"There is NO other book that has ever been written, or ever will be, that compares to the Bible. It is, truly, the only book we REALLY need."

-- Dawn Klinge



https://www.dawnklinge.com/abovethewaves/3-reasons-why-the-bible-is-the-only-book-we-really-need


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https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/01/11/escambia-dictionaries-removed/

Dictionaries were removed from library shelves in a Florida school district last year as part of an investigation of more than 1,600 titles for mentions of “sexual conduct” that could violate a 2023 state law.

Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus for Students, Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary, the American Heritage Children’s Dictionary and other titles were pulled from schools in Escambia County, Fla., where officials are reviewing books for compliance with the law’s prohibition on materials with “sexual” content.

Also investigated were the World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places, the World Almanac and Book of Facts, and other reference books on topics including science, mythology and the Bible, according to a list published by the school district and circulated this week by PEN America, a free speech group that has sued the school board over the removals.

That dictionaries were included in the review process and triggered the “sexual conduct” criteria for a second look demonstrates how sweeping the state’s new rules are and how fraught the climate in districts has become, said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program.

“This was just another example that illuminates the heightened atmosphere, the chilled atmosphere that we’re navigating,” Meehan said. “Librarians are feeling so pressured to err on such extreme caution that these are the types of books that are being pulled for review.”


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Take the dictionaries away and soon the kids won't be able to understand the Bible.

Maybe that's the point.

Lot's Wife Wrote:
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> Take the dictionaries away and soon the kids won't
> be able to understand the Bible.
>
> Maybe that's the point.

Yep...

Ha! Best comment ever about it all.

They *will* get what they want out of that--The Bible being something to hold in the air rather than read. That way you can signal your own righteousness and judgmental superiority as you use it to augment your own agenda which probably actually doesn't align with anything actually written in the Bible at all.

Book banning makes so much sense, now with cellphones and iPads in just about every kid's paws.

Internet Wrote:
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> Book banning makes so much sense, now with
> cellphones and iPads in just about every kid's
> paws.

Easy peasy. Just take away the phones as well.

Who needs an educated population?

Internet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Book banning makes so much sense, now with
> cellphones and iPads in just about every kid's
> paws.

Exactly. There's only one problem. Search engines and social media like to ban things too. So you have Florida banning one set of things and technocrats banning another.

Libraries are free and open to all.

At least they used to be.

My dad used to sit and read the dictionary. As kids we thought that was a little too far over on the weird side. But it helped us to get interested in words (he loved etymology and it rubbed off on all of us).

Some folks might need a dictionary to get through the Bible.

Book bans or the desire to impose them should scare everybody. Squelching information in order to promote "the one true way" pretty much never works out too well.

I'm normally fairly tolerant of book bannings for public schools, because I figure that the students are minors for the most part, and we need to be mindful of that. Books can always be checked out from the public libraries.

I think that the Moms for Liberty group, which advocates for book bannings, has gone way overboard though. And they've been particularly successful with that in Florida, resulting in the lunacy of schools banning classroom libraries (which are necessary to promote literacy,) and as in the above example, even dictionaries.

A local county in Maryland leans conservative, and MFL is very active there. I saw the MFL proposed list for banned books in that county, and it is extensive. The school board members, to their credit, are only considering five books at each meeting. Even as a teacher, I was only familiar with two books on a rather long list. So MFL are being fed these lists from above. I doubt that the parents have ever seen these books. IMO this is book banning with a particular agenda. I do have an issue with that.

Mormon and EV college friends had weird gaps in knowledge that never seemed to make sense. Lots of books and movies that were common knowledge they didn't know about.

I don't agree with book bans.

If something is controversial and needs parental permission, fine, but closing off knowledge only closes minds.

Think about how stereotypes are maintained from one generation to the next.


########

https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2023/september/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-book-bans-sweeping-the-us/


https://goodfaithmedia.org/why-christian-nationalists-want-to-ban-books/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2024 02:33PM by anybody.

> closing off knowledge
> only closes minds.


I get the impression that this is the goal!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2024 02:56PM by anybody.

The way to get kids interested in something is to ban it.

Yeah, pretty much. Kids have almost unfettered access to the internet, and most can find their way around filters to get to what they want.

Now kids can learn about life the old fashioned way again--from their friends. Like, you can't get pregnant the first time.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/43ggk3/mountain-dew-sperm-count-rumor

The year was 1999 and teenage boys were under a spell cast by Mountain Dew. Rumors flew that one of the very popular soda's synthetic food dyes decreased sperm count; as a result, some sexually-active teens began binge-drinking the alleged spermicide as their only form of birth control. That year, the rumor gained so much traction that the Wall Street Journal published an article chronicling susceptible teens' belief in it.

According to the urban legend, the soda lowers sperm count and thus works as pre-coital contraception because of the soda's dye, Yellow No. 5, also known as tartrazine. The US Food and Drug Administration approved the dye in 1969, and soda producers have included the dye in Surge, Fanta Pineapple, and Gatorade, among others. (Pepsi Cola produces both Gatorade and Mountain Dew; they did not return Broadly's request for comment.) Despite the ubiquity of Yellow No. 5 in orange-hued beverages, it was Mountain Dew that reigned supreme as the contraceptive of choice for teens—despite the complete lack of evidence regarding its efficacy. Nearly two decades later, many millennials still wonder: Did Mountain Dew really lower sperm count, or were teen boys just attempting to use the baseless rumor to their advantage?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2024 10:44AM by anybody.

Unbelieveable, yet . . . really believable.


Somehow this all seems to be a metaphor for what is going on in our government nowadays.

People who ban books & other media are more against Thinking than against reading, but they don't- won't realize - admit it.

Just so we're clear, book banning in 2024 is pretty much meaningless. In the age of Kindle and Google, there is no such thing as regulating any sort of library any more. Maybe in elementary schools, but beyond that, nobody uses a physical library. I work at a university. The library has about three books. The bookstore is a clothing store. And so on. Please explain to me what these book-banning types use for brains.

You're missing the point.

Those people aren't trying to limit what children read so much as to be seen trying to limit what children read.

At first I thought this was satire... Aaaaargh! We in Europe do not remember strongly enough that among the stirrings leading the awful events on our continent 90 years ago and after were book burnings...

I agree, Anybody. I'm against book bans. I wouldn't even ban The Art Of The Deal ;-). And to be clear, I do not mean having what might be called "age-inappropriate" books accessible or proposed to children. Particularly since they mostly won't be interested until puberty (or beyond). A lot can be achieved quietly, without performative prohibitions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2024 01:54PM by Soft Machine.

I believe that librarians should require that younger children have parental permission to access sexual and violent content.

The female body has ways to shut that whole thing down."

"Everyone knows you can't get pregnant the first time."

"Black men have extra muscles in their legs."

"Atheist parents turn their kids into transgenders."

"Slavery was a good thing."


Think about those statements.

There are still people alive who have said such things.

Now think about all the efforts to ban books and censor the internet.


Now think about these statements:


"Why did you lie to me?"

"I had no idea this was offensive."

"I'm so sorry, I never knew. No one told me."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2024 03:06PM by anybody.