Free Republic

Many American presidents have kept prized possessions within reach during their White House years. Franklin D. Roosevelt cherished a 19th century ship model of the U.S.S. Constitution. One of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s favorite gifts was an engraved Steuben glass bowl from his cabinet. And sitting on John F. Kennedy’s desk in the Oval Office was a paperweight made from a coconut shell he had carved with a distress message after his PT-109 was sunk during World War II.

Cavuto reports that donations are pouring in for the presidential library of former President George W. Bush. In 100 days, he's raised $100 million - an amount that former President Bill Clinton planned to raise in one year.

San Jose council votes down porn filters at public library computers A year and a half of debate over filtering pornography out of San Jose public library computers came to a head late Tuesday when the City Council rejected spending money on the technology. After a lively debate that lasted hours, the council voted 7-3 to approve a proposal by the vice mayor and two councilmen that would remind computer users of existing policies to be courteous to others. Mayor Chuck Reed and council members Pete Constant, who led the push for the filters, and Pierluigi Oliverio were opposed, favoring...

(AP) — WASHINGTON - Nearly 145 years after it was stolen by a Union soldier during a Civil War raid, a missing library book has been returned to the Washington and Lee University library by an Illinois man who inherited it from the soldier's descendants. The book was passed down through the soldier's family, then on to Mike Dau of Lake Forest, Ill., who tracked down the original library and returned it.

San Jose City Council to reconsider porn filters at libraries San Jose officials are preparing for a showdown later this month over online pornography in city libraries. City officials last considered whether to electronically filter library Internet use in 1997. At the time, they overwhelmingly concluded the technology was too primitive to snag smut without also snaring information about health topics like breast cancer. The council will revisit that decision in what is expected to be a heavily attended evening meeting April 21. Councilman Pete Constant since October 2007 has called for reconsidering that move. He has cited improvements in...

Philadelphia's public libraries can no longer open without a guard present, according to an internal Free Library e-mail obtained by The Inquirer. The Free Library says it's to ensure staff and patron safety but unions and library advocates believe it's an effort to find new ways to close libraries. For years, Philadelphia libraries have opened without guards present, library union officials said. The new rule, like the library's recently instituted requirement to have four workers present to open a branch instead of the customary three, is seen by some in the contentious fight over libraries as another attempt by the...

The library board of trustees meeting was moved to a larger room to accommodate all those wanting to speak. The proposal, which came from a library patron, was to restrict the access by children to four books, Sex for Busy People, The Lesbian Kama Sutra, The Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex. "This is clearly an effort to suppress books about gay people. Only four books were targeted out of the thousands that might have been targeted, say, about tawdry romance novels or books about how to make a bomb or maybe a book about how to...

The library on DePaul University's Lincoln Park campus was evacuated this morning following a bomb threat, university officials said. It's unclear how the university learned of the threat, but said it only affected the John T. Richardson Library, 2350 N. Kenmore Ave., and did not interfere with operations in other campus buildings, said Denise Mattson, a DePaul spokeswoman.

Librarians have been advised to move the Bible to the top shelves to appease religious concerns in the Islamic community. Muslims have complained that the Koran is often displayed on the lower shelves, which is deemed offensive as many believe the holy book should be placed above "commonplace things". Now library officials in one city have been told to keep all holy books, including the Bible, on the top shelves in the interests of equality. It has caused concern from Christian charities that this will put the Bible out of the reach and sight of many people.

One picture is a man during a real crisis caught in the middle of a planned event for months at an elementary school. A man who was ridiculed in dozens of films and thousands of articles and millions of internet posts. The next picture is of a man who makes an un-scheduled appearance at a charter school and is applauded for taking time out to visit with local kids during a self-described "crisis" of the economy, jobs, and tax evading liberals not passing the test. Because he was "tired of being in the White House", I give you Day 15....

Berkeley -- Berkeley's city council voted early today to let the public library override the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act in order to get its checkout machines serviced.After a heated debate, the council voted 6-2, with one abstention, to grant a waiver for the library to contract with 3M, a multinational technology company, even though the firm refused to sign a form promising it does not engage in nuclear research or development.The library asked permission to sign a 5-year, $63,000 contract with 3M to maintain five self-checkout scanning machines at the main library and four branches. The Peace and Justice Commission...

The old White Hose website is now available online. Daily dosers like me rejoice! (clik on source link)

School Libraries May Soon Be Historyby Paul C. Clark Staff Writer January 22, 2009 Some local educators are imagining a future in which schools have no libraries. Quick, thoroughly unscientific visual surveys of the libraries – called "media centers" in eduspeak – of Guilford County high schools of late give the impression that they're hardly beehives of activity, at least as far as books are concerned. The percentage of space dedicated to books instead of computers seems to have shrunk over the years, and a scan of the shelves turns up relatively few newly acquired books. The use of the...

Sabeeh Radyi, Rashid District Council Education Committee chairman, treats Iraqi school children from the Doura community in the Rashid district to story time as part of the commemoration of the reopening of the Doura Public Library, Jan. 21, 2009. BAGHDAD — Iraqi and Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers joined local civic leaders Jan. 21 to commemorate the opening of the Doura Public Library in the Rashid district, christening a cultural and educational landmark for the Iraqi citizens of southern Baghdad. The public library, capable of housing approximately 10,000 books and a score of personal computers for use by Iraqi citizens...

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina man is now $35,000 richer thanks to President Bush’s sheepish advisers who let his library’s Web site address expire. The News & Observer of Raleigh reports today that Web developer George Hunger was searching through a list of expiring domain names two years ago when he noticed a treasure. The Web address www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com was about to expire. bought the rights for $5. Hunger says he recently sold them for $35,000 to Florida-based Yuma Solutions, which the Bush Library Foundation said is in charge of Web site care. Company owner Mark Mills didn’t return the...

A wealthy Iranian businessman was jailed for two years on Friday (local time) for stealing pages from rare books in Britain's top libraries to improve his own collection. Farhad Hakimzadeh, 60, admitted he used a scalpel to remove selected pages from priceless volumes in reading rooms at the British Library in London and the world-famous Bodleian Libary in Oxford, south-east England. "As an author, you cannot have been unaware of the damage you were causing," said judge Peter Ader, passing sentence at Wood Green Crown Court in London. "You have a deep love of books, perhaps so deep that it...

When BHO prepares to leave office in four years (or sooner) and starts thinking of his "legacy", I was wondering what he would have in mind regarding his presidential library. Some questions that came to mind 1. Where will it be located ? 2. Who would fund it ? 3. What will it contain ? 4. Will the public be allowed inside ? ... etc, etc..

Donors to President George W. Bush's presidential library probably will remain a mystery, said the foundation overseeing fundraising. Mark Langdale, who heads the George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, said that's the way some donors want it. "It's our decision not to disclose who the donors are," he said. The foundation will oversee construction of the library, museum and public policy institute at the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas. The group had raised less than $3 million when the latest tax reports were filed in August. That's far short of its $300 million goal, but foundation officials said fundraising...

DES MOINES, Iowa – Vicki Myron intended to wait a year or two before getting another cat. Her best-selling book, "Dewey, The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World," was keeping her on the road most of the time and she didn't have time for a pet. An orange and white kitten found on a snow-covered road changed her mind. "I fell in love instantly," Myron says. The little tabby was found Dec. 16 by Sue Selzer, who works for the school district in Myron's northwest Iowa hometown of Spencer. "I was out and about and met a truck that...

While driving into the office this morning I heard the "expert" guest on Coast to Coast tell everyone not once but several times it was the terrible Christians that burned down the Library at Alexandria. Sadly, facts do not matter or go challenged on that political show any longer. The fact is: Amr bin Aas at the behest of the Second Caliph, Umar burned the Library in Alexandria. Umar the Great or Omar the Great was a Muslim convert from the Banu Adi clan of the Quraysh tribe,[1] and a sahaba (righteous companion) of Muhammad. He became the second Caliph...