Posted on 01/30/2007 9:01:41 AM PST by plan2succeed.org
I'll buy that, since religion is not science, nor is science religion, and I don't want government mucking up religion or vice versa.
Idiots. The library deserves to be severely sued (and WILL be sued) for allowing child molesters to exploit children using porn chat rooms.
The electronic trail is extremely easily documented, making this the easiest case in the world for the California trial lawyers to collect huge cash payouts.
The Sacramento Library administration are certifiable morons.
Libraries are dumping "The Classics" 'cuz nobody checks them out. Why am I taxed so people can get free DVDs and porn? Defund public libraries.
Oh, and I forgot. The libraries are also homeless flop-houses.
As for DVDs-- I guess a case can be made to have them, but I've noticed that the library that I go to has fewer of them than they used to.
As for the bums -- flush them out.
Libraries once were a public asset arguably worth taxing society for, but things are different now. With the internet, particularly, access to literature is everywhere. It's tough to make the case for the buildings, the staff, the materials, the overhead, etc., etc. Alas, I hated to see mimeograph machines go too, but it's best to let these things pass fondly into memory.
No doubt about it, things are different. And sometimes I think I'm soon to be one of those relics. I read plenty on the internet but I also like the look, feel, and smell of a book and for me, the internet is no replacment. In fact, I don't have patience to read on the internet anything that is more than two pages. If I get a long e-mail at work, I print it out.
I'm just hoping that the changes also won't mean the end of things that are worthwhile. That people who care about education and literacy will use the internet not just as a time-waster and fantasyland, but will dig to find things the library won't shelve, or maybe even things people can't readily buy. And that they will pass this along to others, especially their kids if they have them. That's what I've always tried to do with mine. I have a first-grader who is interested in the stuff all first-graders are interested in. But I've also worked to help him be interested in books -- and he is. We get them from the library. We buy them. A while back we picked up a stack of books for him and "The Old Man and the Sea" for myself. He was intrigued by the picture of the fisherman and fish on the cover, and asked me if there were other pictures. I told him there weren't. But he wanted to have a try at reading it, and he did. I told him to make sure he told his teacher that he had been reading Hemingway with his old man!
Sure are (at least down here in Savannah) I can't say for the rest of the state, but, I haven't heard of any problems.
The Fort Vancouver Regional Library District in So WA which has libraries in four counties refused to filter all computers for years until the voters got to them through their pocketbooks.
A few years ago we voted down a bond measure twice and it finally got their attention. All computers are filtered for adults and children now and the bond measure was passed. The ACLU and the ALA can go pound sand on their lawsuits, SCOTUS has ruled that filtering is permissable.
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