I just finished Al Franken’s book so I have been getting a bit more savvy about how to interpret media statements by the right wing, but this one ropes librarians in. Regarding the name of the new bill curtailing abortion — the Partial Birth Abortion Bill — conservatives defended it saying “National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine both list online in their dictionaries the term partial birth abortion and define it as it’s been defined by the government in this legislation.” Of course the link to a dictionary I found on the NLM site just leads us right back to Merriam-Webster….
Month: November 2003
“The law was intended for activities related to terrorism and not to naked women,”
FBI agents using the USA PATRIOT Act to investigate a strip club. No, I am not joking. Lawmakers seem suitably incensed.
“Let me say, with Galardi and his whole gang, I don’t condone, appreciate or support all their nakedness. But having said that, I haven’t heard anyone say at any time he was involved with terrorism.” says Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. [thanks all]
watch for the dramatic drop in YA circulation….
The Wisconsin state legislature is considering giving final approval to a bill that allows parents to know what their children are checking out of public libraries. [thanks clark]
sneak preview
Here is a sneak preview of the talk I am heading out to give at the New Hampshire Library Association conference today, otherwise known as “the reason I haven’t been posting much lately” It’s about CIPA and the USAPA, practical things libraries can do. Hope you enjoy it.
USAPA say what?
I’m giving a talk partially on the PATRIOT Act this week so forgive me if I’m a bit free and easy with these links. Apparently the US Government has started a website called Life and Liberty whose main purpose appears to be to defend the PATRIOT Act, slam the ACLU and — I am not kidding — talk trash about liberals. This will be my response to library patrons who ask why their tax dollars are going to books like Daddy’s Roomate… because my tax dollars go to crap like this. [unpatrioticact lj]