Thursday, February 23, 2006

You sure this is a free country?

Why not throw another log on the crazy fire?

The Washington Post is running a story about Homeland Security officers trying to prevent people from viewing porn in a library in Maryland. Thankfully the good guys won the day, but this really scares the hell out of me.

God bless Librarians, and God bless the Bill of Rights.

4 Comments:

Blogger max said...

porn in libraries. this conversation comes up often at our staff meetings. since we are a private institution, there aren't necessarily rules against it but it's an unspoken agreement that if someone is found looking at porn, they get asked to leave.

frankly i could care less. i don't really want other people to be offended but often we find the porn sites in the stacks, where there is only one computer and you really don't look at the screen unless you want to or are needing to find something.

but the old ladies here get a bit uppity about seeing porn and are very offended by it. i guess i'm just still young and cool. ha.

Thu Feb 23, 01:41:00 PM PST  
Blogger Bethie B said...

what complicates the matter is CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act). many libraries agree to use filters on their computers (in exchange for hardware and internet service at a reduced cost) to block stuff out, but many more public libraries have given the finger to these programs and said they'd rather their patrons have free access to the internet than take free service.

it's a touchy issue, because how much should public libraries be doing to protect kids? school libraries serve "in loco parentis," and therefore WILL block sites that might be harmful to kids, but public libraries have no such jurisdiction (nor should they)...

a lot of literature i've read about this says that the viewing of porn isn't really the issue because they can install screen covers where only the person directly in front of the computer screen can view the information. rather, the indecent public acts that might result from viewing the porn are of greater cause for concern.

even so, the govt should just let the damn libraries set their own policies and uphold freedom of information/access.

Fri Feb 24, 09:02:00 AM PST  
Blogger Samuel A Love said...

I think we should go to a Homeland Security meeting and annouce that anyone who is a fascist peon has to go take a long walk off a short pier.

And Beth is right, viewing of porn isn't the issue. It's people who view porn at a public library, then touch their filthy crotches at a public library, and then resume touching the public library's keyboard with his filthy hands.

I caught a fat, greasy, retard doing just that at IUN back in the late 1990s and I STILL won't use that particular terminal. A civilzed society wouldn't dictate what or what not someone could view, it would just cut off the hands of the masturbator-perpetrator.

Tue Feb 28, 03:20:00 PM PST  
Blogger Chico said...

Ah, thank you Dr. Love. Now that we've heard from the moderates, would anyone else like to comment? ;)

Wed Mar 01, 06:20:00 AM PST  

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