(01:50 pm) Apprentice

     Wow. Good thing gambling is illegal 'cause I sure didn't see that coming.

     What was with the diversity crack in the cab? She had no problem saying she would 'chew up my brother' if she was in the boardroom against Kwame.

Thursday March 4, 2004

(06:36 pm) Home

     I'm probably going to go to the movies Saturday. I usually go pretty often but haven't been since LOTR:ROTK. I gotta see Starsky and Hutch, Hidalgo is a close second but it will have to wait for now.

     $20 says Katrina has the fit and gets fired.

     Night.

(06:06 pm) Blankets

     This is a sorta great book. Its great for being a graphic novel and unique in its genre. I related to a lot of it, growing up in the boondocks, very religious population, cramped living quarters, and the awkwardness of first love. The story is better described on Amazon then what I can offer so scope out more there.

******************SPOILERS**************************

     I say sorta because the strength of it being a graphic novel is also its weakness. Without the thousands of words of a normal book has to flesh out every plot line and explain every feeling you rely more on the visuals. And if you get what's being said, you get it. If you don't your not going to. So the rocky part of the relationship I didn't get that well. And while I understood his turning away from church I didn't understand his turning away from the Bible especially when he did go back to it. He admits to not trusting church but still believing in Christ. I think he makes a common mistake in thinking religion and faith are one and the same.

*****************************************************

     Overall its a book I'd recommend to any adult. They say the difference between being nude and naked is the presence of the artist. There is some nudity and sexual activity so don't hand it over to your teenager without judging for yourself but it is a work of art. A healthy one at that.

(05:59 pm) The Election

     The Economy is not the issue. Immigration either. Education, bi-lingual or otherwise, no. Gays, no. Taxes, no. Welfare, Social or Corporate, no. Jobs, no.

     The issue will be about those that learned something on September 11, 2001, and those didn't.

(05:50 pm) North Korea

     Jeff Jacoby has a mind-blowing article on Canada's foreign policy insanity and a reminder that Iraq was not the only Holocaust going on.

     (I know some people don't like comparing everything to either Hitler or the Holocaust but in these cases what else do you call it?)

(05:36 pm) ST:E

     I can't decide if it was really bad or really good. I was impressed when Archer destroyed the moon base, that was a necessary decision but then to go on a suicide run because of it seems poor logic. This is supposed to be pre-Federation and even though society has advanced considerably, they've also been through some rough times in the not-so-distant past. I find it hard to believe Starfleet trained them to be pacifists.

     But you pull one thread and run into a lot more. Why would the Zindi, as an entire group buy into the idea that humans are a threat (think US, China, Russia, and France agreeing)? Considering how advanced they are compared to humans, why bother with a weapon, why not just send the fleet? Why send a pre-weapon to give a heads-up to begin with, especially when there was an episode showing them test the larger one, so obviously they could have done testing in advance.

     The good news is that it was pointed out that destroying the weapon was not going to be enough when more could be built so the story is trying to move in an intelligent direction. Also watching Enterprise get the tar kicked out of her was painful to watch so I guess that's called good drama. The spheres have always been a good plot device but the Zindi know a lot less about them then they should. In every scifi movie, book, or comic book humans seem to be the only beings with a curiosity gene.

     Anyway, enough of my sunny side.

(05:34 pm) Political Junkie?

     ... or just warped? I've been watching The OC and I'm starting to wonder if they are trying to make a case for polygamy...

(05:29 pm) FIM

     Otherwise know as Foot-In-Mouth Disease. Linda Porter, LJ's ParaPro of the Year emailed me today to say she's working on a response to my email. So I will patiently wait for and look forward to her reply and try not to jump the gun again.

Wednesday March 3, 2004

(06:56 pm) Home

     Not much light stuff tonight but I needed to move the LJ issue onto the next staff person. I'll be sunny tomorrow. Unless ST:E stinks.

     Anyway... Night

(06:26 pm) Buttons and BS

     The Backtalk section of LJ deals with two issues piling them into one.

     Wearing a button that promotes a specific candidate is, I thought, illegal. You can't campaign for someone in a gov't building. The writer works in a University so that might be different but I doubt it. Wearing a religious pin or even a generic political one like an elephant or a donkey shouldn't be an issue.

     The other part is nonsense. Here is the scenario:

If a patron asked for help finding editorials supporting the Right to Life I would be out of line if I replied, "Sure, and I'll show you some Right To Choose material as well, to balance that out."
Even as further assistance, a suggestion like this is "in-your-face"; it smacks of creating an unwelcome debate, or even confrontation, at the desk rather than providing extra service. I might justify this behavior by claiming I had a moral duty to promote intellectual freedom by encouraging discussion. But what I'd really be doing is coercing the patron. The reference desk is not a soapbox.

     After this he admits that he has actually done this. He codes it with 'not usually' and 'don't hide these beliefs if I'm asked'. Bottom line is he's done it.

     Switch that scenario of his around and have me giving Right To Life books to someone who is researching pro-choice and ALA would be marching on my library calling for my head.

     Let me add one more quote:

On the one hand, I'm a free speech advocate trying to keep all channels of communication open between librarians and the public we serve.

     There is no 'line of communication'. They ask. You give. Unless they want kiddie porn or manuals on how to blow up large buildings you need to shut-up.

(05:57 pm) MLS Debate con't

     Well, I sent her an email congratulating her and added on a few questions but to paraphrase Howie Carr, when my email doesn't beep I'll know its her.

     Congratulations anyway for Linda Porter of New Jersey in being chosen LJ's ParaProfessional of the Year, 2004!

     She's been in the library business for 16 years. She's president of NJALA for the second time. She goes to ALA conventions. She successfully helped petition LJ to create the Para-Pro award. She's a supervising library assistant and she can't go any higher without an MLS.

     So tell me folks... if you visit the Burlington County Library System, who do you want helping you?

(05:15 pm) ALA is still racist

     Millions of immigrants have come to this country and had to learn the English language and to adapt to to American life and American democracy. They have done quite well. And yet ALA feels that Spanish speakers are not capable of adapting without significant help if at all.

     In the policy section of ALA is this:

60.4 Library Education to Meet the Needs of Spanish-Speaking People
The American Library Association will take steps through its Committee on Accreditation to encourage graduate library schools seeking accreditation or reaccreditation to assure that course content reflects the cultural heritage and needs of the Spanish-speaking people of the United States and will encourage such schools to include bilingual/bicultural persons on their faculties.

     Why ALA? What is it about Spanish immigrants that you don't trust? Is it their spicy food? Their sexy dance moves? Does their soap operas give you such a poor impression of their culture that you feel the need to separate them from everyone else? Don't you think they can learn English? Why ALA? Why so racist?

     The disturbing thing is that ALA is not content to wallow in their anti-immigrant view by themselves but that they feel the need to force it on our schools as well.

(05:13 pm) MLS Debate

     Sue puts in a good argument over on the MLS forum.

Tuesday March 2, 2004

(06:01 pm) Home

     ...but not just yet. A little project to get started.

     More posts tomorrow...

(05:52 pm) Crossgen

     According to the March 1st issue of PW Crossgen is close to getting back on track with their graphic novel publications.

     Its been a shame that they haven't been more succesful. They've had some really great titles, a lot of new ideas in publishing, and their online catalog makes DC and Marvel look like amateurs. Here's hoping they're headed for sunnier times.

(05:26 pm) MLA Elections

     I just got my election ballot in the mail for the Massachusetts Library Association. To be honest you really can't tell anything about either candidate from the fluff statements they submitted with the ballot. However, one candidate threw in this bit of nonsense:

In resisting the threats to privacy generated by the USA Patriot Act, we have gained new visibility and opportunities with which to remind all Americans about the importance of protecting 1st Amendment rights.

This is the 1st Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

     There ain't a single thing in there about privacy. The candidate gets an F for bringing up The Patriot Act nonsense in the first place, but to relate it to the 1st amendment is spotlighting her inability to understand the situation.

     So I will be voting for Katie Baxter over Jacqueline Rafferty. Granted my endorsement could lose Katie votes and for that I apologize but the purpose of this site is to deal with library issues so it has to be said.

(05:13 pm) The Debate

     The problem is its no longer a debate. If you have any reservations that gay marriage isn't the right thing to do you're a homophobe. Dennis Prager gives the list of why its not okay:

With same-sex marriage, our society declares by law that mothers are unnecessary, since two men are equally ideal as mothers and as the creators of a family; and that fathers are unnecessary, since two women are equally ideal as parents and as the creators of a family.

With same-sex marriage, our society declares that there is nothing special or even necessarily desirable about a man and a woman bonding. What is sacred to the proponents of same-sex marriage is the number of people marrying (two, for the time being), not that a man and woman bond.

With same-sex marriage, when taught in school about sex, marriage and family, children will have to be taught that male-male and female-female sex, love and marriage are identical to male-female sex, love and marriage. And when asked, "Who do you think you will marry when you grow up?" thanks to the ubiquitous images of media, far more children will consider members of the same sex.

With same-sex marriage, no adoption agency will ever be able to prefer a married man and woman as prospective parents. Aside from the tragedy of denying untold numbers of children a mother and a father, this will lead to a drastic diminution in women placing children for adoption, since most of these women will prefer something that will then be illegal -- that agencies place her child with a man and woman, not with two men or two women.

With same-sex marriage, any media -- films, advertisements, greeting cards -- that only depict married couples as a woman and a man will be considered discriminatory and probably be sued.

With same-sex marriage, those religious groups that only marry men and women will be deemed beyond the pale, marginalized and ostracized.