(06:47 pm) Home

     Last post until sometime next week. NELA starts on Sunday, but no computer this time, wish me luck.

     Night.

  (06:34 pm) Feel Like Makin' Love

     A funny item in Publishers Weekly, Sept 20 issue. It contains an interview with the sexiest author writing, Laurell K. Hamilton. It contains this quote:

"People got up in my face about the sex," says Hamilton, recalling how they shouted questions about her sexual desires - and worse. "It was vicious." Hamilton notes, "Europeans, almost without exception, think the sex is fine but the violence is too great. And Americans are not bothered by the violence at all - they're bothered by the sex! It's okay [in America] to die on stage or in the movies, but God forbid you make love."

     First of all I've read all of Laurell's books and while I enjoyed them I know of no one, including us Americans who could have read Obsidian Butterfly or any titles beyond that and not been bothered by the violence.

     Second of all, Laurell, who are you kidding? There is no one 'making love' in your books. Dogs in heat yes, but lovemaking? No.

  (05:57 pm) Banned Books Week

     First of all, Free Uncle Remus!

     Second of all, this Saturday, Sept 25, starts ALA's Banned Books Weeks. Its one of those things that just creep up on you but I promise next year we're going to invest a little more time. For now a few points.

     ALA loves Banned Books Week but since they can't actually come up with any banned books here in the U.S. of A. (banned by the gov't anyway, Kerry still won't allow reprints of his book The Winter Soldier) they are forced to create a 'Most Challenged List'. These books are usually challenged by parents who are uncomfortable with the materials being in a school library or public library. Sometimes they go over the top sometimes they don't, in neither case is the book banned.

     What ALA doesn't seem to want to acknowledge is that there are actual government banned books around the world. For example in Saudi Arabia it is illegal to carry a Bible or other non-Muslim material:

"Customs officials routinely open mail and shipments to search for contraband, including Sunni printed material that is deemed incompatible with the Salafi tradition of Islam, Shi'a religious materials, and non-Muslim materials, such as Bibles and religious videotapes. Such materials are subject to confiscation, although rules appear to be applied arbitrarily."

     That's from a 2003 International Religious Freedom Report at the State Department site. (Thanks Daniel!)

     In a world filled with places where saying, reading, or even wearing the wrong thing can put your life at risk we should see Banned Books Week as an opportunity to be thankful that we live in a country founded on personal liberties and guided by individual faith.

  (05:42 pm) The Moore Movement

     An emailer forwarded an email going around from Michael Moore. The original can be seen at his site. Its fascinating that he only considers Jon Stewart and Bill Moyers reliable TV sources, a comedian and a government funded... well I don't know exactly what Moyers is other than that he's government funded. The man's voice is the sound of paint drying.

     What's funniest is Moore's own description of Kerry as a flip-flopper in the last paragraph:

Just for me, please? Buck up. The country is almost back in our hands. Not another negative word until Nov. 3rd! Then you can bitch all you want about how you wish Kerry was still that long-haired kid who once had the courage to stand up for something. Personally, I think that kid is still inside him. Instead of the wailing and gnashing of your teeth, why not hold out a hand to him and help the inner soldier/protester come out and defeat the forces of evil we now so desperately face. Do we have any other choice?

     Of course its the original flip, the one Kerry's entire career is based on, one day the soldier, another day the protester, never really being either.

Wednesday September 22, 2004

  (05:41 pm) re: An Interest Development

     One last note on this, in reference to the original post in question, it no longer seems to be there. Interesting.

  (05:35 pm) Not Just Librarians

     An emailer sent me an interesting article on conservatives as the minority in the profession.

  (05:17 pm) Stuff

     I apologize for the lack of posts. Things are crazy at work and the New England Lib Assoc convention is this weekend so my mind is elsewhere. Hopefully things will settle down next week.