Posts I shouldn't have posted.

...sometimes I write stuff that should never be posted... here is one of those:

(In)SaneLibraries.org

If you or anyone you know has ever had anyone from the American Library Association try to pinch your bottom or give you a foot rub, please tell me about it so I can go on TV and tell how the ALA is so evil it puts razor blades in copies of The Cat in the Hat then hands them out to the same nine-fingered children they gave boobytrapped copies of Caps for Sale to last year. Wait, am I rambling? Do I sound insane? Because I'm not. Really. Children are being killed in libraries every day and the American Library Association is using their blood to print, My Gay Parents Married a Bi-curious Penguin.

I don't know what's up with these people at SafeLibraries.org, but they need help in the web design department.

I don't know if they are crazy people who run that site, but the bright yellow table with the bold red text screams crazy people live here.
Here is a useful page on that site with tips for keeping kids safe without the paranoid media-attention-grabbing "libraries are filled with witches and pedophiles" headlines (well, they are, but we don't get all crazy about it).

A lot of librarians are unhappy with the American Library Association wasting time on useless crap that generates bad publicity because it's sexy, useless crap that gets boring and unattractive librarians time on television. But I don't agree with the kookiness at safelibraries.org.
There's a point where "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" isn't practical; it's even dangerous when that enemy is nuts.

And I'm still not sure if they are nuts. Since I'm unable to read more than five lines of their site without nausea washing over me from their ketchup and mustard decor.

But all their crap about whistleblowing and turning in libraries is bullshit. Librarians are screwed because we are ethically obligated to provide for the needs and wants of our service population. And unfortunately, we rarely get to say "no" to whatever people want from us. So that guarantees that someone else is going to get pissed at us. But the solution is not to destroy the ALA.
And don't get me started on this other page, WHICH IS PRINTED IN ALL CAPS!!!!!! WITH EVERYTHING A LINK AND UNDERLINED???!!!!! (Choose a different font, you nut.) Hey, Internet crazies, if you want to appear sane (which you don't because then you wouldn't get on TV), you don't publish web pages that look like anti-government crackpot newsletters.

If people want to get rid of pedophiles and pornmeisters in the library, use that same phone that you would pull out if you saw Britney taking a pee in the McDonald's and record the scumbag and what he's viewing in plain site of children. Then find the State Statute (there's gotta be one, even in California and New York) that says you can't display pornographic images to children. Call the cops and file charges. I am not a lawyer, but if Britney can't exit a car without the whole world viewing photos of her lady business, then porno-lovers shouldn't be able to claim sanctuary in the library.

Someone needs to get this shit sorted out as to whether the library is a public area or a private area: if you look at porn and I see it, are you violating a public space, and if you look at breast cancer information and I see it, am I invading your privacy? So is your porn viewing also private??? Librarians can't do anything about this; we need to err on the privacy side. And ain't nothing gonna happen until regular people are willing to do something about it.

Anyway, some crazy people have good hearts, and maybe these safelibraries people are good at heart. But they frighten me, and if you are able to frighten someone like me, you gots some mad frightnin' skillz.