posted
High School and lower school books are already very heavilly censored to fit the tastes of whatever group weilds the big stick o' power. For instance, sexually explicit materials of any kind are right out almost everywhere in the U.S.. It used to be authors with known communist sympathies would, depending on where you lived, never be used in public schools. I wouldn't doubt that there are still a couple school districts out there that don't stock their shelves with authors with anti-American views. So, this bill is notable in that it's a little further reaching than others have been, but it's really not by all that much, is it?
Once you start censoring things for the good of the children, etcetera, it pretty much gives free reign for the state to do whatever it wants edit: in terms of buyng books.
posted
Yeah, this is a big deal, it's all over the news in Alabama.
Not.
First I've heard of it. Like we're the only state in the union with a state senator that tries something stupid and/or bigoted?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
You can mention anything you want to, twinky, I just think it's a mistake to attach a lot of weigh to this, I think it's pretty much a non-issue.
I'm on the email list for the Alabama Library Association, and they haven't even mentioned it, and they are usually quick to come out about any proposed book bannings. I just think it's a state senator making noise and acting a fool, certainly not the first time it's happened in Alabama or anywhere else.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
This came up last year, and the same thing stuck me: why are people attributing one senator's views to a whole state? Let's see how much support the bill gets before condemning Alabama.
That doesn't mean don't fight this bill now. It just means to be aware of whom you are fighting. Hint: It's not an entire state.
posted
I looked it up on the Alabama state government website. Nothing has been done with this bill. Nothing.
It's been proposed, by one state house member (I said state senator before, I was mistaken.) No action has been taken, of any kind. It hasn't even been taken up by committee.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Its a way for a politician to look feirce in the culture wars without accomplishing anything. The more we call the dufus an idiot, the better his homophobic backers (not all of them, just the folks who would think this is a good ides) love him.
Of course, if we let the state of Alabama know that this idiot is making the state of Alabama look bad, then the normal people in his district might decide to get rid of him.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
More likely, the "normal" people will rally to oppose "outsiders" telling them how they should vote.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I dunno. Georgia got rid of the whackjob that wanted to ban the word "evolution" from textbooks here in Georgia. She thought that would deflate the controversy if we called it Natural Selection, or something.
Last I heard, they'd even found reason prosecute her for misuse of funds. In any case, she MORE than lost her job. May not have been ENTIRELY attributable to outside ridicule (or inside ridicule, as the case may be) but it was a factor.
Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Look for all of these so-called lawmakers who are doing these stupid and unconstitutional things to move to Florida soon where they will fit right in. Pity those of us who live here and still have a lick of sense.
Posts: 745 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
The malicious parts of me wonder if they'll ban Plato's works. Can't get more classical than that, and many universities consider him a fundamental part of the curriculum.
This would also kill . . . Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22 . . . wow, too many to mention. Good thing it hasn't passed.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:It's been proposed, by one state house member (I said state senator before, I was mistaken.) No action has been taken, of any kind. It hasn't even been taken up by committee.
Well that's good to hear. Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Pity those of us who live here and still have a lick of sense.
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