Here we go again! Senator Ted Stevens, who has already shown such an exquisite understanding of how the internet works, has introduced a bill that looks exactly like DOPA, with some extra anti-porn legislation written into it for good measure.
Any minute now, Helen Lovejoy will come running in, screaming, “Will someone please think of the children?”
One of my favorite authors is Ray Bradbury. His manic enthusiasm for life, art and what many people consider “trash culture” (like monster movies and carnivals and comics), his approach to writing, his beautiful beautiful prose, his wide-eyed race towards tomorrow. I love the 10-year-old boy in the old man’s frame.
His novel Fahrenheit 451 is, as everyone reading this blog knows, a crucial piece of work, at least as important today as when he first ratataptapped it out on a public library typewriter all those years ago. Some people still believe some books, including Fahrenheit 451, must be censored or banned or burned. The censoring and banning of art and information is something I oppose in a fairly rabid way, which makes Fahrenheit 451 a wonderful nexus for me. Bradbury + anti-censorship = crazy delicious. (The only tastier equation is Bradbury + creepy carnivals. Something Wicked This Way Comes is like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or mashed potatoes and gravy.)
So, I’m flattered in all kinds of ways that the Pelham Public Library in Ontario has included me in the blogroll on their blog, Fahrenheit 451: Banned Books. And I’m awfully impressed with the blog in general: it’s a “discussion on censorship through the Pelham Public Library, Fonthill, Ontario. This discussion takes place in conjunction with the Fahrenheit 451: Banned Book Club for teens.” What a great way for a library to use a blog! What a great discussion for a library to promote and foster!
Happy Banned Books Week!
I won’t actually be reading any banned or challenged books this week (I’m already in the middle of at least 5 books right now), but I absolutely support other people reading whatever they want, whether I approve of the book or not.
Another great condemnation of DOPA: “The Moral Panic over Social-Networking Sites.”
On CBSNews.com, Larry Magid writes about why DOPA is so incredibly wrongheaded.
Are y’all in DC paying attention and taking notes?
Aleah makes an excellent point about DOPA that I haven’t seen anyone else make yet:
One more reason to hate DOPA.
I woke up the other morning and got online to find I had an emergency message from Libraryman. It seems that someone had joined the Kansas Libraries & Librarians Flickr group and posted some pictures that had nothing to do with Kansas libraries and everything to do with nakey crotch shots. Thanks to Michael watching my admin back, I was quick to remove the pictures and the poster from the group.
For those of you playing along at home, this is called “self-monitoring.” It’s easy and it doesn’t require any government laws to do it.
I bring this up, in the eerie light of DOPA, because Michael Stephens has an outstanding post about Flickr, DOPA, and the fear of social software. This should be required reading for all library/information/education professionals.
DOPA passed, with only 15–fifteen!–voting against it. My own representative, who is usually one of the good guy Democrats, voted for it.
Never underestimate how stupidly a politician will vote on issues of “morality.”
UPDATE: Dave King does a great job of breaking down some of the main reasons why DOPA is a stupid, damaging bill.
Yes, everyone and their parents have been blogging about it, but as an enemy of the USA PATRIOT Act and someone concerned about free speech issues, it would be remiss of me to not mention that the four Connecticut librarians who took on the US Goverment spoke out for the first time yesterday about the USA PATRIOT Act. And they’re not being wussy about it.
(I apologize for the Marvel Age title of this post, but after Karen G. Schneider called the librarians “the Freedom Four,” I just couldn’t resist.)
EDIT: Leslie Burger has a really nice post about these four librarians. Read it.
