I’ve Been Thinking
The Idaho State House of Representatives got all riled up on Monday, and not even to mention unusually frisky, and they up and passed a bill 51 – 14 that could lead to librarians being prosecuted for checking out materials that are deemed harmful to minors.
Appropriately enough, it is House Bill 666. I couldn’t make this up and hell that’s what I do for profession.
“I would rather my 6-year-old grandson start smoking cigarettes tomorrow than get a view of this stuff one time at the public library or anywhere else,” said Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa.
So, I’ve been thinking: do we really need Idaho?
I think it’s time we seriously consider that question.
I put a picture of Bruce over there so you can avoid him at the pervert convention. Not that I’m saying you would go to a pervert convention but you know, first you drink too much, then punch in an address on Google that isn’t to terribly correct and you never know.
I have a dear friend who works with librarians every day. He says to never mess with a librarian. “They may look like little old ladies, but they went to shushing school and they know how to shush you in a manner that causes parts of your intestines to dissolve.” he says. “Plus, they are fiercer than fire ants with Bowie knifes if you attempt to ban one of their books.”
I think he’s probably right.
Poor Bruce would have an apoplectic fit at what I was reading by the time I was 6 out of my grandfather’s library.
1By then I was reading in 2 languages and 3 scripts(English, German, and the old Gothic German).
If I didn’t understand something, he would explain it to me. I was taught to read and THINK.
Kids still have a way to read and view anything they want. They have cell phones and the internet.
Demonizing and arresting librarians is just another conservative political stunt.
When I was an eleven year old school kid, I lived at the library when I wasnt at school. Because I was tall, and very quiet, the librarians never even looked me. I read all kinds of of “quote banned” books, Chaucer, The Decameron, Salinger, Mark Twain, and whatever I didn’t understand I looked up in encyclopedias.
2Thanks, Bruce! Your list is better than the NYT Best Seller lists for recommended reading. Seriously. Mark this historic day in Iduho history as the day the reading levels among Iduho students suddenly took an appreciative improvement. Book clubs? Meh. Not when Bruce has so generously provided a must read list for our two sons. Bruce, we are wishing you all the luck with your war on books that Nancy Reagan had with her war on drugs.
3Jane & PKM @ 3,
I hope that this banned list of books also includes The Good Book. That’s a book rife with murder, adultery, incest, violence, drinking, and animal sacrifice.
4I’m still trying to figure out why Bruce chose the Col. Sanders look.
5He’d better watch out, what with all those Californians buying up homes in the new subdivisions taking over ranch lands in greater Boise…including Naampa. He might soon be out of a job.
6Most times there always seems to be a “however”. Years ago when I was able to quickly walk the 14 blocks to the main library, there was a small, rather elegant room up a set of stairs where one could read books like Das Kapital etc. Of course, at the time there was a restriction such as young folks could only check out books from the young folks section of the library but no one prevented me from entering this room. It was more than worth the long walk to and from. Bruce is about to find out just how stupid his squeeze the librarians effort is. I have a friend who is a retired librarian and she can still fight ideas like Bruce favors like a mother tiger.
7but somehow, you missed the best part of the story, and here’s the link to prove I’m not making it up: https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/politics-government/2022-03-03/idaho-librarians-could-face-jail-time-for-lending-harmful-books
Another parent said she had filed a formal complaint against the West Ada School District over the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir.”
“The school does not need to teach our children how to do oral sex,” she said. “That’s my job.”
8I think we should all send his 6 year old grandson a pack of cigarettes.
9Several years ago I was in a program at our local primary school where I read to kindergarten kids twice a week. One of the books featured a tall, anthropomorphic rabbit (unclothed) who walked like a human and his friend, a little girl. Two of the little girls I read with always requested this book, calling him the “lucky naked bunny” as they dissolved into giggles. Now, I can imagine the uproar if they went home and told their parents what I was reading to them.
The children’s books that really distressed ME were the ones by Newt Gingrich’s wife, Callista. I made it a point to hide them from the kids on the days I was reading.
10Opinionated Hussy @ 5,
I can’t figure out that look, either. He’s definitey not finger-licking good.
11@Papa #2 – “Demonizing and arresting librarians is just another conservative political stunt.”
Cory Doctorow had a similar take on it in his newsletter yesterday: https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/09/turkeys-voting-for-christmas/
It’s not about cruelty, it’s about power.
12Can’t we just give Idaho back to the Native Americans?
13I suspect Bruce has a stash of porn tucked away that he refers to regularly to make sure he knows what his kids’ library books might contain. The straighter the arrow, the bigger the kink, as my spouse always says.
14Hey, Jane & PKM, could you post a copy of the list or a link to find it? I would like to add it to my must read folder. I have them from Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee so far, plus Middle Eastern authors and anti-racist books. I’m working my way through the Texas list right now. Fascinating books.
15I read some great literature while in public school. The only thing I remember any librarian keeping an eye on were the 5th grade boys and National Geographic magazines. The point of going to school is not just to learn to read, but how to think, learn about others and develop our own ideas. Apparently, Idaho children are allowed no ideas. I hear the Russian army is looking for recruits.
16AK Lynne, with our pleasure to read:
https://libguides.uidaho.edu/bannedbooks
Added reading, ALA Announces Top 100 Banned & Challenged Books of Last Decade:
https://bannedbooksweek.org/ala-announces-top-100-banned-challenged-books-of-last-decade/
17i do not undersstandd why the right wing nut jobs are so riled up about gay people?
18The rePUKEians are terrified of so many things! LBGT, women, loss of their favorite toys…guns. Now the are afraid to let people do what they can’t do …read!!!
19The GOP at its worst:
https://www.hrc.org/news/idaho-house-passes-discriminatory-bill-to-criminalize-gender-affirming-care-for-transgender-youth
20Thanks, Jane & PKM.
And here is a link for all of you at the salon. It will get you to the organization, Book Ban Busters.
https://www.redwine.blue/bbb
21el lagarto @8, “…she said. “That’s my job.” “:
22To paraphrase Willie Nelson in an old movie– ‘She could pull the chrome off a trailer hitch’…
It’s often a big red flag when someone expresses his feelings about sex (and other “forbidden” topics) in a negative way, he’s got hidden deep secrets he’s trying to cover up. Sort of like jr falwell. And yes, he’d go in disguise to the pervert convention cuz he is likely one (certainly is one).
23As for getting rid of iduho, where I lived for 30 years (from age 8-38) till 1987, I’m ok except for a couple things. We need a safe way to evacuate my liberal friends, of which I still have several in the Boise area. The other thing is take the red part of Oregon with iduho. Those people already want out of Oregon, so good riddance.
Maura hart @ #18
I think the right-wing nutjobs are so riled up about gay people because it’s safe. They–especially the religious ones–are pretty sure (most of them, anyway), that gayness is the one sin they’re not going to be tempted to commit. NB: I do not think being gay is a sin–but they do.
24“The louder and more frequent one’s objections to homosexuality are, the more likely one is to be a homosexual.”
Haggard’s Law is an adage named after Pastor Ted Haggard — despite his not being gay in any way, shape or form. It is used as a purely sarcastic musing that people who strongly object to homosexuality may be likely to engage in homosexual activities, and is based on the numerous public scandals[1][2][3][4] of famous figures who oppose homosexuality and homosexual behavior.
Instances of Haggard’s Law are gleefully spread by the media for an audience that revels in such scandalous behavior
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Haggard%27s_Law
25Sandridge @22
26The Electric Horseman, and you misremembered the verb. But close.
So right about librarians. Nicholas Poole tweeted: “Looking at a message from the Ukraine Library Association concerning the cancellation of their forthcoming conference…’We will reschedule just as soon as we have finished vanquishing our invaders.'”
We could use that spirit. An assistant principal in Mississippi was fired for reading “I Need a New Butt” to second graders.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/teacher-fired-mississippi-butt-book-b2032909.html
27Nearly 60 years ago I was a 95 cent/hour library page. Old Mrs. Frey used to be on the prowl constantly to make sure those boys in the corner weren’t sniggering over nekkid photos in the National Geographic. Meanwhile she never noticed that we pages were giving each other rides to the basement on the dumbwaiter.
28Why do Republicans have such an unnatural interest in children and pornography ?
29@Montag: it’s what they do…
30Don’t get rid of Idaho! Idaho has the best whitewater of any of the 49 little states.
31Tell you how they just handled this in Virginia. One of the local school board members asked for certain books to be reviewed at the request of a “concerned parent.”
Books were reviewed, kept in the library, and if a parent had an objection, they could ask that their child not be allowed to take out the book.
Problem solved. See how easy that was?
32An idea, turn the internet off so children cannot read online, and politicians cannot watch porn .
33