It is really horrifying when one individual can make the determination of what books are allowed into public libraries. Few people disgust me more than the Christians who think their religion entitles them to a say in other people's personal choices. I'm sure the religious right will be slapping one another on their back in celebration, but their actions are just one more reason for businesses not to locate in their state. Right across the board, the Bible Belt South has some of the worst social metrics in the country, and they just keep making things worse for themselves.
The Founding Fathers of Gilead are nearly at critical mass. tRump wants to control the media, education, and everything else about society. The Constitutional Crisis is here and we are on the wrong side.
I disagree. WE are on the right side, and THEY need that message taken to them in 72-point type, bold and underscored. That said, words alone won't do.
Please explain, in detail, exactly how the old state library board thought it was acceptable to allow sexually explicit materials to be accessible by children. This explanation should include a definition of sexually explicit materials, and precisely how children were accessing them. This definition should include materials relating to both homosexuality and heterosexuality, and the standard for what is sexually explicit should bed applied equally to both.
I know you cannot, because that would include prohibiting the Bible unless you invoke special pleading. Your goal was never abourt preventing children from access to sexually explicit materials. It was all about legally demonizing the LGBTQ community. It was always about enforcing your religious beliefs, in violation of the Establishment Clause. Your goal now, as it has always been, is about ending the democratic republic we have lived in for 250 years, and establishing an authoritarian theocracy. You want the United States to become Gilead. (That's the dictatorship in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘥'𝘴 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦, just to clarify. You most likely have never read any of the books you want to prohibit.)
Tell us, if your book banning scheme goes through, would you prohibit adults from accessing these books at their local library, on the off chance they will hand these books to children once they have left the library? I bet you would. This type of censorship is one of the reasons why I equate the current Republican Party with the Nazis.
By the time I was ten, I'd read out the children's library, but you could only get your own card to the adult library if you were 13. I badgered my dad into checking books out for me. He knew he'd never get any peace if he didn't agree, but he did make a deal that I had to carry my own books to the car and from the car to the house. (It sometimes took two loads.) The day I turned 13, I got my own adult card. My first load of books included several on the "banned [by the RCC]" list, including the King James Bible. (I'd read the Douay-Rheims catholic translation starting the summer before I turned 9. It was one of the few books we had in our home.) My parents never had much patience for my voracious reading habits, but they never tried to prohibit anything either. Nor did any library I ever used.
Yup. I'm told I taught myself to read when I was 3, but I really don't remember *not* being able to read. I love that image of a reading virus: I passed it on to my nephew when he was about 3 also. The first thing any new visitor to my apartment says is "Don't you have anything here except *books*?" I attempt to look innocent (who, me?) and just shrug.
I can relate to that- my earliest clear memory is of pulling a book off a shelf. Kids are curious critters, if only they're allowed to indulge themselves.
I was the eldest of six, so what I read immediately got snatched up by my younger siblings. Also, we didn't have a television til I was 16, so that was not a draw for me. By that time I'd mostly read out the adult library and was spending my after-school hours at the libraries at Cal (UC Berkeley), leaving after they closed and walking home in the dark. I loved not being bothered, but couldn't check anything out. It's amazing how librarians often see young kids like I was, know they have the book hunger, and just keep an eye on them to make sure all goes well. Best people in the world, in my estimation.
When I was seven the movie “Romeo and Juliet cqme out. I wanted to read the original. The librarian thought it was too old for me. My mother said have her read the first few pages and tell you what they mean. I got to take out the book.
I was not just a voracious reader, but a collector as a child. About the time I was 50 my mother was scanning my collection and came across a copy of Peyton Place and asked if I'd ever read it. No, it never looked interesting. I suppose in the 50's and 60's just when I was growing up, it was scandalous. But I could have read it if I wanted. That's the whole point. These TheoBros want to tell you what you are permitted by them. They do not believe in free choice, or freedom of conscience, they in fact do not believe in liberty or the pursuit of happiness. They are fundamentally un-American. It is time the rest of us put them in their place, like the Puritans, Savonorolas, and the growing elite Commanders of Gilead.
47th-ranked Arkansas is also ranked 47th in Health Care. Maybe the Natural State should be working on losing its unnatural fixations and getting its priorities in order.
You forgot that those would be the priorities of regular people. These are Christian Nazionalists. Their only prorities are maximizing their power and subjugating everyone they hate.
As you know, I live in a purple area of this shit hole state. It has been this way since Arkansas was admitted as a slave state. The wealthy and middle classes have good access to health care and education. The poor live in a shadow world. Even Sarah's daddy Mike claimed that the Eastern part of Arkansas was like a banana republic. Guess where most of the ancestors of slaves live? That's right, the eastern half.
As a white, middle class person, I have had no problem accessing good healthcare and education for my daughter.
Fayetteville resident here; I agree with your assessment. This result is disgusting but not surprising in this shithole state. I suspect that my very blue town with the second largest population in the state will find plenty of ways to make up any shortfalls in library funding.
'I suspect that my very blue town with the second largest population in the state will find plenty of ways to make up any shortfalls in library funding.'
Never in the history of the world have the people banning book been the good guys.
Hiding sexual subjects from children, not teaching about sexuality and reproductive health, and “protecting” children from exposure to all types of relationships (sexual and otherwise) only serves to make children more vulnerable to abuse. This serves the religious who want everyone to live only one way, nuclear family with lots of children, subservient wife, obedient cowed children, because then they can control this type of family through economic policies. These types of families are so focused on survival, or keeping up with the Joneses, that they can’t recognize or fight against the abuses of the government. They claim this type of family dynamic is natural, god ordained, but they’ve had eons of pushing this ideology and they still have to force it. Almost all of human history has been patriarchal and they still have to resort to abuse and force to make women subservient. If it was natural, women would just be subservient, you wouldn’t have to keep fighting against women having agency.
I’ve been auditioning for community theater recently and wanting to be a part of the local Shakespeare company, and I’ve studied him in high school a little bit, and he was cognizant of the unfairness of women’s rights, he was a feminist before anyone coined the term. So, hundreds of years ago, prominent men recognized and spoke against the oppression of women and we still are fighting for basic human decency.
So reading undermines the ideology of the religionists and that’s why they’re pushing to ban books. Shakespeare was a bisexual, so don’t be surprised when they go for his plays. They use ignorance to abuse their children, and wives, and they ignore the other dangers of abuse to protect their ability to do so. Being ignorant of LGBTQ issues won’t stop their children from being LGBTQ, but it will keep them from learning about what is healthy and what is unhealthy in relationships so they are more likely to be abused by their partners and other people in authority over them (hello clergy abuse). I don’t want to protect my children from learning about sexually explicit material, I want them taught how to discern healthy and unhealthy encounters with adults. My children are then less likely to be abused.
Before Shakespeare, even. I remember reading portions of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 in high school. It struck me how easily Chaucer's Wife of Bath roasted Paul's letters.
"If it was natural, women would just be subservient, you wouldn’t have to keep fighting against women having agency." This needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
One of the religious figures in The Canterbury Tales was explicitly a con artist selling bogus holy relics- he even explained the con himself, right in front of the traveling party. The others told the most straitlaced, nap-inducingly dull stories- some of them getting interrupted or preempted by other characters who wanted less boring fare for their evening entertainment. I wouldn't make the claim that Chaucer was an atheist, but he made his lack of respect for the church and clergy of his day 𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 clear.
Christine de Pisan, end of 14th century and beginning of 15th century. First acknowledged feminist French writer, and first* living of her books sales.
* Marie de France predate her, but her real identity is unknown
"Hothead Paisans" was a series that showed up in Gay oriented and wymmin's bookstores years go. Great stories, but hard to find. Now the surviving issues were about $75 on Ebay a few years ago.
Lionesses are indeed the primary hunters. But contrary to popular belief, males do actively participate, usually when larger prey like buffalo are involved. When this happens, the males will work side by side with the females. The males even lead such hunts. Males also hunt solo (they're ambush predators).
They won't outright erase Shakespeare; his works are too tied up in what they view as "classical" art and literature (aka The One True Correct School of Art). They will get 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 selective about which plays they allow schoolchildren to read (As You Like It will definitely be on the naughty list for its characters' gender-bending antics), but they'll keep the ones they can pretend support conservative values... and then they'll simply straightwash The Bard, memory-holing any historical reference to him being anything other than heteronomative.
That effort will necessarily include omitting 𝘢𝘭𝘭 of the historical context around his sonnets.
I think a corollary to the above may be posited, to wit:
𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝐵𝐴𝑁 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝐵𝐴𝑁 𝑃𝐸𝑂𝑃𝐿𝐸.
-- Troublesh00ter
The Republican party of Donald Trump is certainly trying to do both, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders is certainly doing her part in this whole effort. Worse, with a Republican super-majority in Arkansas, she can pretty well do as she pleases.
Though I wonder how pleased the people of Arkansas are about this.
What are they afraid of? The kids don’t have time to read books or even go to libraries, they’re too busy working low paying dangerous jobs in Arkansas.
They're afraid one of the kids might find out about OSHA in one of them thar book things and start a ruckus over the nonexistent safety practices at the meat-packing plant.
I'm a retired librarian. Ever since the tRump's (the t is silent) first "administration," the American Library Association has been selling tote bags and T-shirts that say "Make Orwell Fiction Again." This story illustrates all too well our country's descent into the Orwellian-style authoritarianism that Orwell predicted in his great book 1984. I want to re-read it, but it is just too creepy right now.
First an admission: I am a Chartered Librarian. I have taken the courses, passed the exams and have the Royal Charter. I have developed the rhino hide necessary to shrug off accusations that all I did was to stamp books for a living.
Over the decades I have worked in general and specialist libraries including children’s libraries and can tell you that the readers most likely to tell the librarian that the stock is unsuitable are children. The skill is then pointing the reader to more suitable material. Sexually explicit educational books for young children do exist but adults looking to find something arousing would be disappointed. The books have the information that parents should be teaching their children and have different levels of information suitable for different levels of understanding. And they have pictures to make the explanations easier.
What I notice from reports such as this one is that the accuser very rarely gives proper references to the titles of books they want to censor (and they never use that word, either) and the specific details that have aroused their ire. One could almost think that they had not read the books. Oh, what a cynic I am.
Definitely more vocal: the library had a reading scheme to help new readers and they could gain a badge for reading twenty books. Many of the children took strong opinions on the the books they read.
One example that sticks in the memory was my making a suggestion about "My Naughty Little Sister" only to be told, "Well, you're wrong!" by a four-year-old.
There was the young teenager who said he did not want to be tested on a particular book by a world-famous author because he didn't like it. He was surprised to hear that that was unimportant as long as he could say why, and then gave a devastating criticism that made the author look like a real Charlie. No name, to spare his blushes.
Or the young girl who asked to use the adult library because the books in the Teenage Section were so PINK. It is not a recognised category but was very descriptive. How could I refuse? Incidentally, the non-PINK books were the ones most borrowed.
When there were class projects, books on that particular subject disappeared quickly and the students complained. Loudly. I always made sure to mention this on school visits and ask for prior warning but the teachers did not take heed. No matter how detailed the books were there was always a student who wanted more so the adult books were used as well. I cannot recall any complaint of having too much information.
This is a sign on some Christian churches “The more educated you get the farther you are from God “ praising ignorance, just believe the dogma and put your brain to sleep and everything will be fine. Don’t forget your tithe.
My husband was saying the other day that he still would like to visit New Orleans later in the year. We were supposed to go in 2024, but we had too many trips lined up and I really wasn’t all that thrilled about the places that he wanted to go that were not New Orleans: grand isle, Mississippi, Alabama, and a few other places.
So when he brought this up, I told him I would be willing to go to New Orleans only, but the rest of it? No. I don’t even really want to go to New Orleans, but at least it’s civilized there, somewhat..
This just underlines precisely why I have no desire for any of it.
I had a conversation a few weeks ago with someone, explaining that even though I did not like Reagan, bush, or shrub, And would not vote for a Republican, I still consider them to be my president. But not Mango Muskolini. He is the president, but he is not my president. In that sense, the deep red states are part of THE country, but not part of MY country.
They need neither my money nor my participation. I’m happy not to give it to them.
Reagan, Bush, and Dubya were TOLERABLE as presidents (Dubya just BARELY). Trump is in no way, shape, or form tolerable. He is a threat to this nation and its democracy, and he should be removed.
Tampa ran ads inviting me. I sent an email asking why I should want to visit a state where HERR Governor wants people like us dead. Call info lines. The call is free and "*70" blocks them seeing your number. Ask them the same question. They are not going to seek a search warrant as you broke no law doing this.
"MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – Fred Piccolo, a former spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis who also served in other government communication roles statewide, was arrested Tuesday on a warrant for exposure of sexual organs, Manatee County jail records show.
Piccolo is accused of stopping his car in a neighborhood last month to ask for directions from a woman who was out for a walk. When the woman looked inside Piccolo’s car, she said he was “not wearing any clothes” and “holding his erect penis in his hand.”
Yes, they are. Books are dangerous. People reading books might get ideas ... funny ideas.
Maybe we should ask this chap (I can't be ars*d to look up his name in the article), what his view is on the inclusion of the The Communist Manifesto in the local libraries?
He probably doesn't even know what that is. What would set him off would be the word "communist", (which he would not be able to define.) People like this are just so fucking ignorant and they want everyone else to be the same.
Oh, my! What a wonderful thing to be able to do! I've never been able to afford to travel much, so most of my traveling has been done vicariously. That guy probably knows (next to) nothing about Marx or his writings or his life, and would probably interpret your statement as being the equivalent of "I visited Duh Devil in Hell." I was going to add something about brainless idiots, but that would be superfluous.
Wherever I’ve lived, my public libraries had a section for kids, a section for adults and often a teen section. Put a kid in their own section and they’ll sit there for however long trying to decide which book(s) to borrow.
Many of the books RWNJ’s complain about are meant for teens, who are exploring their own identities. Depriving them of access is such a disservice and a good way to alienate your kid, unless of course that’s your aim. 🙄
At least used book stores are still available and little free libraries, for now.
Sexually explicit material, Rape-y? You ever actually read your bible? Start by banning that one.
Don't forget the incest.
I'm still traumatized by it forty years later, and the piece of shit author blaming the victims no less.
And the worldwide genocide.
Exactly.
Look at the guy's last name - eliminate the last letter and you have a "Raper". We should ban HIM!
It is really horrifying when one individual can make the determination of what books are allowed into public libraries. Few people disgust me more than the Christians who think their religion entitles them to a say in other people's personal choices. I'm sure the religious right will be slapping one another on their back in celebration, but their actions are just one more reason for businesses not to locate in their state. Right across the board, the Bible Belt South has some of the worst social metrics in the country, and they just keep making things worse for themselves.
They are, after all, the ones watching most of the porn.
them and Utah
Excellent expertise.
Also the kinkiest search terms.
The Founding Fathers of Gilead are nearly at critical mass. tRump wants to control the media, education, and everything else about society. The Constitutional Crisis is here and we are on the wrong side.
I disagree. WE are on the right side, and THEY need that message taken to them in 72-point type, bold and underscored. That said, words alone won't do.
Actions might.
I meant in the 1984 sense where the government is always right. But I agree with your point.
Message needs to be delivered via guillotine, 1789 style.
Extreme, but possibly necessary.
This song does a good job to show the hypocrisy
https://youtu.be/gTGsxSfy_Ck?si=G77mi-T3rpNuT_3c
It'll also make a good reason why people shouldn't visit these states for a vacation, too.
𝑁𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑛.
Mr Rapert:
Please explain, in detail, exactly how the old state library board thought it was acceptable to allow sexually explicit materials to be accessible by children. This explanation should include a definition of sexually explicit materials, and precisely how children were accessing them. This definition should include materials relating to both homosexuality and heterosexuality, and the standard for what is sexually explicit should bed applied equally to both.
I know you cannot, because that would include prohibiting the Bible unless you invoke special pleading. Your goal was never abourt preventing children from access to sexually explicit materials. It was all about legally demonizing the LGBTQ community. It was always about enforcing your religious beliefs, in violation of the Establishment Clause. Your goal now, as it has always been, is about ending the democratic republic we have lived in for 250 years, and establishing an authoritarian theocracy. You want the United States to become Gilead. (That's the dictatorship in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘥'𝘴 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦, just to clarify. You most likely have never read any of the books you want to prohibit.)
Tell us, if your book banning scheme goes through, would you prohibit adults from accessing these books at their local library, on the off chance they will hand these books to children once they have left the library? I bet you would. This type of censorship is one of the reasons why I equate the current Republican Party with the Nazis.
Conservatives would have been horrified by the books she allowed me to read when I was 15 🤣
By the time I was ten, I'd read out the children's library, but you could only get your own card to the adult library if you were 13. I badgered my dad into checking books out for me. He knew he'd never get any peace if he didn't agree, but he did make a deal that I had to carry my own books to the car and from the car to the house. (It sometimes took two loads.) The day I turned 13, I got my own adult card. My first load of books included several on the "banned [by the RCC]" list, including the King James Bible. (I'd read the Douay-Rheims catholic translation starting the summer before I turned 9. It was one of the few books we had in our home.) My parents never had much patience for my voracious reading habits, but they never tried to prohibit anything either. Nor did any library I ever used.
DM was a voracious reader, she passed the virus on me. She was overjoyed when between 3 and 4 I was able to read by myself 🤣
Yup. I'm told I taught myself to read when I was 3, but I really don't remember *not* being able to read. I love that image of a reading virus: I passed it on to my nephew when he was about 3 also. The first thing any new visitor to my apartment says is "Don't you have anything here except *books*?" I attempt to look innocent (who, me?) and just shrug.
I can relate to that- my earliest clear memory is of pulling a book off a shelf. Kids are curious critters, if only they're allowed to indulge themselves.
I will never forget or regret doing the exact same thing with my nephew. Indulge in stories--that's a wonderful description of what we did!
Same. I'm one of six, and everyone in the house was reading something, so I asked my much older sister to teach me to read.
I was the eldest of six, so what I read immediately got snatched up by my younger siblings. Also, we didn't have a television til I was 16, so that was not a draw for me. By that time I'd mostly read out the adult library and was spending my after-school hours at the libraries at Cal (UC Berkeley), leaving after they closed and walking home in the dark. I loved not being bothered, but couldn't check anything out. It's amazing how librarians often see young kids like I was, know they have the book hunger, and just keep an eye on them to make sure all goes well. Best people in the world, in my estimation.
When I was seven the movie “Romeo and Juliet cqme out. I wanted to read the original. The librarian thought it was too old for me. My mother said have her read the first few pages and tell you what they mean. I got to take out the book.
I was not just a voracious reader, but a collector as a child. About the time I was 50 my mother was scanning my collection and came across a copy of Peyton Place and asked if I'd ever read it. No, it never looked interesting. I suppose in the 50's and 60's just when I was growing up, it was scandalous. But I could have read it if I wanted. That's the whole point. These TheoBros want to tell you what you are permitted by them. They do not believe in free choice, or freedom of conscience, they in fact do not believe in liberty or the pursuit of happiness. They are fundamentally un-American. It is time the rest of us put them in their place, like the Puritans, Savonorolas, and the growing elite Commanders of Gilead.
Right?! Growing up was allowed to read anything I wanted. My folks had a vast library.
Some of the books I was reading, such as the Richard Blade series, might have shocked my parents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Blade_(series)#Plot
my definition of god: “the imaginary cosmic force that people conjure up to add weight to their own personal biases.”
Nazis ban/burn books.
Keep your powder dry, kids.
As surely as Nazis banned / burned PEOPLE. [smh]
47th-ranked Arkansas is also ranked 47th in Health Care. Maybe the Natural State should be working on losing its unnatural fixations and getting its priorities in order.
You forgot that those would be the priorities of regular people. These are Christian Nazionalists. Their only prorities are maximizing their power and subjugating everyone they hate.
They're too busy smooching Trump's heinie to be bothered with "getting its priorities in order." More's the pity.
As you know, I live in a purple area of this shit hole state. It has been this way since Arkansas was admitted as a slave state. The wealthy and middle classes have good access to health care and education. The poor live in a shadow world. Even Sarah's daddy Mike claimed that the Eastern part of Arkansas was like a banana republic. Guess where most of the ancestors of slaves live? That's right, the eastern half.
As a white, middle class person, I have had no problem accessing good healthcare and education for my daughter.
It still comes down to race and class.
Fayetteville resident here; I agree with your assessment. This result is disgusting but not surprising in this shithole state. I suspect that my very blue town with the second largest population in the state will find plenty of ways to make up any shortfalls in library funding.
I still have my Fayetteville library card
'I suspect that my very blue town with the second largest population in the state will find plenty of ways to make up any shortfalls in library funding.'
For how long, though?
They were also the first to kill the child labor laws.
Never in the history of the world have the people banning book been the good guys.
Hiding sexual subjects from children, not teaching about sexuality and reproductive health, and “protecting” children from exposure to all types of relationships (sexual and otherwise) only serves to make children more vulnerable to abuse. This serves the religious who want everyone to live only one way, nuclear family with lots of children, subservient wife, obedient cowed children, because then they can control this type of family through economic policies. These types of families are so focused on survival, or keeping up with the Joneses, that they can’t recognize or fight against the abuses of the government. They claim this type of family dynamic is natural, god ordained, but they’ve had eons of pushing this ideology and they still have to force it. Almost all of human history has been patriarchal and they still have to resort to abuse and force to make women subservient. If it was natural, women would just be subservient, you wouldn’t have to keep fighting against women having agency.
I’ve been auditioning for community theater recently and wanting to be a part of the local Shakespeare company, and I’ve studied him in high school a little bit, and he was cognizant of the unfairness of women’s rights, he was a feminist before anyone coined the term. So, hundreds of years ago, prominent men recognized and spoke against the oppression of women and we still are fighting for basic human decency.
So reading undermines the ideology of the religionists and that’s why they’re pushing to ban books. Shakespeare was a bisexual, so don’t be surprised when they go for his plays. They use ignorance to abuse their children, and wives, and they ignore the other dangers of abuse to protect their ability to do so. Being ignorant of LGBTQ issues won’t stop their children from being LGBTQ, but it will keep them from learning about what is healthy and what is unhealthy in relationships so they are more likely to be abused by their partners and other people in authority over them (hello clergy abuse). I don’t want to protect my children from learning about sexually explicit material, I want them taught how to discern healthy and unhealthy encounters with adults. My children are then less likely to be abused.
Before Shakespeare, even. I remember reading portions of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 in high school. It struck me how easily Chaucer's Wife of Bath roasted Paul's letters.
"If it was natural, women would just be subservient, you wouldn’t have to keep fighting against women having agency." This needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
One of the religious figures in The Canterbury Tales was explicitly a con artist selling bogus holy relics- he even explained the con himself, right in front of the traveling party. The others told the most straitlaced, nap-inducingly dull stories- some of them getting interrupted or preempted by other characters who wanted less boring fare for their evening entertainment. I wouldn't make the claim that Chaucer was an atheist, but he made his lack of respect for the church and clergy of his day 𝘢𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 clear.
Christine de Pisan, end of 14th century and beginning of 15th century. First acknowledged feminist French writer, and first* living of her books sales.
* Marie de France predate her, but her real identity is unknown
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_de_France
"Hothead Paisans" was a series that showed up in Gay oriented and wymmin's bookstores years go. Great stories, but hard to find. Now the surviving issues were about $75 on Ebay a few years ago.
This one?
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Hothead-Paisan-Homicidal-Terrorist/dp/1573440841/ref=sr_1_1
"Never in the history of the world have the people banning book been the good guys. "
↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑
THIS!!!!!
I could be sorely tempted to send that statement to Ms. Sanders, purely to mess with her head. Frankly, I think it could USE some messing!
If mammal females are supposed to be subservient, does that mean hyenas, elephants and some canine* were not created by the christain god ?
* Fidèle was a very dominant female dog who never let anyone abuse her.
All hail the hyena goddess!
Hyena goddess trump?
No one told lionesses about that! 🦁
I am not sure it's a good example. Lionesses are subservient, they do all the work while males take sunbaths.
Lionesses are indeed the primary hunters. But contrary to popular belief, males do actively participate, usually when larger prey like buffalo are involved. When this happens, the males will work side by side with the females. The males even lead such hunts. Males also hunt solo (they're ambush predators).
But like in any good human patriarchal society, they can kill or get rid of cubs that are not their own.
Hippos too, nasty things.
They won't outright erase Shakespeare; his works are too tied up in what they view as "classical" art and literature (aka The One True Correct School of Art). They will get 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 selective about which plays they allow schoolchildren to read (As You Like It will definitely be on the naughty list for its characters' gender-bending antics), but they'll keep the ones they can pretend support conservative values... and then they'll simply straightwash The Bard, memory-holing any historical reference to him being anything other than heteronomative.
That effort will necessarily include omitting 𝘢𝘭𝘭 of the historical context around his sonnets.
Nature makes people a widely diverse lot. Gods were invented to make EVERYONE think act, speak and even dream alike. NO variations allowed.
𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒.
-- Heinrich Heine
I think a corollary to the above may be posited, to wit:
𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝐵𝐴𝑁 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝐵𝐴𝑁 𝑃𝐸𝑂𝑃𝐿𝐸.
-- Troublesh00ter
The Republican party of Donald Trump is certainly trying to do both, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders is certainly doing her part in this whole effort. Worse, with a Republican super-majority in Arkansas, she can pretty well do as she pleases.
Though I wonder how pleased the people of Arkansas are about this.
What are they afraid of? The kids don’t have time to read books or even go to libraries, they’re too busy working low paying dangerous jobs in Arkansas.
They're afraid one of the kids might find out about OSHA in one of them thar book things and start a ruckus over the nonexistent safety practices at the meat-packing plant.
I'm a retired librarian. Ever since the tRump's (the t is silent) first "administration," the American Library Association has been selling tote bags and T-shirts that say "Make Orwell Fiction Again." This story illustrates all too well our country's descent into the Orwellian-style authoritarianism that Orwell predicted in his great book 1984. I want to re-read it, but it is just too creepy right now.
First an admission: I am a Chartered Librarian. I have taken the courses, passed the exams and have the Royal Charter. I have developed the rhino hide necessary to shrug off accusations that all I did was to stamp books for a living.
Over the decades I have worked in general and specialist libraries including children’s libraries and can tell you that the readers most likely to tell the librarian that the stock is unsuitable are children. The skill is then pointing the reader to more suitable material. Sexually explicit educational books for young children do exist but adults looking to find something arousing would be disappointed. The books have the information that parents should be teaching their children and have different levels of information suitable for different levels of understanding. And they have pictures to make the explanations easier.
What I notice from reports such as this one is that the accuser very rarely gives proper references to the titles of books they want to censor (and they never use that word, either) and the specific details that have aroused their ire. One could almost think that they had not read the books. Oh, what a cynic I am.
"the readers most likely to tell the librarian that the stock is unsuitable are children."
Are they typically looking for more information/material or saying they shouldn't have it? Or are they just a more vocal group in general?
Definitely more vocal: the library had a reading scheme to help new readers and they could gain a badge for reading twenty books. Many of the children took strong opinions on the the books they read.
One example that sticks in the memory was my making a suggestion about "My Naughty Little Sister" only to be told, "Well, you're wrong!" by a four-year-old.
There was the young teenager who said he did not want to be tested on a particular book by a world-famous author because he didn't like it. He was surprised to hear that that was unimportant as long as he could say why, and then gave a devastating criticism that made the author look like a real Charlie. No name, to spare his blushes.
Or the young girl who asked to use the adult library because the books in the Teenage Section were so PINK. It is not a recognised category but was very descriptive. How could I refuse? Incidentally, the non-PINK books were the ones most borrowed.
When there were class projects, books on that particular subject disappeared quickly and the students complained. Loudly. I always made sure to mention this on school visits and ask for prior warning but the teachers did not take heed. No matter how detailed the books were there was always a student who wanted more so the adult books were used as well. I cannot recall any complaint of having too much information.
Very testing but very rewarding.
Appreciate your point of view and input. Regarding your comments on would-be censors, I cannot say that I'm surprised.
This is a sign on some Christian churches “The more educated you get the farther you are from God “ praising ignorance, just believe the dogma and put your brain to sleep and everything will be fine. Don’t forget your tithe.
Especially that last sentence.
"I love the poorly educated."
-- DJT
THAT got us in this mess.
THAT got us in this mess. THAT will soon get people killled. OOPS! **MORE** people killed
My husband was saying the other day that he still would like to visit New Orleans later in the year. We were supposed to go in 2024, but we had too many trips lined up and I really wasn’t all that thrilled about the places that he wanted to go that were not New Orleans: grand isle, Mississippi, Alabama, and a few other places.
So when he brought this up, I told him I would be willing to go to New Orleans only, but the rest of it? No. I don’t even really want to go to New Orleans, but at least it’s civilized there, somewhat..
This just underlines precisely why I have no desire for any of it.
I had a conversation a few weeks ago with someone, explaining that even though I did not like Reagan, bush, or shrub, And would not vote for a Republican, I still consider them to be my president. But not Mango Muskolini. He is the president, but he is not my president. In that sense, the deep red states are part of THE country, but not part of MY country.
They need neither my money nor my participation. I’m happy not to give it to them.
Reagan, Bush, and Dubya were TOLERABLE as presidents (Dubya just BARELY). Trump is in no way, shape, or form tolerable. He is a threat to this nation and its democracy, and he should be removed.
Full stop.
I absolutely agree 100%. That’s exactly what I meant.
Tampa ran ads inviting me. I sent an email asking why I should want to visit a state where HERR Governor wants people like us dead. Call info lines. The call is free and "*70" blocks them seeing your number. Ask them the same question. They are not going to seek a search warrant as you broke no law doing this.
Oh yeah piccolo, crazy looking dude.
"MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – Fred Piccolo, a former spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis who also served in other government communication roles statewide, was arrested Tuesday on a warrant for exposure of sexual organs, Manatee County jail records show.
Piccolo is accused of stopping his car in a neighborhood last month to ask for directions from a woman who was out for a walk. When the woman looked inside Piccolo’s car, she said he was “not wearing any clothes” and “holding his erect penis in his hand.”
dude. this is no way to repopulate a planet."
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/who-wants-my-awesome-sperms-asks
American Atheists has fought against this a-hole (Jason Rapert) for years. Books are dangerous things, doncha know?
Yes, they are. Books are dangerous. People reading books might get ideas ... funny ideas.
Maybe we should ask this chap (I can't be ars*d to look up his name in the article), what his view is on the inclusion of the The Communist Manifesto in the local libraries?
Appropriately, his name is RAPERt
He probably doesn't even know what that is. What would set him off would be the word "communist", (which he would not be able to define.) People like this are just so fucking ignorant and they want everyone else to be the same.
You've got a point.
What do you think - facetious question - they would make of me, if I told them that I had visited Marx' grave as well as his birthplace?
(Both are actually very interesting!!)
Oh, my! What a wonderful thing to be able to do! I've never been able to afford to travel much, so most of my traveling has been done vicariously. That guy probably knows (next to) nothing about Marx or his writings or his life, and would probably interpret your statement as being the equivalent of "I visited Duh Devil in Hell." I was going to add something about brainless idiots, but that would be superfluous.
The National Association of Christian Lawmakers, huh?
NACL.
How appropriate.
They always seem to be 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘺 about something, don't they?
Saltier than Lot's wife.
She was probably hacked to bits by S&G survivors as salt was expensive way back when...
I mustard missed that.
Well hustle yer buns and ketchup!
Are you nuts? You want to put her in the mayo clinic?
Does he even the thyme for that ?
Sage advice!
They should get pillared for that.
Is that why they pepper their statements with falsehoods, misrepresentation and lies ?
A well-seasoned reply.
Wherever I’ve lived, my public libraries had a section for kids, a section for adults and often a teen section. Put a kid in their own section and they’ll sit there for however long trying to decide which book(s) to borrow.
Many of the books RWNJ’s complain about are meant for teens, who are exploring their own identities. Depriving them of access is such a disservice and a good way to alienate your kid, unless of course that’s your aim. 🙄
At least used book stores are still available and little free libraries, for now.
PRESERVE FREEDOM! OFF A NAT C!!!
https://scontent-ord5-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/491842034_678020955174882_5020955673033839337_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296_tt6&_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=2noaDiOfzqYQ7kNvwG0eyQv&_nc_oc=AdnD9nFWaiygmbTE3Ec09FIu8uozgABCxdPVVzjrqISZgzuds7IsxDtalQ7CVJFHf10&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-3.xx&_nc_gid=F-QrcKizgEjzIvi4ABpLQQ&oh=00_AfEXuiJu1uxxkm42GbaBHUufuLZHFt4X36IskI62vhBlDQ&oe=6807681A
I don't think America's Director of Homeland Security would agree with your message, Bagat.
May she be buried alive in a pit under two tons of gravel.
And may every dog and puppy in the county trot by and piss on her grave.
"Spoil them rotten 24/7"