we have become slaves to the thought and language police and lost sight of the most basic and abiding of principles; respect each other, not because we have to or because someone said to, but because it`s the right thing to do.
the rise of political correctness, organisations that appoint themselves to police things for the greater good and the decline of personal responsibility and common sense are intricately tied together. common sense doesn`t seem all too common any more. i`m trying to figure it`s because we stopped using it and allowed people to make decisions for us or if we just used it all up.
we need to stop relying on other people to tell us right from wrong and learn to differentiate for ourselves otherwise there is going to come a time when we`ll believe whatever is told to us and unquestioningly accept it as the truth.
oh wait, isn`t that where we are now?
banned books week is September 25 – October 3 this year. that`s right there are still books that are challenged and banned in public libraries everywhere. my amazon list has been modified to include booksense picks; which are all challenged books.
according to a press release from the ALA the 10 most challenged books of 2003 were:
Alice series, for sexual content, using offensive language, and being unsuited to age group.
Harry Potter series, for its focus on wizardry and magic.
“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, for using offensive language.
“Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture” by Michael A. Bellesiles, for inaccuracy.
“Fallen Angels” by Walter Dean Myers, for racism, sexual content, offensive language, drugs and violence.
“Go Ask Alice” by Anonymous, for drugs.
“It`s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harris, for homosexuality, nudity, sexual content and sex education.
“We All Fall Down” by Robert Cormier, for offensive language and sexual content.
“King and King” by Linda de Haan, for homosexuality.
“Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson, for offensive language and occult/satanism.
Off the list this year, but on the list for several years past, are “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, for sexual content, racism, offensive language, violence and being unsuited to age group; “Captain Underpants” by Dav Pilkey, for insensitivity and being unsuited to age group; and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain, for racism, insensitivity and offensive language.
banned books week is also tied to the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression`s Campaign for Reader Privacy amendment to the Patriot Act. Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the government can search your bookstore and library records without a court order, the amendment proposes to eliminate that section from the act.
edit
based on some queries here is some excepted info on how books are challenged from the ALA website:
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others…
The American Library Association (ALA) collects information from two sources: newspapers and reports submitted by individuals, some of whom use the Challenge Database Form…
…Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.
based on this satellite photo, i`m wondering if there is anything left upright in Tobago.
update from the trinidad express
Ivan leaves Tobago and heads for Grenada leaving a trail of damaged roofs and flattened trees and plants.
In Trinidad there are reports of some landslides and trees down on the Toco road. Weather experts predict continued rain and storms throughout Trinidad and Tobago this afternoon and all night. The full force of the hurricane was not felt as the eye passed just to the North of Tobago and did not make landfall.
update 2
apparently i`ve linked to a live image, which will track the path of ivan as the hours progress. Trinidad & Tobago`s luck and blessedness seems to have held yet again, i don`t think a lot of other places are going to be so lucky. as of this writing this is a category 3 storm and there is a lot of open water left for it to build up strength.
update 3
jamaica is going to get slammed there is no way around it. i`m worried about my friends and former co-workers and what`s going to happen in the years, afterwards. i said years, it took years to recover from gilbert and that was cat 3 hurricane, this is a weak cat 5. grenada is for the most a wreck; 90% damage, they too will take some years to recover, what makes it worse is with such widespread destruction no one seems to know when the bad news will end.
sometime in the next coupe of months we have to shell out another $500 to the USCIS, to begin my green card application process, this doesn`t include a medical which becomes invalid after one year; bearing in mind that the processing time on this application is two years, i`m going to have to spend this money twice. i also have to apply for advance parole which will theoretically allow me to leave the country; but which they also don`t advise because i may not be able to re-enter the country should i leave anyway.
is anyone sensing a pattern here? good.
in the interim, i`ll probably have to renew my current visa and work authorisation, more money, isn`t this fun, my passport also expires next year, which opens the possibility of having to start a whole new set of applications when i get it renewed.
i`m thrilled to be able to be here with vic. there is no amount of money in the world that can be used to put a value on the joy of being able to share my life with vic, but the bureaucracy just frustrates me so. that and the needless expense. vic and i would like to buy a house in the near future, we have debt to clear up, we don`t need to be throwing money at the government, if we don`t have to.
with careful deliberation i tried to avoid the empty rhetoric of both conventions. in a season of empty promises, political conventions are loudest and emptiest.
however this morning, i happened to catch a bit of a recap from the just concluded RNC on NPR and i heard quite possibly the most idiotic utterance in my entire life. comedian Lewis Black has a sketch about the sort of utterances that cause aneurysms, i think this is one of them:
A vote for Republicans is a vote for God
so my question is which God is this?
no this is a serious question. let`s take into account the diversity of the current US population, the basic possibilities are myriad. Jewish, Moslem; although with this administration that`s almost suicidal; Hindu, Buddhist and last but not least Christian, and even they get sub-divided, because i`m pretty sure the Southern Baptist don`t believe they share the same god with the Catholics. and what about the agnostics and pagans and the atheists that want to vote Republican, doesn`t that raise some sort of philosophical conundrum? or is there something i`m missing? and i`m not even getting into the separation of Church and state argument.
what continues to frighten me, is that people where cheering. no one went, hmmmm, something is wrong with this statement. i mean wrong at a fundamental level. this election campaign becomes more and more divisive with every passing day and idiotic statements like that don`t help.
apropos a title as any.
last night we took the boychick to see weird al. his birthday is on Monday, so this was part of his birthday present. he was thrilled, we didn`t tell him where we were going until we got there and he didn`t find out who it was until we sat down. he was thrilled, i think we earned a boatload of cool parent points last night.
i think this holiday weekend is appropriately titled, there is going to be a lot of labour involved. we`re driving to my mother in law`s this evening after work to start painting the walls of the play room.
an aside about painting; i love house painting, i think it`s one of the most relaxing things in the world, it`s one of those zen things for me. in relaxation terms, it`s right up there with doing laundry for me. last weekend while we there i painted the ceiling, i`m tall enough and the ceiling was low enough for me to just stand there with the brush and get it done, this weekend we`re doing the walls. i`ve joked if i became independently wealthy, i`d probably paint houses and pump gas to pass my days. the pumping gas is another tale.
on saturday, we`re off to my brother in law`s for his annual lakeside labour day soiree and then back to my mother in law`s to finish painting the room on sunday. on sunday evening or early monday, we`re back home and there are supposed to be a parade of people through the house to celebrate the actual date of the the boychick`s birth.
this weekend is going to be exciting to say the least. i hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend with special thoughts to the people in Fl.
i live in Nashville; which aside from the cowboy chic and the usually bad fashion sense of college students dressing themselves away from home for the first time; seems to have a pretty well defined sense of style.
i haven`t had very many scary moments since i`ve been here and that`s good. i however get a sense once you pass a certain size, clothing manufacturers believe that your sense of style is superseded by an overwhelming desire to hide your; obviously disgusting, quivering; flesh in whatever is closest at hand. that is the only explanation that passes for the hideous, overpriced monstrosities that pass for big and tall clothing.
i have this problem with pants. it`s damn near impossible for me to find a pair of pants that fit. i`ve said this before and i will say it until my dying day, i have a huge ass, i inherited it from my mother and passed it on to my children. all the weight i`ve gained in the last eight years have accumulated on my stomach; front not sides; and proportionally on my ass, although for it`s size and mass, it`s still quite firm.
i have a couple of jeans, some pants and suit that fits well. the pants and the jeans are from old navy, yet strangely when i went back to the store, tried on the same size and style they no long fit. i have eventually settled for some generic pants i picked up in target. they fit, but only if i`m standing or sitting, in motion there is a strange pucker in the crotch that is more embarrassing than obscene. i may just have to resort to getting measured and having my tailor reproduce the best fitting pair of pant i own, which he incidentally made.
that`s just open to so many possibilities.
this month is good vibrations anal sex month.
as with most other things sexual, i don`t judge consenting adults for any practice you choose to indulge in and i would appreciate the same courtesy. i think any sexual activity is a two way street, meaning if you`re a guy and willing ask your partner to indulge you, you should be just as willing to, at least, have your prostate massaged.
anal sex is not something that should be rushed into. as with any other sexual practice; no matter what you saw in that movie; it should be indulged in with care, both physical and emotional. if you`ve ever been interested or would like some clear, factual information, these 10 rules are probably the best guidelines you can start with.
“According to author Christoph Luxenberg, due to a possible mistranslation of the Koran (if one were to read certain words as Syriac instead of Arabic), the “virgins” some [Islamic Fundamentalists] believe they will be rewarded with in paradise may be “white raisins” of “crystal clarity” instead.”
Jenna Jameson has published a book, more power to her. there are editorials everywhere either lauding or decrying the mainstreaming of porn. i`m truly shocked that anyone is surprised, we`ve turned sexuality into a commodity and like any over-exposed commodity we`ve decreased the value. the adult industry needs to go mainstream, it`s simply a matter of survival.
we can see as much breasts and butocks in 30 seconds of prime time advertising as Cinemax`s late night programming and it`s only going to get worse, not because the adult industry is going mainstream but because we are becoming more repressed. it`s a vicious circle; we`re becoming more and more desensitised to sex, so advertisers are going to greater extremes to get our attention and in a knee jerk reaction people are going to find more stuff objectionable, which brings us back to doe, doe, doe. it`s a self perpetuating cycle and the solution is so simple. well at least i think so.
stop objectifying sexuality.
it`s natural, people need to accept that. it`s not simply for procreation, it`s not the solely the purview of people in love or people who are married. it is a natural instinct. i`m not saying you should go out and copulate with everyone you meet; well actually that is your choice, but we need to realise that the enjoyment of our sexuality is hardwired into our psyches. i`ve had a lot of sex, some of it in love, some of it fantastic, occasionally bad, some experimental. does this make me less of a person? i think not. i`ve accepted my desires and found someone to share them with.
the key to advertising is desire. advertisers try to sell you things; whether you want or need them by playing on your desires. until people accept that; to quote George Michael; `sex is natural, sex is fun`, sexuality is going to be pivotal as selling point. if we want to see less of it, we need to take it back, teach ourselves and our children that sex is not a bad thing.
