Librarian's Rant

Talk tough, shoot first, ...dress casual.

Cheney Criticized for Attire at Auschwitz Ceremony

Vice President Dick Cheney raised eyebrows on Friday for wearing an olive-drab parka, hiking boots and knit ski cap to represent the United States at a solemn ceremony remembering the liberation of Auschwitz.

..."The vice president...was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower," Robin Givhan, The Washington Post's fashion writer, wrote in the newspaper's Friday editions.

Between the somber, dark-coated leaders at the outdoor ceremony sat Cheney, resplendent in a green parka embroidered with his name and featuring a fur-trimmed hood, the laced brown boots and a knit ski cap reading "Staff 2001."

"And, indeed, the vice president looked like an awkward boy amid the well-dressed adults," Givhan wrote.

Thanks to Todd G.

Cuz heaven forbid this administration shouldn't follow the oh-so-progressive viewpoint of James Dobson and Focus on the Family, a la the Spongebob controversy. Article about the Ed. Secy is at CNN.com:

The not-yet-aired episode of "Postcards From Buster" shows the title character, an animated bunny named Buster, on a trip to Vermont -- a state known for recognizing same-sex civil unions. The episode features two lesbian couples, although the focus is on farm life and maple sugaring.

A PBS spokesman said late Tuesday that the nonprofit network has decided not to distribute the episode, called "Sugartime!," to its 349 stations. She said the Education Department's objections were not a factor in that decision.

I'm so disappointed with PBS...

Thanks to Amy M. on Library Underground.

Cute cartoon from (I think) the Palm Beach Post.

Thanks, Lola!

I mentioned previously a town in British Columbia, Canada that was for sale. I'd envisioned, with some fellow library types, a librarian utopia where we'd escape the insanity of the day, and our major export would be information services. Sadly, the town has been sold and will likely end up full of pretentious California ski bunnies. C'est la vie.

My buddy Chris Zammarelli, of Censoround, is quoted in an article in today's Washington Post on school reading lists.

This year's Razzies awards for the year's worst films includes a worst-acting nomination for Dubya:

President Bush and some of his advisers received worst-acting nominations for their appearances in news and archival footage in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which assails Bush for his actions surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks.

Bush was nominated for worst actor, while Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice got a nomination for worst supporting actress and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for worst supporting actor.

Wilson said that while "Fahrenheit 9/11" was a piece of anti-Bush propaganda, the president and his associates earned their Razzie nominations on their own.

"It wasn't Mr. Moore's editing," Wilson said. "It's the raw footage of these people just making fools of themselves."

Okay, so here's an amusing update to the whole 'Spongebob is Gay' thing (link is to previous post). The United Church of Christ (bless 'em!) extends a welcome to our little yellow spongy friend. The photo is absolutely precious.

Link in the article is to Accessible Airwaves, where they also have a copy of the controversial UCC 'extravagant welcome' ad.

Thanks to Ang.

Partial text of UCC president Rev. John H. Thomas' response to the Focus on the Family accusations against Mr. Squarepants:

"Absolutely, the UCC extends an unequivocal welcome to SpongeBob," the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president, said, only partly in jest. "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."

...The UCC's welcome comes in the wake of laughable accusations by James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, that the popular SpongeBob and other well-known cartoon characters are crossing "a moral line" by stressing tolerance in a national We Are Family Foundation-sponsored video that will be distributed to U.S. schools on March 11, 2005.

Later, an assistant to Dobson called SpongeBob's participation in the video "insidious."

Thomas said, on the contrary, it is Dobson who is crossing the moral line for sending the mistaken message that Christians do not value tolerance and diversity as important religious values.

"While Dobson's silly accusation makes headlines, it's also one more concrete example of how religion is misused over and over to promote intolerance over inclusion," Thomas said. "This is why we believe it is so important that the UCC speak the Gospel in an accent not often heard in our culture, because far too many experience the cross only as judgment, never as embrace."

Another 'any librarian could have told you that' article, from Wired:

Users Confuse Search Results, Ads

NEW YORK -- Only one in six users of internet search engines can tell the difference between unbiased search results and paid advertisements, a new survey finds.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported Sunday that adults online in the United States are generally naive when it comes to how search engines work.

The major search engines all return a mix of regular results, based solely on relevance to the search terms entered, and sponsored links, for which a website had paid money to get displayed more prominently.

Google marks such ads as "sponsored links," Yahoo terms them "sponsor results" and Microsoft's MSN uses "sponsored sites." Such ads are placed to the right and on top of the regular search results, in some cases highlighted in a different color.

But only 38 percent of web searchers even know of the distinction, and of those, not even half --47 percent -- say they can always tell which are paid. That comes out to only 18 percent of all web searchers knowing when a link is paid.

Thanks to Amy K.

'Because We Can't Get Enough of "Come Hither Bill"'

Thanks, Amy W. I think. Ew.

Turns out I missed celebrating National Pie Day. I shall have to remedy that today. Mmmm...pie.

Thanks, Tracey!

Something to lighten (slightly) this 'most miserable day of the year': How do you measure up?

I'm shorter than Julia Child, but taller than Audrey Hepburn.

Thanks, Tracey.

An amusing addendum to my previous post on the whole 'Spongebob is Gay' thing. Drew Johnston over at Political Strategy runs down the list of beloved children's characters who have been accused of gayness:

Let me see if I understand this: the President, a conservative, “born-again� Republican is reelected by (what people tell me was) a landslide. This “mandate�, the CW continues, was caused by the so-called “values voters� going to the polling places to vote against those dirty homos and sticking around to prop up the Emperor. In short, the religious/moral community now controls the seat of power. More than any time, this group has the potential to reshape this country.

So what do these groups do with this newfound power? Go after Roe v. Wade? Push the FMA? Petition the increasingly values-friendly FCC to tighten up regulations on mass media productions? Nope, they do something even better - they go after a popular cartoon character who they believe is gay.

Have you been injured by a ninja? Then consult a pirate lawyer and 'get the booty ye deserve'!

Thanks, John W.! This made my day.

From Yahoo! News.

I thought the DaVinci Code a decently good yarn. But with a reasonable amount of academic biblical scholarship under my belt, I knew which bits of history and myth he'd cherry-picked for his FICTIONAL plot. Amusing, but not, dare I say it?, Gospel. I'm concerned that the pro- and anti-Dan Brownites will be lined up to egg each other when this comes out. People, please! It's not that good a book! It's not worth this kind of energy!

Seems that this coming Monday, 24 January, is going to be the most miserable ever, according to a British academic:

The formula for the day of misery reads 1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA.

Where W is weather, D is debt - minus the money (d) due on January's pay day - and T is the time since Christmas.

Q is the period since the failure to quit a bad habit, M stands for general motivational levels and NA is the need to take action and do something about it.

Dr Arnalls calculated the effects of cold, wet and dark January weather after the cosiness of Christmas coupled with extra spending in the sales.

He found 24 January was especially dangerous, coming a whole month after Christmas festivities.

Any energy from the holiday had worn off by the third week of January, he said.

By Monday, most people will have fallen off the wagon or abandoned the nicotine patches as they fail to keep New Year's resolutions.

...The fact that the most depressing day fell on a Monday was not planned but a coincidence, he said.

Okay, I give up! I plan to spend the day in bed. You?

Thanks, Akeisha (I think!).