Today I was pointed to this WebJunction thread in which someone from the group Plan2Succeed asks “How many years will the ALA be allowed to defy the US Supreme Court with no consequences other than possibly a continuing stream of raped and molested children.” Looking into their site further I found the following two gems:
“3) The ALA has in the past guided children to inappropriate web sites like those discussing autoerotic asphyxiation, bestiality, fisting, etc.
“5) After years of efforts to protect children in public libraries, the US Supreme Court struck down each attempt as unconstitutional until CIPA. In June 2003, CIPA was found to be constitutional in US v. ALA and libraries receiving federal funding must now filter all computers. The case de facto decided issues that apply to libraries not taking federal funding as well.”
I suppose I can’t really comment on the validity of point #3 other than to say that I want to see proof. As for point #5, stating that the CIPA decision de facto applies to all libraries, regardless of whether or not they get the relevant federal funding is, at least, a gross misunderstanding of how the law works. At worst, it’s applying a baseless legal interpretation with the intention to spur discontent.
Whatcom County, WA: “In June, an FBI agent stopped into one of the district’s branches and requested a list of people who had borrowed a biography of Osama bin Laden. ‘We said no‘.”
It seems that there’s some legal wrangling over a bit of land next to the cottage where Ian Flemming wrote Casino Royale.
In other news, there’s a new James Bond book out: Young Bond: Silverfin, which is supposedly the Bond equivalent of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. I’m looking for an opinion of someone who’s read it before I bother to look into it further.
This list of 50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod actually contains a few that do sound not only fun but useful.
Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent has launched a new search engine on the official BitTorrent site that searches the P2P system. Here’s one interesting example.
This post from The Huffington Post contains a link to a video of John Bolton, the man George W. Bush has nominated to be our next Ambassador to the UN. Be afraid. Be very afraid. (More details can be found on Wikipedia.)
Get this. A grandmother takes her grandson (she’s his legal guardian) into a Las Vegas library and the boy chooses an anime DVD from the adult section entitled Crying Freeman: The Complete Collection which states “Contains extreme animated violence and adult situations. Parental guidance suggested.” on the back. Also on the back is the image of a man holding a sword to a woman’s throat and there’s a nude woman on the front! (I own a copy of this DVD set. The case makes it clear that this is not a film for children.) Boy, checks out DVD with grandmother standing next to him. They take the video home and grandmother is shocked that the library has allowed the child to check out this video. The Las Vegas SUN of course responds with a balistic editorial and their political cartoonist has this to draw two days later. I’m sorry but the library has no right to question the decision of an adult about what they’ll allow their child to check out. The fact that the adult in question didn’t bother to check is hardly the library’s fault. (The fact that this is happening in Las Vegas of all places is just too ironic for words.)
Despite my recent visit to Northern Iowa and a distinct lack of an alibi most evenings and nights I have nothing to do with this, honest.
