Random Thoughts- Some Of Them Cheerful

[poliphilo]

Ailz thinks we can live on £150 per month. I think that's pretty steep, but I like a challenge.

At least we don't have to worry about flooding- because we're so high up- though it seems like most other places do. How many flood warnings were issued yesterday? Over a hundred, I think. This new climate of ours- whether caused by global warming or not- is taking some getting used to.

We bought a couple of halogen heaters. One for the living room, one for the kitchen. Apparently they cost about a penny an hour to run.

Sarah Palin is an ignorant woman. I read a report that, as mayor of Wasilia, she wanted to ban Twelfth Night from the local library. Can that really be true? I don't like the thought of her becoming empress of the world.

The scum rises to the top. Pakistan has just acquired a guy notorious for graft as its Prime Minister. I say "acquired" because no-one elected him. He was appointed by the ruling party.

Mind you, no-one elected our Prime Minister either. He too was appointed by the ruling party. Matthew Parris- a columnist I respect- came right out and called him the worst Prime Minister in British History. Is that really the case? What about Anthony Eden?

I watched Longford the other night. Longford was the do-gooding aristo who tried to get parole for Myra Hindley- the most notorious British murderer of the 20th century.  It was a play about identity. Was Longford a saint or a fool or a bumbling egotist? And who on earth was Myra Hindley? Her partner, the clever psychopath Ian Brady, had her down as a "classic hysteric"- a person who becomes whatever their interlocutor wants them to be- a Zelig- a shapeshifter. We're all a bit like that- but are we enough like that to murder children? This is a question we'd rather not deal with- which is why we start shouting and stamping and waving our arms about whenever her name is raised.

Jim Broadbent was Longford, Samantha Morton was Hindley, Andy Serkis was Brady. What a lot of good actors we have in this country at the moment!

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe it's an established fact that she wanted to censor a number of books- and then moved to sack the librarian who stood up to her.

I've seen Twelfth Night mentioned as one of those books, but I'm finding it hard to believe.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Apples, oranges. And not an established fact, either. According to a piece in the Anchorage paper, Palin asked about the procedure for removing books from the shelves (in response, I gathered from another source to some queries from some residents). I can only imagine the response she got from the librarian! That's neck and neck with "give me the borrowing records of this patron so I can hand them over to the FBI" as things calculated to send your average librarian ballistic.

Not reported in a lot of the uproar is that Palin did indeed dismiss several people who she felt weren't seeing eye to eye with her on various agendas, but later. The librarian was one, but according to the letter Palin wrote her rescinding the termination, the issue was Palin's desire to merge the library and museum functions. I can see this becoming an issue in a small town with budget problems -- indeed, I've known several library/museum hybrids here in Philadelphia that have divested themselves of either their library or their museum holdings, or streamlined both including merging staff.

I don't know what you saw in terms of a list, but there was one posted on an Obama campaign web site diary (by a lower level person, not the campaign itself). That list was bogus -- it included the Harry Potter books, not published until after the alleged incident, and apparently was actually someone's list of all the books that were banned, or suggested to be banned, at one time or another.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I saw Twelfth Night mentioned on some blog or other. I've been trying to find out which books she had in mind, and no-one seems to have a list. In a way it doesn't matter. Censorship is censorship, no matter how worthy or unworthy its target.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know about that. There's "this doesn't belong in the children's section, let's put it in the adult section" kind of censorship, which isn't so bad in my book. But in any case, irrespective of what Sarah Palin may originally have thought about censorship in her town's library, the fact is that she didn't actually try to get anything censored.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

No, I believe she made enquiries- and then backed off.

[(Anonymous)]

That's correct: she made inquiries, but didn't pursue it. She also did not advocate for adding creationism to the curriculum in Alaska schools and she supports the teaching of contraception as well as abstinence.

[sovay]

I believe it's an established fact that she wanted to censor a number of books- and then moved to sack the librarian who stood up to her.

I haven't been able to find a list of the books she wanted removed, but it is established. And this alone would put me against her with extreme prejudice.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Me too.

Healthy democracies don't ban books.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

It is an established fact that she inquired about procedures. It is not an established fact that she sacked the librarian for not censoring books.