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September 16, 2008 - 9:31pm — mdoneil

Wow, go away for a few days and return to more of the same nonsense. Palin is the Devil? Typical? Pimps?

I didn't see any librarians when I was out west (everything is west of Florida). Nobody seemed to miss them.

I did talk to a few people, mostly phyisicans and nurses who think the whole Gov. Palin book banning thing is a tempest in a teapot. Some even though removing some of the 'crap' from libraries would be a good idea. Christians, Jews, a Moslem - 8 of 8 said they could care less if Palin asked to have a book removed. While not all were certain for whom they were going to vote, all of those that were certain were not going to vote for Obama/Biden.

As physicians, nurses, radiographers, and other medical professionals they all noted we would be no better off, and probably worse off if a socialized medicine program were instituted. One even remarked that the food stamp people have all day to sit around government offices waiting for clerks to shuffle their papers, but I have work to do and I don't want a doctor visit to turn into a day long affair. While I may not have put it exactly that way, I share the sentiment.

As time goes on I care less about libraries and librarians. Librarians play Chicken Little - think of the post about Vice President Palin cutting up books in the LOC. Every time someone wants a book removed we hear cries from librarians as if they were having an eye plucked out. Nobody but librarians cares, about these things, the world will not end it Daddy's Roommate is not on the library shelf.

Pretending they are doing a public service when delaying police investigations, or refusing to let the cops look at public computers - things of which there may indeed be nuances, but which librarians have no response other than NO PATRON PRIVACY IS SACROSANCT even if they are murders just makes them look stupid. Sure plenty of people write about it on the librarian blogs, but most people just read the newspaper article and think what clowns.

Librarians should not be allowed to the make public statements they often say the wrong things. If they would demonstrate they are working with the police or the person who wants a book re-evaluated rather than screaming about rights they would be not viewed as overzealous clerks by the taxpayers.

If they explained that library records are treated by librarians the same way that your NCIC profile, or drivers license records are treated by the police - they are limited access records and frequently require authorization, or Court action to share them, then the public - and the police- would understand better.

I really have enjoyed the last few days, helping some people, giving some local nurses much needed time off and working in their hospital and setting up a free standing minor medical facility. I like it more than being a librarian. I like my day job too, more than being a librarian although it is tangentially related - very tangentially.

However the whackyness here is just not worth it. I remember some of the good discussions, Slashgirl and GregS, Daniel, Rochelle, Crumudgeony, tangonat - some of these people agreed with me, lots didn't. However the discussions seemed to have more substance a while ago. The grass was greener, the summers were longer, and I had all my hair back then too.

LISNews has become somewhat of an asylum of late, and I don't think I want to be an inpatient. I'm sure I'll stop by as an outpatient from time to time.

Take your meds!

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Comments

September 17, 2008 - 2:16am — StephenK

Well, I was thinking about ya

I did hear from David Bigwood via Twitter about what was happening. I would much rather have heard from somebody from the area. My resources aren't as massive as the AP so there was not much searching I could do.

As to the video clip I posted, I just found it funny. In light of all the seriousness about the banning issue, it was just the perfect bit of absurdity. Martin and Jay do quite a bit of good comedy work that I enjoy most of the time. I was just laughing profusely seeing that clip after the tempest in the teapot that is called a "profession". For me, being able to laugh about such absurd things has been my relief.

I've been trying hard to line up non-Palin things for the podcast. I copy Blake on pretty much all of the interview requests although we cannot be too specific about what leads are being pursued. Right now I had one shoot down due to nobody being available, one that I am about to drop because it is not bearing fruit, and two floating in the ether. I can say that topics we have had requests out on have included: microblogging, Harry Potter, recent lethal interpretations of sharia law when it comes to producing as well as disseminating content, and web info trustworthiness.

I can't always translate such queries into text posts. The one shoot down may be possible for such conversion but I have been thinking about how to approach such effectively. I may try to pursue that somewhat before I call it a night.

As for the folks you cited, if memory serves their lives have all changed. Promotions, new family additions, and more can impact the ability to participate at somewhere like LISNews. The realm for LIS blogs has changed and the attentions of various folks have presumably changed too. With all the emphasis on social networks like Twitter and FriendFeed lately, has LISNews become viewed by folks as akin to either UUCP or FidoNet?

As to this being an asylum...ummmmmmm...we can discuss that privately via e-mail. The listen@lisnews.org address does not exist right now due to some systems issues but you can find a working address on my PGP key. That's all I can say as to that.
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September 17, 2008 - 5:46am — nbruce

almost

Yesterday I almost fired off an e-note and blog post about an outrageous anti-palin smear at (can't remember--might have been Huffing-Puffing), and in going back to look at the original source, I realized it was a parody of the left. However, things have become so lurid, so out of sync and so bizarre on the left, it's becoming difficult to even write parody. So I was fooled--as were others.

September 17, 2008 - 10:39am — Chuck

I'm going to have to go to the books for this

From Urban Dictionary:

1. concern troll

In an argument (usually a political debate), a concern troll is someone who is on one side of the discussion, but pretends to be a supporter of the other side with "concerns". The idea behind this is that your opponents will take your arguments more seriously if they think you're an ally. Concern trolls who use fake identities are sometimes known as sockpuppets.

September 17, 2008 - 2:07pm — mdoneil

Thanks Chuck

I wondered why I liked it better before when I had discussions with other people with real names (or at least an established nom de plume). I wondered why the comment that was in totality "*" or 'Typical,' just didn't float my boat.
Thanks for the long distance analysis of my blog post Dr. Freud.

StephenK : I thought the 'NSFW' - although I thought you were boxing the compass with NSEW, post was funny. People could watch it if they wanted and were warned that they might not like it.

Chuck, you want me to be more clear and not - as you chose from that well respected authoratative reference source the Urban Dictionary - be a 'concern troll', OK you got it.

I think many of the people posting on LISNews are halfwits. There were more intelligent discussions previously but the convention of morons that it has become have sent many of the people who could have a substatntive discussion elsewhere. I have decided those people probably had the right idea, although I do like LISNews, I am not going to respond to people I think are pinheads. A few weeks ago I stopped responding to one person in particular because I think he is nuts. Nobody got anything out of my responses to him and it was a waste of my typing.

So as I said before more reading, less responding. I don't delude myself that anyone takes my posts seriously, in fact just the opposite - I think most people read my posts thinking I am some right wing nutjob and don't bother to discuss anything. Those kind of people who don't like other people's opinions - you know like the kind that call librarians employers about their postings on LISNews- are what have sent at least some of those people who would engage in disussion to other places.

I know I am never going to change anything by posting on LISNews, but I do know that I was challenged to - and indeed did- rethink my opinions on some things.

I am sure the is value in LISNews and the podcasts, but it just seems the signal to noise ratio is getting smaller. If I stop responding to posts that I feel have no substance perhaps it will help. It is all I can do.
More reading, less posting.

September 17, 2008 - 2:44pm — Chuck

50/50

You might be right about LISNews. You have more years in than me. It does seem that the percentage of untutored, unfunny, unhelpful and unnecessary anonymous has increased. I am slightly to the left of Howard Dean and I don't really want to read anything written by someone who sees a threat called "OCLC Hints At Dewey Changes" and thinks "How can I work the phrase Bu$hCo. into this?" Or the "I'm not a sex offender because she was into it or my ex-wife is a lying bitch" guys? I can do without them.

Michael Nellis, in particular, makes even a lefty like me wish for heavy-handed censorship and water cannons.

The concern troll was meant for your "concerns" about librarians and librarianship: as race and discipline you have no love or use for. I'll take my PR and professional responsibility from someone who things of my job more highly than, say, whale snot.

And hey, some words aren't in the fancy dictionaries. But they are still words. A word is a word before it makes it into the dictionary.

September 17, 2008 - 9:25pm — mdoneil

I am a strict...

I am a strict constructionist when it comes to dictionaries. :)

I am also the only one at the Country Club reading the Catholic Worker newspaper.
I have a copy of the UDHR in my office at work, next to my copy of the US Constitution I got from the Heritage Foundation.
I think we are doing a wonderful job of making our children grow up too fast, and in doing so we are depriving them of the joys of being a child. Innocence lost can never be regained. We have introducted to them through schools, through involving them in the private lives of adults and through our too liberal attitudes to many things best left until they are older. Seven year olds should not know the term blow job, and they especially should not know what it means.
As parents, we frequently fail to realize that parent can and should be used as a verb as well. I was fortunate to have a stay at home mom, and didn't have to go to day care. We didn't have multiple cars, or TVs or any of the luxuries families today consider necessary. I think that is a good thing.
I don't believe in killing people, and I think everybody has the right to work to support their families -if they have to hop over a fence to do it we must be doing something wrong.
I live in the best country in the world - we provide more opportunity for the common man than anywhere else, and we are a safe haven for those persecuted in their own country.
Who wins or loses the next election while important will not cause our nation to come to a grinding halt - each side has survived what they considered a terrible president Clinton or Bush take your pick. We all managed to pull through the last 16 years, we can certainly do the next 8.

I am not right, or left, I am just me.

I thought I was going to be posting less.

September 17, 2008 - 3:14pm — Anonymous (not verified)

Palin and censorship.

Anyone expecially librarians, can go back to the local newspapers from the time of the controversy to validate this one. Even to the minutes of the Wasilla City Council, where Palin publically asked the question about censorship of books.

The issue of a list of books came from the list that the librarian used to do collection development from. A pretty standard list used to develop collections for libraries of the size of the Wasilla library.

The attempts to obfuscate the issue by suggesting that there list itself is bogus (for example, those supporting Palin refer to the latest list, rather than the one that was current at in 1996.

September 17, 2008 - 3:21pm — Anonymous (verified) (not verified)

Interesting. I haven't

Interesting. I haven't heard the Second List theory before. And I think expecially is my new favorite word.

September 17, 2008 - 4:02pm — mdoneil

What?

I really can't make sense out of this. Somebody stole a semicolon or something.

The issue of a list of books came from the list that the librarian used to do collection development from. A pretty standard list used to develop collections for libraries of the size of the Wasilla library.

Are you saying Governor Palin vetted lists used by the library to develop their collection?

There are any number of lists, or perhaps one giant list. New entries to the list of list are posted over at http://librariansforpalin.com

While I should know better, I have to ask? What are you talking about? Do you have a list of books you feel Gov. Palin asked to have removed from any library?

September 17, 2008 - 4:13pm — RobertL

No waiting all day

Evidently the medical folk you talked to, the ones who don't want to 'wait all day', don't have Kaiser at their health care provider.

Personally, I'll be happy to wait a little longer if it means that health care will provided to those that can't afford it.

Oh, and I like their comments about sitting around all day waiting for food stamps. I guess when you need food to feed your family, you will find the time to wait. They don't always necessarily have a viable alternative at that moment. Eating is an immediate need, not a gratification that can be delayed.

September 17, 2008 - 9:01pm — mdoneil

I don't speak for them, but I agree with them.

I think Kaiser is more of a left coast thing, rather than a Florida thing so I doubt many of the people I spoke with have Kaiser. I have a high deductible group plan through work (I pay the first $2800/ yr, then an indemnity plan kicks in and pays 100% at preferred providers. ) I also go to a doctor that has a boutique practice although my insurance company will not allow these type of practices in their network so I have to pay 20% of the fees charged as their reimbursement is only 80% on out of network practices. I do this because I feel it is worth it.

On the other hand I have volunteerd in the last several years more than 1000 hours at the local free clinic (and got a nice plaque). Within the last 3 months I have given more than 80 hours of care in Haiti and the US.

There is no right to free health care, there is only a right to access to health care. I know many doctors and I don't know one that would turn away a patient that could only pay a few dollars a month if they truly needed care and were compliant with the physician's instruction - few paying patients are as compliant as they should be with taking their medicines or minding their diet, any patient that did everything the doctor told them to do would be treated like a king.

I've said it before and I will say it again. If you know of anyone who needs medical care and cannot get it solely because they cannot pay I will find a physician who will treat them, or pay for it myself. No one has ever taken me up on this. I've posted it here before; apparently access to health care is not as bad as it is made out to be.

While I am sure some of the sentiment in the statement you mention is hyperbole, but do you want medical care delivered by the likes of the food stamp office, or the motor vehicles bureau?

"I guess when you need food to feed your family, you will find the time to wait."
Nope, not me I go to work. I've even done day labor cleaning up construction sites for fifty bucks a day. Any person with a sound mind and able body who can't earn enough to feed themselves is just lazy.

There are very few people who cannot perform some meaningful work. There is dignity in all work, and it is a basic human right to be able to work to support one's family. That is why my position on illegal immigration differs from many of my fellow Republicans. People have a right to a living wage and if they have to come here to do it, well then they have to come here to do it.

Eating may be an immediate need, not a gratification that can be delayed, but what about the tattoos and the cigarettes - can't those be delayed? If you can find one unfunded emergency room patient without one or the other who is not a substance abuser I'll hire them and give them insurance.

It is all about personal responsibility, some people fall on hard times, and having some short term relief on which they can rely is only fitting in our society, but cradle to grave care is seldom required. My Uncle Jim, one of the greatest guys in the world, worked at a sheltered workshop, Allentown Industries all his adult life. It was the best thing that he could have done. He made friends, enjoyed going to work like everyone else, and was a productive memeber of society. If you are not in a coma there is something you can do.

September 17, 2008 - 5:44pm — Anonymous (not verified)

If you think the govt

If you think the govt conducts fair investigations, you are not so bright, imo...

September 17, 2008 - 6:01pm — StephenK

Nice ad hominem

Why say such? On what basis is Matt not bright? From what basis do you say such?
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September 17, 2008 - 9:28pm — mdoneil

Does your ISP bill by the character?

The word is government.

Oh, and when I wrote about halfwits above... you demonstrate exactly my point.

September 17, 2008 - 11:11pm — RobertL

Ummmm.....

Why is it OK for you to use ISP, instead of Internet Service Provider, and Mr. Anon. not use govt (Ideally gov't)? LOL... maybe I'm just being too picky, but I found it a little funny. Wait, sorry, Laugh Out Loud... ;)