I appreciate everyone saying they’re against torture but could someone come up with some kind of ranking system for torture, human suffering and cruel and unusual punishment? Some kind of pain index? 

   Chris Wallace on Sunday Morning did a piece on Walter Reed Hospital. I’m wondering where soldiers who will spend their lives without a limb or limbs rank in the grand scheme of things.

   We dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan. I agree it was the right decision but where does the human suffering of the people who survived the blast rank?

    What if you’re just a few feet outside the blast area of a daisy cutter?

   People say the death penalty is cruel and unusual, I say spending your entire life surrounded by the worst sort of humanity is cruel and unusual. Hell I say being outside of jail but stuck with ankle bracelets is cruel and unusual.

   People on top of the Two Towers deciding whether to die by fire or sudden impact.

   What was done to Senator McCain vs what was done to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

   Sitting through movie previews of slasher films.

    Its all pain and suffering but for some reason calling something comparably insignificant “torture” makes it so much worse than the absolute worse things above (make your own personal choice on which it might be). How can a language with so many words be so hung up on just one?

According to the Associated Press $22 million of the most recent spend-a-thon will go “to expand facilities at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.”

I wonder if we’ll ever know if actual public libraries got any of this funny money they craved so much.

Hat tip the Wall Street Journal

The following was emailed to all the librarians in Massachusetts, (and some version probably to every librarian in the country):

an urgent alert just forwarded by ALA Washington Office — Please act 
now!!!
 Jackie Rafferty & Krista McLeod, Co-Chairs MLA Legislative Committee Calls to ALL Senators are needed IMMEDIATELY to protect $200 million for libraries, community computing centers and related institutions in the original language of the Senate stimulus bill, H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.   We have just been advised that Senators Kent Conrad (ND-D) and Lindsey Graham (SC-R) are expected to introduce Senate Amendment 501 which would strip funding for libraries and broadband to put additional funding in FDIC.  If introduced, the vote could take place this afternoon.

 The message is:  keep the $200 million for libraries and broadband in H.R. 1 - defeat amendment 501.  Libraries provide information on jobs, employment skills, and all other types of job-seeking information.  More people are using libraries during these difficult times and the demand for broadband is greater than ever.

 http://capwiz.com/ala/callalert/index.tt?alertid=12607331&PROCESS=Call+Now

 ALA Office of Government Relations will keep you updated as the stimulus debate continues on the Senate floor.  Please watch the District Dispatch for updates.
 Thanks for all you do!

The stimulus bill is actually going to be a bank loan (probably from China) costing the country over a trillion dollars counting interest. The purpose of taking out the loan is to goose the economy. The $200 million for ‘ libraries, community computing centers and related institutions’, well, first what does that mean? Which libraries? What’s considered a related institution? And what are they suppose to do with it? Its temporary money. It doesn’t keep coming after its spent. That leaves out hiring people.

So then what, buy more stuff? Buy every library a Wii? That would make our local tax-base ecstatic I’m sure. Buy more books? Our shelves are filled with books nobody reads. And if we need more resume manuals and job-hunting references I would hope we have the sense God gave small animals to reallocate exisiting resources to current demand. Every June, every library and every other gov’t institution is scrambling to spend the money it has left in the budget so as not to ‘lose it’ in the next year’s budget. This time they want to take a loan out to do the same thing. Shopaholics anyone?

More money does not make better libraries, in fact too much money is inevitably going to muddle a library’s purpose (see gaming) and undermine its credibility. Chasing after money that is being loaned under dubious pretenses just for the sake of chasing after money is fiscally unsound and frankly unethical.

The thought that other nonprofits all over the country are scrambling in similar fashion to get and keep their piece of debt pie is unsettling.

Today is National Gaming Day @your library. Having spent a good chunk of time this past week (at home) putting together a jigsaw puzzle I can attest to the relaxing benefits of leisurly activities. But I can’t think of a worst time for ALA to put a spotlight on one of libraryland’s least serious endeavors. Libraries have always lived on the edge of the fiscal chopbloc and over the next couple years we’ll no doubt hear and see many stories of libraries cutting hours, services and, sadly, staff. The idea of gaming in libraries is a symbol of flush times for many libraries that have had money to burn on resources to the point where new ideas were necessary on how to spend it or lose it (a standing philosophy in the public sector).

(side note: flush times during very dangerous times, during war time, thank you President Bush)

Now that times are decidely flushed, any librarian defending to their patrons on why they purchased that Wii or Xbox are attempting to argue themselves out of work, and libraries out of existence. To ALA’s  credit, a little credit, the cover of the latest American Libraries tells us: “In Tight Times - Training & Retooling”. So obviously they’re not blind to reality. But its too much energy spent on unserious activities during the good times that make defending our existence in the bad times tenuous at best.

I try to love my Sony Reader, I do. There have been a couple stories over the past year that have been very encouraging. Publishers using Readers for their staff to go over transcripts. The Navy making ebooks available to their servicemen. Google making legal headway on their book scanning. We’re getting close to that tipping point where using a digital reader can be as easy and as common as having iPod.

But marketwise both Sony and Amazon are botching it big time. I can no longer find even the 4-5 Nero Wolfe novels that were available in the Sony store, Amazon doesn’t seem to have them either. And while I was shopping around I did find that Ian Fleming’s Bond series is now available. Cool right? No. They’re $11 a pop, same as print. Both Sony and Amazon. If I don’t want the fancy new cover I can get an older edition of Casino Royale in print from Amazon for $7. If I don’t mind used I can get it for 25 cents.

Its an ebook, no paper, no ink, no warehousing costs. I’ll pay $5-6 each for the convenience of having 4-5 Bond books on one device to dig into. I’m not paying $11.

Its been an exciting device to use and explore but a tough one to stick with over a long period of time. If Google books can be made available for purchase for these devices and priced more conveniently like Apple and iTunes then that would be massive.

…soon… I hope.

I have the luxury of being able to walk to my voting station.  Its in a small fire station and was quite a bit busier than previous elections. If I sound surprised its because I live in Massachusetts and most of these are a forgone conclusion. Other than President and the Senate there were no contested elections on the ballot, all incumbents. 

Anyway… Go Palin!

Have you heard about the mom who is holding a copy of The Book of Bunny Suicides hostage because she doesn’t believe it belongs in her child’s school library? Its a junior high / high school library and this type of brainless humor is particularly appealing to that age group. Unless it pictures of impaled or dismembered rabbits I’m not sure she has a great case. The actual humor here, however, comes from this quote:

“The Book of Bunny Suicides” was purchased, she said, as part of program to encourage reluctant readers. The book was on a young-adult reader list recommended by the American Library Association, she said, and is in several school libraries in Oregon.

A book of pictures is part of program to encourage reluctant readers. That’ll help.

Interesting post on The Corner by Maggie Gallagher juxtaposing pro-gay marriage activists in states where its illegal and states where it isn’t. 

Nobody’s forcing anything on anyone, liberals like to say. Until they’re in a position to actually do it.

Apparently we will soon have a Copyright Czar. Hat tip Slashdot. I support copyright laws. I believe in intellectual property. In a digital age I just don’t know how it works other than to rely on the inate goodness of people, which for the most part is how we’ve stayed ahead of the war on drugs. No doubt the war on preserving intellectual property (catchy huh?) will be fought the same way, hammer Americans about their obligation to be inately good and talk about much larger more damaging examples outside our borders, while accomplishing nothing. Should be fun.

Nice review of Dan Simmons’ The Terror. I haven’t read it, I’ve only read his Ilium and I’m halfway through Olympos, something I started a couple years ago. I like his writing but if you’re going to read him his style demands your full attention for an extended period of time.