Saturday, December 31. 2005
I got the following email today, from my friend D*: I have told a number of you about this, but there are a still some I haven't told yet that M* and I are adopting a baby. We were approached by a friend who found herself pregnant and did not feel she could take care of the baby as well as she would want to. She knew we were planning to adopt and asked if we would adopt the baby. We said yes. Why am I mentioning this? Because I'm so very proud of my friends for doing this--they are exactly the sort of people who should be parents (as opposed to so many I see in my work) as they are grounded, moral, funny, intelligent and kind.
My family has a long tradition of adoption (incl. my mother and her mother), and I think it is a very great kindness, even a blessing, to bestow on a child (and the birth mother). I told D* and M* so, and wished them every happiness. I shall also be sending my traditional Hippo book. Cuz every baby needs hippos!
I feel no great need to breed, but I'm always pleased when good, capable people decide to raise a child. When they choose to welcome into their hearts someone else's child who truly needs them, I'm even more pleased. Not everyone has the courage to make that choice.
A little brightness for the new year, in my world.
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 21. 2005
A few tidbits that have been floating around my consciousness (and the library listservs) of late, which I haven't had time to blog:
Radical Militant Librarians and Other Dire Threats (Truthout.org) - http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121905Z.shtml
The NY Times NSA story (link is to rawstory.com - they link to original article at nytimes.com) - http://rawstory.com/news/2005/New_York_Times_admits_it_held_1215.html
Pres. Bush makes executive order on FOIA (a bit scary and odd) - http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051214-4.html. In response, Thomas S. Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive responded to the new Executive Order by stating, "After five years of throwing sand into the gears of the FOIA, the Bush administration is finally designating someone at the agencies to be responsible for compliance and performance. Now the question is: Will they have the determination and the authority to implement any real changes in the current ailing FOIA system?"
Related: Bill Moyers keynote address at the anniversary of the National Security Archive at The George Washington U. (Dec 9) - http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/anniversary/moyers.htm From the text: It's an old story: the greater the secrecy, the deeper the corruption.
Gently and (mostly) respectfully done: Don Saklad Orders A Pizza: A Play
Thanks to Maria M. on LU for the link. Thanks to Don Saklad for being himself.
Tuesday, December 20. 2005
Forwarded to the LU list:
Message forwarded from LAW-LIB archive
http://lawlibrary.ucdavis.edu/LAWLIB/Dec05/0165.html
The Lovesong of A. Radical Militant Librarian
From: Robert S. Ryan
Date: 12/16/05
The Lovesong of A. Radical Militant Librarian
Oh, I am just an RML
I'm militant. I'm radical.
I plot to thwart the FBI
When I am on sabbatical.
I hold the most bizarre beliefs,
Perhaps they are exotic -
Due process, law and privacy
Can still be Patriotic
That there are ways that we can fight
Fanatics and their wrath
And still stay free and not eject
The baby with the bath
When panic strikes, the pendulum
Will often swing too far
Like Robert Frost, I think we should
Choose something like a star
Let's not, with hearts as pure as snow
Destroy what we would save
You can't preserve our way of life
If freedom's in the grave
Our history will clearly show
We often go to far
McCarthy and the Black List
And the camp at Manzanar
Our saving grace - with passing time
We recognize our sin
This time, let's anticipate
And not go plunging in
Let's avoid the smallest step
Upon the slippery slope.
As corny as it sounds, we are
Still mankind's greatest hope.
We blunder, stumble, make mistakes
Yet somehow, we still try.
And many eyes still dance
To see that banner in the sky.
So let's be proud to be among
The many who say "Wait,
Let's think this through, let's not be rash."
Before it is too late.
If we and the FBI do not
Agree, well, that's our right.
It doesn't mean we don't support
Our country in this fight.
The disagreement is the thing that shows
Our country's worth the cost.
The blood, the lives, the tears, the sweat
That we and ours have lost.
So wear your button proudly
Beause you're an RML
And if some folks don't like it, well,
They can go to...someplace else where discussions like
this aren't permitted.
Bob Ryan
Hill, Farrer & Burrill
Los Angeles
(And, as always, the opinions expressed here are mine
and not those of
Hill, Farrer or Burrill, all of whom are deceased. Yet
still patriotic.)
Thursday, December 15. 2005
The Radical Militant Librarians (see my last post) have now made it to the political cartoons. Look, Ma, we're famous!
This morning on NPR's Morning Edition, they read a letter from a listener responding to their story where they discussed that FBI report mentioned in the NY Times (link is to truthout.org) which contained this quote:
"While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from Office of Intelligence Policy and Review's failure to let us use the tools given to us" The listener said that she heard the NPR story "while pulled up to the...drop box at my local library" and all she could think of was "librarians in fatigues lined up...defending my library records". Man the barricades! 
Wednesday, December 14. 2005
From the talented folks at Penny Arcade web comic, a charity for (us) geeky types to feel good about: Child's Play:
For the past three years, gamers and geeks around the world have raised nearly a million dollars in toys, games and cash for sick kids in Children's Hospitals across the globe through a grassroots charity called Child's Play.
Created by Penny Arcade, no "Administrative Fees" or other nonsense is collected; all gifts and donations go directly to the hospitals for distribution to sick kids.
This year Child's Play is expanding worldwide to help Children's Hospitals across the globe. Below is a list of Children's Hospitals that need your help. Selecting one will direct you to that particular hospitals Amazon wish list. Any items you purchase from that list will be delivered directly to the hospital you select. Also be sure to choose the shipping address to the hospital instead of your own!
...Some of the stuff the hospital will give away for kids to keep, while other gifts (like consoles) will be kept by the hospital for patients to use throughout the year.
Penny Arcade has a readership of something like four and a half million gamers across the world. We are arguably the largest community of gamers on the internet. The important word there being community. We are not a faceless corporation and you are not just a number tracked by a database and then relayed to hungry advertisers. You guys have proven yourselves to be a powerful force when stirred into action. Here is your opportunity to use that power to do some real good.
Tuesday, December 6. 2005
What can I say? It's the chin.
Seems they're finally going to release Brisco County on DVD. Hello? Cult following!
Monday, December 5. 2005
Cuz they'll catch you every time.
Margaret Butler is a reading adviser at the Tuscaloosa Public Library. One day in early October, she was examining a short-story collection titled The Bear Bryant Funeral Train by a writer named Brad Vice.
...As Butler later told the Tuscaloosa News, "On the first page, I said to myself, 'I've read this before.'" She reached into a bookshelf and retrieved Stars Fell on Alabama, a book published by Carl Carmer in 1934, reprinted by the University of Alabama Press in 2000, and still protected by copyright.
...his lifting from Carmer is so breathtaking in its sweep that Vice's feigned ignorance starts to sound like that of the 18-year-old college student who, when confronted with a heavily plagiarized paper, sheepishly claims, "I guess I didn't know where to put all of those quotation thingies." You knew, Brad, you knew. Via LibRef-L.
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