Know what's shocking?

[slick8790]

The public libraries will still stock books like this:



"The Bush administration and CIA director George Tenet warned against complacency and pointed to growing indications that al Qaeda and Iraq were in league. But their case was undercut by unnamed intelligence officials, skeptical politicians, and a compliant media. So America relaxed. A comforting consensus settled in: Osama bin Laden was an impassioned fundamentalist, Saddam a secular autocrat. The two would never, could never, work together. ABC News reported that there was no connection between them, and the New York Times said so too, and pretty soon just about everyone agreed.

Just about everyone was wrong. "

http://www.amazon.com/Connection-Collaboration-Hussein-Endangered-America/dp/0060746734


I work at a library, and while putting this back today, I did a triple take. Talk about a waste of taxpayer dollars :eyes:.

[Olney Blue]

1. You filed it in the comic books section, right?

[Canuckistanian]

15. Or in the "Fiction" section

Or the "Deluded Neo-Con Fantasy" section, if that category even HAS a formal designation.

[LWolf]

2. Why is it shocking?

You think public libraries should censor the collection?

Access to multiple points of view is essential for anyone who wants to educate themselves. Putting a book on the shelf does not signal agreement with the content.

[slick8790]

6. You don't see a difference between censorship and weeding out obviously (proven) false information?

The idea that that book is non-fiction is ludicrous. Maybe as a trashy fiction paperback.

[LWolf]

14. There's some discretion when it comes to buying new material.

Something that is proven false shouldn't be on the list to spend limited funds on, to be sure.

Weeding can be done for a variety of reasons, including the quality of the material. Still, it's not a bad thing, in my mind, to have examples, even when they are examples of bad propaganda.

If you were looking for source material for some period in history, you'd want to see it all, whether it was accurate or not. Burning all the books we deem wrong now leaves an incomplete record of the time.

[slick8790]

16. Sure, in the generic, I agree.

But the idea that people are obviously reading things like this and most likely taking them as gospel is ridiculous and dangerous to everyone. These are people who would vote for bush again if they could.

Sure, archive it. Keep a copy for historians. But keeping something like this in current circulation is a slap in the face to the pursuit of knowledge. I agree that we need to have books, even those we deem "wrong", but there's no value judgement here. It's flat out wrong in its basic facts.

[LWolf]

20. When it's wrong in it's basic facts, it will be weeded.

Weeding isn't a one person decision, and it may not be weeded immediately. Books that are deemed out of date or inaccurate WILL be weeded, though. Perhaps not as quickly as you would like, but it's still inevitable.

[bbinacan]

3. Are you advocating

censorship?

[slick8790]

7. See post #6 n/t

[bbinacan]

18. Does your library stock

Dianetics?

[guyanakoolaid]

9. You can call it censorship

I call it upholding the standards of the library. Would a library allow a book in its non-fiction section which purports that the world is flat? Of course not, because it is garbage with no basis in reality. Is this "censoring" reality? No, it's common sense.

[bbinacan]

19. I would imagine that

in larger libraries you would find books on this subject. I guess in your mind we should light the matches and burn anything you disagree with. Fahrenheit 451.

[guyanakoolaid]

23. of course not

They have every right to espouse their bullshit. A library is not a place to hold such lies, however. It is not a collection of all books ever written.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Ah Jeez

These people need meds.

[truedelphi]

5. Meanwhile they throw perfectly good books away

I found an entire collection of Woody Guthrie albums thrown out by a library in Madison WI

And several books on the history of the colonies and their struggles with Great Britain.

Soem libraries now sponsor book sales - which is a far better way to go.

[slick8790]

8. That's a great find!

I love Woody. We don't even have LPs anymore. We recycle dozens of books every other week, and I grab any that seem interesting. It really is a shame.

[MadMaddie]

17. In Seattle the King County Library system is having one of those

sale this weekend. Fri Sat and Sun

Ohhhh.....it's the best ever. I can't wait.

I will admit I take a rolling suitcase and $20 and get

I go to the Sunday sale because the books get discounted even more.

Papebacks .25
Hardbacks .50
Really good Hardbacks 1.00

:loveya: :applause: :woohoo:

[truedelphi]

27. Sometimes I wish I lived in Seattle - I only spent two hours once in the

Damn airport there and had a great time (Not many airporsts you can say that about.)

Good luck this weekend.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

34. My god, that is insane

There is no used record store in Madison that they could have sold the albums to for a few bucks?

[truedelphi]

36. Worse than that - they were a collectors item!! n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

10. It will be used in school textbooks. n/t

[islandmkl]

11. about the world being flat...

if it isn't...what did I fall off of last Saturday?

[Fumesucker]

32. Umm.. The floor?

;)

[muntrv]

12. This belongs in the fiction section.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

13. Scarborough was fellating Feith (and his new book) on TV this morning.

It was absolutely pathetic.

[bbinacan]

21. Does your library stock books

about 9/11 being an inside job? You know, the buildings were already wired with explosives, etc.

I think you need a refresher course on some history you idiot.

"The practice, usually carried out in public, is generally motivated by moral, religious, or political objections to the material. Books can be also destroyed in secret, like millions of books in the former Soviet Eastern Bloc."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning

AND. "The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings

You arrogant ass. You think YOU know what people should be allowed to read? I'm shocked to see this on DU.

I'm too pissed to continue.
:mad:

[slick8790]

22. Wow, fuck off! You self important prick.

There's a BIG difference between destroying books based on a value judgement of the content and getting rid of obviously false and disproven information.

Comparing me to a nazi because I support getting rid of wrong information? God forbid.

I'm arrogant? Welcome to my ignore list, you're the first one i've ever had to put on.

[bbinacan]

25. Ignore list?

Now that's the coward's way out. I did not call you a Nazi. It was just a reference to consider.

[slowry]

31. You're a what?

The practice, usually carried out in public, is generally motivated by moral, religious, or political objections to the material. Books can be also destroyed in secret, like millions of books in the former Soviet Eastern Bloc."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning

AND. "The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_book_burnings

You arrogant ass. You think YOU know what people should be allowed to read? I'm shocked to see this on DU.

Seriously, though, please calm down.

[dysfunctional press]

24. that whole "freedom of speech" thing can be a real drag, when the opinions don't match yours, huh..?

nt

[bbinacan]

26. Careful now. The OP may

put you on his ignore list like he said he did to me. I find it scary that this ass works at a library.

Talk about censorship? He practices what he preaches.

[guyanakoolaid]

28. You sound eerily like a creationist

Demanding a place for junk science and lie-based disinformation at the table.

Nobody is calling for these things to be burned, that is your own paranoia. But are you saying these things should be put on library shelves and given the weight of the title "non-fiction"?

[bbinacan]

37. And would the OP

support placing a book about the towers being demolished by preset explosives?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

35. Except he put it on the shelf, didn't burn it

You're overreaction to his post is amusing, however.

[bbinacan]

38. I'd bet he'd burn it if he could.

And your reply amuses me as well.:toast:

[Telly Savalas]

30. Cool. I can publish a book and every library in America is obligated to buy a copy.

Because if they don't, they are trampling my freedom of speech.

Sounds like a good way to get rich quickly.

[dysfunctional press]

33. since when? you should peobably check your facts on that.

you are vastly mistaken.

but at least it isn't the first time.

[Telly Savalas]

29. But does the book connect either of these men to Kevin Bacon?