

 

"Journalism is best learned by doing it. Mostly, an aspiring reporter needs a job, preferably for an exacting editor. You try to be accurate, clear, quick, perceptive and engaging. These are not abstract skills learned in a classroom. At best, journalism schools are necessary evils. They provide basic training -- usually through mock newsrooms -- that most papers and broadcast stations won't. Some get this training on college papers and stations. Journalism school is an alternative. But keep it brief. In general, universities are sheltered places. Most professors have job security. Their politics don't reflect national politics (less than 20 percent rate themselves "conservative'')."

 

  See any similarities?

 

   Tuesday January 13, 2004

 

  (06:33 pm) Home

 

           Adieu

 

  (06:24 pm) Who knew?

 

     ... we had infiltrated the world of music more than once... here's an another album and a band.

 

 (06:13 pm) Cool

 

    If only librarians actually dressed like that...

 

   ...the girls, not the boys...

 

  (05:57 pm) The Company We Keep

 

   According to LJ 01/04 Carla Hayden, ALA president was named one of Ms. magazine's ten Women of the Year for 2003. She shares the 'honor' with Joan Blades of MoveOn.org and Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's  Organizations. MoveOn.org is the site that posted the recent Bush-as-Hitler video ads. Ms. Burk is the twit who had some issues with the Augusta National Golf Club being men only, there being no women-only clubs anywhere in the United States.

 

    (05:48 pm) Jonah and John

 

      I will note that John Ashcroft made a huge mistake in letting the country know that the library section of the Patriot Act had not been used. By saying that he is implying there was something wrong with it to begin with (there isn't).

    Jonah Goldberg uses the argument in his Corner posts but says he is doing so to point out the hysterics of the Left who implied it was being used all the time. That's understandable.

 

   (05:35 pm) Mother Jones

 

    Over on The Corner over at National Review Jonah Goldberg found this link to a Mother Jones article. The article is about Trina Magi, former president of the Vermont Library Association and her fight against the Patriot Act. The article offers this quote:

 

"These days, it's not people fretting about what she might think of their questions that worries Magi; it's their unease about what the federal government might think."

 

     The government doesn't care what you and I are asking. They're kinda busy at the moment tracking down terrorists. 

 

   (05:21 pm)

 

    Debbie writes:

 

"...what about us librarians who agree with [SHUSH] on some issues, such as finding the ALA way too liberal, but yet feel that the Patriot Act is way too invasive. Any room for us conservative liberals??"

 

     There's always room for discussion, but you're going to have to make a case first. The Act is invasive of whom? and if its invasive is it so invasive that you'd rather risk thousands of people dying? 

 

  (05:15 pm)

 

        I don't own The Doll... yet 

 

   (05:05 pm) Maintenance

 

     Just posting up a few links. If anyone knows of any good ones that deserve being added let me know...

 

    Monday January 12, 2004

 

  (05:18 pm supper)

 

     Someone noted my their/they're gaff in the Cuba post. I think I misused it 4x. I do know the difference but that usually happens when I'm typing fast. I'll do the best I can folks but I'm not always going to have time to edit thoroughly and an English teacher I'm not. Feel free to let me know of any errors. I'll be happy to correct. Oh, and forget about its/it's, I've looked it up a thousand times and still don't remember which is which. If its an important doc I'll look it up but for here everything is 'its' unless I can avoid it altogether. 

 

  (12:06 pm)

 

      Patriots win! Bring on the Colts! The Colts can brag about their 38 points all they want, the Chiefs had no defense and scored 31 points of their own so what does that tell you?

 

     I'm on the late shift today but I will work on getting more information up tomorrow night.

 

   Saturday January 10, 2004

 

(2:21 pm)

 

   Reviews are always a good way to peak curiosity, from Rescuing the Emotional Lives of Overweight Children to The S Factor: Strip Workouts for Every Woman but I have to go get groceries and get ready for the game tonight. Go Patriots!

 

   Hope everyone has a nice Sunday, and I hope someone is warm somewhere. It's 11 degrees outside!

 

(2:05 pm) Architecture

 

  Okay, some fun stuff... the Dec issue of LJ was also the Architectural issue. Some really beautiful stuff. The Krupp Library in RI is very impressive but the picture in the mag shows two sides of mostly glass. Considering here in Mass we are flirting with O degree temps I'd hate to see their heating bill.

 

   The Jackson Library in Indiana is enormous, I was going to say its ugly, actually I still will but from the side picture in LJ. The front-on photo here is nicer. The cylinder on the side makes it less blocky.

 

   Prettiest is the Buena Vista Branch in Burbank CA. You can't tell from the site but there is a beautiful outside area, I believe in the back. Reading is not just an indoor sport.

 

   This library has a lawn on its roof. You can read more about it here. Honestly I just don't know what to say about that.

 

(1:59 pm) China

 

   Interesting item in the latest Publisher's Weekly, Simon & Schuster terminates a Chinese publishing house's rights to publish "Living History: by Sen. Hillary Clinton. The publisher, Yilin Press had cut out all bad references to China. I thought capitalism was supposed to solve the communist problems of China?  Guess you can't beat good old fashion democracy.

 

(1:50 pm) 

 

   Okay, just finished some emailing. I emailed Mr. Reed of LJ the substance of My First Post Ever, plus did a little recruiting. On with other stuff...

 

(1:20 pm) Cuba

 

   Following the crony statement comes this...

 

"Watch for conservatives to criticize ALA's non stance on the controversial issue of Cuba's 'independent librarians'."

 

   I wasn't aware it was only conservative librarians who believed that the public should have the right to read what they want without worrying about being arrested and tortured? Huh. Good to know. Oh, and they're not 'independent librarians', they're Librarians. They're the best of the best, and I don't care if they're bookshelves have 3 books and a magazine on them, its just as valuable as any library with 100,000 volumes in it.

 

(1:15 pm) Cronies?

 

   pg 68 of LJ, as the editors gear up for 2004 issues, refer to "...Ashcroft and his cronies..." This is where the problem is. If you'll look at the top of the screen you'll see this site is clearly going to take a conservative stance on the issues. With LJ where's the truth in advertising? Where's the honesty? It doesn't have librarians' interest at heart, it has liberals interest at heart.

 

(1:08 pm) A different issue...

 

    Wisconsin legislature approves a bill giving parents access to the library records of children under 16. Massachusetts has something similar pending but I'm not sure what the status is, I'll see what I can find out.

    For the record, when it comes to minors parents trump librarians, seems like a no-brainer doesn't it?

 

(1:02 pm) You knew this was coming...

 

    Still on CIPA, you had to know that individual states would follow-up on it once it became obvious that a lot of libraries were going to turn away federal funding and stay non-filtered. We can only hope they focus on minors.

 

As of December, Ohio Senator Steve Austria proposed a bill for mandatory filtering of internet for minors. Send him an email of encouragement. 

 

(12:55 pm) Second Post Ever

 

       Okay, no computer at home (which is a good thing, don't worry) so I read through the rest of LJ Dec '03 and jotted down some things...

 

    In the letter page Susan Thomas had this to say about CIPA:

 

"It is not censorship to try to limit the trash that children are inundated with from the day they are born"

 

  Can't argue with that. I don't like that CIPA covers all computers but that is purely ALA's fault. If they hadn't taken the approach that no filtering is acceptable then they could have talked Congress into limiting to just computers in the Children's area.

 

   Friday January 9, 2004

 

(1:28 pm/lunch) - First Post Ever

 

      I was going to try get some more content up before I started posting  but I just got my hands on the Dec '03 issue of Library Journal and the Editor-in-Chief Mr. Berry had this to say:

 

"Librarians have been leaders and very visible participants in this fight. This has brought a dramatic increase in respect for the profession and calls to participate in programs, debates, and discussions on these issues."

 

    Whose respect? From the over 50% of the nation that supports President Bush? That supports the war on terror? More likely from Democrat politicians and liberal media looking to make the war on terror look like a failure. We have been *very* visible participants in this fight, and being on the wrong side of it has made us the fools the public as always thought us to be. The Patriot Act is a question of red tape. Library records could have been taken before the Act, and after the Act they can still be if only a little bit easier. If you want to say that the missing red tape represents freedoms lost, that's fine. We should always be wary of making government intrusion easy. Before you get behind your pulpit though you might want to take a moment of silence to remember that all that extra red tape cost us 3,000 lives, and the lack of it may save millions.