Librarian's Rant

I laughed until I cried reading Wil Wheaton's very comprehensive and very funny 'take' on the UberNerd fest going on in L.A. surrounding the next Star Wars film.

Thanks, t. You made my day.

Good article in Freepint a while back on the common complaint from NexGen librarians about the lack of jobs. A nice, balanced look at the issue, from both the employer and employee side of things.

...we cannot hire new librarians if they do not apply for the
openings we have. At a recent meeting of several library directors and
department heads, from a variety of public and private institutions,
three of us were lamenting the lack of applicants for open positions.
Two of these positions were at institutions either in a major city or
within a half hour of one. One of the three was in a more rural
setting. None of us were being deluged by a glut of applicants.
Indeed, one of us had received no applications and eventually hired a
paraprofessional to fill the position.

...Those in a position to hire should be willing to give those with
less experience a chance to prove themselves, especially now, as the
older generation wonders who will replace them when they do eventually
retire. Not doing so discourages those new to the profession from
continuing in the field, and could seriously impact the number of
librarians willing to work in and support this profession in the
future.

On the brighter side today, Woman beats off burglar with gnome. "I went back into the kitchen and found a rolling pin in case he came down. I didn't want to break another gnome."

From the NYTimes today:

WASHINGTON, April 14 - As the Senate heads toward a showdown over the rules governing judicial confirmations, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, has agreed to join a handful of prominent Christian conservatives in a telecast portraying Democrats as "against people of faith" for blocking President Bush's nominees.

What the hell? You can't make the argument in the Congress, so you're going to make the churches decide the issue? Yeah, and as soon as they need a filibuster, when they are again the minority (it has to happen sometime), they'll be whining that it's their 'God-given right'. Well, it's certainly their legal right. We didn't get rid of filibusters when one set of (racial) bigots were using it as a whip tool, why should we do it for this set of (religious) bigots?

Dr. Frist has threatened that the Republican majority might change the rules to require only a majority vote on nominees, and Democrats have vowed to bring Senate business to a standstill if he does.

On Thursday, one wavering Republican, Senator John McCain of Arizona, told a television interviewer, Chris Matthews, that he would vote against the change.

"By the way, when Bill Clinton was president, we, effectively, in the Judiciary Committee blocked a number of his nominees," Mr. McCain said.

Thank you, Senator, for reminding us of VERY recent history! Someone needs to explain to me what all this whining is about. So the Dems are blocking some nominees. That's their right! The Republicans blocked some nominees in the 90's, and they were ridiculously middle-of-the-road compared to what this administration is sending down.

I'm simply desperate for some reasonable, and reasoned, debate in our halls of power. Please, McCain and others, stand up and stop this nonsense. Only you can!