Bush and the librarians (Dubya not Laura)

Laura, who holds a Master's degree in Library Science and has worked in school libraries, is head of the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries, which gave over $660,000 in grants to 136 libraries last summer. She also leads the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Her husband is not so keen on libraries or library values. It was his attorney general who mocked and condemned librarians and the American Library Association (see also here). And now he's lending his support to an Alabama legislator who would (unconstitutionally) ban books from libraries. From the Guardian as posted in Arts Journal Daily:

Dismay Agenda - Homophobe Invited By Bush To White House -- The Alabama state legislator who has introduced a bill to ban books that "promote homosexuality" has been invited by George Bush to the White House. "Traditional family values are under attack. They've been under attack "for the last 40 years". The enemy, this time, is not al-Qaida. The axis of evil is "Hollywood, the music industry". We have an obligation to "save society from moral destruction". We have to prevent liberal librarians and trendy teachers from "re-engineering society's fabric in the minds of our children". We have to "protect Alabamians". The Guardian (UK)12/10/04 Posted: 12/08/2004 7:36 pm See also here, here, and here.

Here's more about legislator in Cotton, Alabama, who wants to protect children from the "homosexual agenda" by banning works "that foster homosexuality" including nonfiction books that suggest homosexuality is acceptable and fiction novels with gay characters. The ban would cover books like "Heather has Two Mommies," and also "The Color Purple," "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "Brideshead Revisted." In addition, the bill would ban books having heterosexual couples committing sodomy and would prohibit teachers from suggesting that homosexuality is OK.

There's so much craziness in this country.

Item: 'US distributors of the film Merchant of Venice, which premiered in London this week, have asked the director to cut out a background fresco by a Venetian old master so it is fit for American television viewers. The director said: "A billion dollars worth of Veronese great master’s frescoes they want paint-boxed out because of this cupid’s willy. It is absolutely absurd.”'

And also the creationism craze. Here's a piece about a preacher who travels the country giving workshops to church groups who want to defend the Bible against the scientists. He attempts to show that scientific age-dating is bunk and evolution theory with it. As one of his host pastors says, “If the Bible is not a true and total account — if we are just accidents, we have no reason for living.” And here's one reporting how in one Georgia county educators are required to put anti-evolution stickers in science textbooks. A swarthmore student has done a good satire of the sticker phenomenon.