Losing Llano Libraries
Poor Llano County. Some federal judge has just ordered the county to return twelve (yes, count ’em, 12) children’s books to their public library shelves. It seems that the books offended the sensibilities of some adults who object to the racial and LGBT+ issues that are raised in them.
So rather than complying with the judge’s order, Llano County Commissioners are considering an old and accepted recourse: the equivalent of filling in the swimming pool.
Rather than bend to the Feds, the Llano County Commission is studying on nose-thumbing (and nose-cutting/face-spiteing) by closing all of their county libraries.
It’s a really great solution, see. No one can blame them for depriving their children of learning about racism and gender issues if no one in the county can learn about anything at all.
It has worked before. Racists have closed and filled-in public pools rather than desegregate them. And it’s legit.
Or so said SCOTUS Justice Hugo Black back in 1971 when the Jackson, Mississippi city council closed all of its public pools, save for the one that they leased to the “YMWCA” (Young Men’s White Christian Assn.). Justice Black said “There was no evidence of state action affecting Negroes differently from white.”
True that. If you’re a racist like Justice Black was.
So instead of violating a child’s right to read these 12 books, Llano County may elect to deny the educational enrichment of the entire county instead.
Bless their hearts
“Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb, not anything. You can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him.”
1One of my favorite Heinlein quotes.
The repugnantican Missouri legislature is voting to defund libraries. They can’t handle the truth about our history.
2Dumb & dumber.
3But with books and county commissioners.
These ignorant Republican hypocrite sonsabitches closing the libraries and attempting to censor everything in sight, etc., are the same perverts and predators who have been documented [see below] –over and over– committing the very same criminal offenses that they ceaselessly accuse others of doing, or thinking about.
***Whatever a Republican accuses someone else of doing, you can be certain that they are up to something far worse. They distract, divert, dissemble, disseminate lies to the max, all to obscure their own hideous proclivities. The Rethugs believe that everyone is as hypocritical and dishonest as they themselves are.
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An author [CajsaLilliehook] over at Daily Kos has been documenting Republican sex perverts and predators for years [I’ve been reading it], with over a thousand of them listed so far.
See this link for a list of documented Republican perverts, up to #1025 of them, ~25 listed in each article :
https://www.dailykos.com/history/user/CajsaLilliehook
This author’s series has continued, last entry on 20230312. Up to #1025 documented Republican perverts so far, the latest one :
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/12/2157746/-R
“Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers Pt. 1
4…
Republican Sexual Predators, Abusers, and Enablers Pt. 41”
I’ve been reading that several Texas local governments are outsourcing their libraries to for-profit companies. Is it any wonder we are 43rd in the nation in education?
5Mike @1, Robert Anson Heinlein has been one of my favorite authors since the 1950s [along with Asimov and Clarke], when I was a kid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein
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6BTW, Llano County [which I sometimes commuted through] is one of the [mostly Central] Texas counties which was primarily settled by German Freethinkers who held very ‘liberal’ viewpoints until a few decades ago.
Now their[my] ancestors would be ashamed of them.
Llano County is ~90% Anglo, and votes ~82% Rethuglikan since St. Raygun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llano_County,_Texas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelsverein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Settlement
I think a lot of these actions to ban books and teachings from our public schools sadly underestimates what the kids & young adults already know… and likely understand and accept far better than the “grownups” making these terrible decisions.
7I’ve been a resident of Llano county since 1995. Most of the local chatter on Nextdoor has been against the closing of the libraries. I’m going to the meeting today to see how things turn out.
8I remember, back around 1960-61, when the Jefferson County, Colorado school system started restricting access to some of the works of William Shakespeare [my memory of the exact details is somewhat hazy after 63 years]. Some of the teachers were very pleased with the results, because it meant that a number of students started actively seeking out and reading the restricted works, which they would have never done without the restrictions.
9@Corky Walsh–I live next door in Gillespie county, also since the late 90’s. I’d be interested in finding out what transpires at that meeting. Please check back with us!
10I have to wonder if that isn’t a move designed to cause so many people to object that the “offensive” book inclusion is a sacrifice that the prissy objectors will be forced to make rather than close the library entirely. Please let us know the outcome.
11I repeat, we are drowning in a rising tide of stupid.
12Well, that’s ‘owning the Libs’ isn’t it! Considering that no true MAGA parent would want their child seen in a library possibly learning something, this all makes sense.
13We used to live in a county neighboring Llano. It is often referred to a “dumasville.” Say it slowly.
14OT- more about how the rules of SCOTUS don’t apply to one named Thomas. He broke the law:
15https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-real-estate-scotus
After rereading who did what and why, I guess my previous hopeful comments were wrong. Too bad.
16In the old days, at the border of every county in the South, right next to the sign that listed the Protestant churches and the fraternal lodges, there was a sign saying ‘Welcome to Lostass County. Industry welcome’
Nowadays it’s an inferential sign, and it says: Do not dare open a branch of your corporation here.
17I knew before I went it was going to be crowded. I parked North of the entrance to the meeting and walked back. I counted 150 cars. There was a sign-up sheet earlier in the day for people who wished to comment. When I got to the building, the doors were locked and there were 70-80 people milling around outside. Twice while I waited, a sheriff came to the door and called out a name, and that person went inside to speak to the Court. I was told the speakers were chosen from the sign-up sheet at random. Many people started leaving as it was obvious no vote would be forthcoming and they wouldn’t be allowed speaking time. An EMS person told me the meeting room only held 30 people. The peaceful crowd around the building consisted of mostly older people. I drove back into Llano and counted another 60-70 cars parked South along Highway 16.
18Sandridge, Speaking of Heinlein, we might’ve talked about this before, but if you haven’t already read it, check out Larry Niven’s short story “The Return of William Proxmire”
19UPDATE: In the Llano County Commission meeting this evening (as mentioned by Corky Walsh above), they decided in executive session to keep the libraries open. No mention has been made in the Texas Tribune article on whether the books in question will be reshelved.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/04/13/llano-county-library-books/
20NBC news: Texas county will keep library system open and comply with judge’s order to put banned books back in circulation
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-county-convenes-meeting-discuss-possible-closure-100-year-old-li-rcna79413
21Now that is just plain old D.U.M.B. Years ago I found out about a list of books that my church didn’t like. Next I found out about a list of books much disliked by some sort of secret outfit that ruled a lot of books, including school textbooks. I found out about some of the books from both sources and spent a lot of spare time hunting them down and actually being more successful than I expected. When books are banned for any reason, inquiring minds damn sure want to know why. And the only way you can make up your mind is to read them.
22Rs: “There people might actually lean about other cultures and non-status quo belief systems. We can’t have that!”
Next: shut down universities?
“If at first you don’t succeed, defund the public library”
23https://popular.info/p/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-defund
While I was too young to be included in this, my uncle recalls all the stink over Catcher in the Rye. Once it was “banned”, it became required reading for every teenage boy he knew–even those whose previous reading was limited to comics and Mad Magazine (which was pretty subversive in itself).
What I and some of my fellow mischief makers have done with pro-dumbass books at the library is to “reshelve” them in another area that’s less trafficked than the new or featured items.
As a former student librarian, I can promise that unless someone accidentally discovers the offending tome, it will remain available for check out so no replacement will be ordered. Just can’t find the darn thing. Used to do this with Rush’s books all the time. Even turned a few so the spine was facing inwards.
24@DaddyWasATexan–I think that’s what happened to the books by Christopher Hitchens in our library. They’re still in the system and available for checking out but not on the shelf where they’re supposed to be. I guess this trick works both ways. Unfortunately, there are too many books by right wingers in our library to do this effectively. Would leave giant sized holes on the shelves. 🙂
25P. P. @19, Hadn’t read that one, but did read a number of other Niven ones.
He collaborated with Jerry Pournelle, another famous scifi writer, who I actually used to correspond with from the earliest days of IT/internets [was embedded in massive computers from ~1968 as a top hdw-sftw-eng/prjctmgr/trblshtr]– [“Pournelle…a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers.[1..].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Niven
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Niven_bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_William_Proxmire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niven%27s_laws
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%27s_three_laws
I still have a stack of Byte magazines [which topics concerned us], including the first issue:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_(magazine)
” Byte started in 1975, shortly after the first personal computers appeared as kits… — my ‘C’ tech exp preceding PCs by years]
“Pournelle’s journalism focused primarily on the computer industry, astronomy, and space exploration. From the 1970s until the early 1990s, he contributed to the computer magazine Byte, writing from the viewpoint of an intelligent user, with the oft-cited credo, “We do this stuff so you won’t have to.”[4] He created one of the first blogs, entitled “Chaos Manor”, which included commentary about politics, computer technology, space technology, and science fiction.”
Well worth reading, ‘Chaos Manor’ :
26https://www.jerrypournelle.com/
And regarding libraries, education, this Llano-type stuff, I went to a private, parochial, Catholic school, and two years at a major Jesuit uni, which were completely unlike all this restrictive bullshit today.
Our learnin’ was remarkably open and free-ranging, exploring many topics now taboo in some quarters; and having access to the now banned materials [I was hell on those poor nuns and padres, heheh…].
Someone mentioned certain religious groups putting down others, I don’t recall any of that from prior experiences, but remember recent years getting dragged to family Masses and hearing what I interpreted as leaning anti-Israeli portions of sermons.
However, nothing that I’ve ever heard compares to the blatant anti-Catholicism of various SBC preachers and others of their ilk.
Especially the likes of the ‘Rev.’ John Hagee, who I monitor often. I listened to his Easter broadcast this past Sunday, and the hatred for Catholics just dripped from many of his words.
Hagee’s one of the most influential people in Republican circles that few even know about.
And Hagee is one of the most dangerous people in the USA, threatening everything that this nation stands for in his quest to impose a radical RW theocracy upon us.
[BTW, I’ve been a staunch Agnostic since ~15 years old, just have no tolerance for bullshit of any kind]
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