27 Dec 2004
Steinbeck's Hometown to Close Libraries

And it's not going to be alone:

Libraries nationwide are struggling. According to an April study by the Chicago-based American Library Association, libraries in 41 states absorbed more than $50 million in funding cuts in the past year. More than 1,100 libraries have reduced operating hours or cut staff.

Books, libraries and literacy have been the carriers of civilization for generations. Now we're replacing Shakespeare with "Fear Factor", and TS Eliot with Howard Stern: what does this forbode for our future? Not all change is bad, to be sure, but neither is all change good. Change is simply inevitable. And quite often very scary.

AP - So how would Steinbeck have reacted to the news that the cash-strapped city is closing its libraries in the spring?

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

They Won't Stand on Common Ground

To those who labor under the delusion that we heathens can make common cause with the conservative Christian Right on issues where we both agree, I offer the following. Here's where they're at on a key issue for us:

Religious liberty, as the group defines it, includes lifting the Internal Revenue Service ban on churches participating in politics. And it includes cheering judges who display the Ten Commandments in public places and championing courts that uphold the right of schoolchildren to say "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The only way to work with these people is to surrender to them. And I, for one, have no plans in that direction at all.

Los Angeles Times - Among the droves of conservative Christian lobbyists arguing their points of view in Washington, one relatively little-known group has a simple formula for setting itself apart from the crowd: Don't give an inch.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link