Excuse me if I am blunt, but this posting deeply saddens me, on multiple levels.

First, How could operators of a bookshop not see instantly that this list was a hoax? Does anyone truly imagine that Sarah Palin is aware of the Canterbury Tales or the Decameron, let alone aware enough to a level to make a demand for censorship?

Before this list circulated, verifiable news from Alaska had detailed Palin’s inquiries to the librarian and her letter firing the librarian, and the town’s response. There was no support for a claim that Palin had a censorship list.

To circulate such a list is to do to Palin what the McCain-Rove campaign organization is doing to Obama. It’s wrong for them and wrong for us.

And it’s most saddening that every progressive doesn’t know that.

Tom

I am entirely proud that Obama has risen above this latest attempted media skewering. And I am encouraged to see that the majority of us who cognate appear to have recognized how the McCain camp is seizing on everything they can to distract voters from the mess that the Republicans have created in Washington, in this country, and across the world.

I see no “change” in using the same old tired and dirty tactics to undermine Barack Obama. This is the same way that the Republican party managed to trick Americans into submitting to the debacle we’ve endured for the last eight years. We were duped the first time, duped yet again in ‘04, and if we don’t snap out of our complacency soon, we’ll be duped again this year, too.

The Republicans are spinning the negativity like mad-dogs, lipstick and all, breeding hate and divisiveness, which is very un-Christian, deceitful, and extremely unproductive. It’s disgusting and entirely transparent.

McCain used to be someone whom people respected back in the day…but he and his party are stooping to new lows just to “win” the White House.

Race and gender are not the issues here. The sunk economy, the housing crisis, multi-trillion dollar wars, lack of affordable health care, and botched foreign relations are the issues, just to name a few and in case we were momentarily distracted by all the dog-fighting.

Stop and think: Why are we in this condition? Because the Republicans have dragged us to the bottom of the barrel. How can we fight our way back up to the top? Not by blasting each other with nasty rhetoric. The only way to climb back out of our hole is to do it as a united American team who focuses like ADULTS on the troubling issues of the day. This is serious business, not a TV reality show. This is, actually, real life!

The McCain camp is trying like the dickens to cheapen the election and hence, the office of the President of the United States, and further, they continue to trash America’s image to the world, which undermines our credibility, ability to create meaningful change, and our security. McCain and Palin have turned this election and our governmental infrastructure into a circus. We are proving that we are the laughing stock and are no longer the world leader that other countries used to emulate.

This is the last straw. I am tuning out the white noise and am listening to the message that Barack Obama is delivering. He is the only candidate who is trying to restore decorum and decency to this country and he is the only candidate who has the vision to unite us, equal the playing field, and set us on a practical course toward finding progressive solutions to our immense national and international problems.

I am deeply gladdened that some of us are starting to pay attention…there are some very spot-on and well thought out comments in this string! Well done! Huzzah!!! At last! There really IS hope that there is intelligent life in America! Now we need to act! I am not going to sit here doe-eyed and take the McCain/Palin farce in the backside!

- Concerned in Silicon Valley, CA

Sept. 8, 2008

Dear Friends of The Lavender Inkwell,

A friend and recently retired teacher sent this to me today. I pass it on to you.

Here is a list of books that Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla Public Library, according to the official minutes of the Library Board. When she was unsuccessful at having these books banned, she tried to have the librarian fired.

As many of you will notice, it is a hit parade for book burners.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women’s Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil’s Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster
Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween
Symbols by Edna Barth

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phone: 424-7191 The Lavender Inkwell

As you claim to be a scientist, you are probably familiar with the scientific method – involving the consideration of actual facts BEFORE stating the conclusion.

So where you jump right to the conclusion (“4 pages of babble”) and (“just as bad as”), without pointing to a single factual or logical error, your readers are left understanding that you, the scientist, had no facts or errors to point to, but rather condemned simply because you dislike the exposure of facts.

I did check your website, and see there the proud claim of years working for tobacco companies before moving on to insurance marketing. I guess some readers might see that history as explaining your dislike of facts.

Tom

I was truly surprised when Ms. Palin was identified as Mr. McCain’s running mate. It seemed to me to be contrived and intended to siphon the votes that Hillary Clinton got during her campaign. That was, in my opinion, a blatant attempt to manipulate women to vote for them because she is a woman. But I have not heard anything that she has had to say because, as in the Bush administration, she is being shielded from close scrutiny. I do understand that she is to have an interview in the near future, when she is ready. What does that mean? When she is ready? We are less than 60 days away from election day. Does this mean that she isn’t ready to share her views in an open forum? That is a scary thought.

Lastly, in listening to Obama. It is true that he does not have the extensive background that we have seen in other Presidential candidates, but what I have heard makes sense. Why ignore your enemies? If you don’t have some type of dialog, how do you guage your actions? Haven’t we seen this in the past 7 years and the world is less safe today than it was 7 years ago. In the Democratic convention, I heard a number of changes that he said he would pursue. And what I heard as a rebuttal, is that there were no specifics. Oh well, I guess we all hear what we want to hear and discard the rest. All I heard from the Republicans was an attack on what he had said and the insinuation that he would increase taxes. No specifics.

Now, what I would like to know is this. How do we service a debt that is so large that it is crushing our economy? Are we better off today than we were 7 years ago? In my meager opinion, we are not. And with that said, we will have to pay the piper at some point in the future. If there is a way to do that without increasing taxes on those who pay the least, then please enlighten me. I have taught my children at least one thing about fiscal responsibility. It is called “Cash and Carry” If you got the cash, carry it. If not, leave it where it is. It seems that we have lost that lesson and we now are paying for it in foreclosures, failing banks, unstable markets, lost credibility in the world markets, two wars and the list is almost inexhaustable. When do we CHANGE direction? Or is it that we just go along with the program and accept whatever comes along? All I want is to have someone in the White House that can think their way through a problem and select the best possible solutions rather than being a Maverick and shoot from the hip and hope to get it right. I think that we have seen what happens when we have someone in the White House that is a Maverick and won’t listen to anyone but those who agree with him. Iraq comes to mind.

Am I going to vote for Obama/Biden? Yes. Not because he is an African-American but because the message he is presenting is more acceptable than the one I have heard from McCain/Palin. Enough said.

This morning when I went to work out at a local university, I ran into retired Ph.D. sociologist. When I asked him what he thought of Sarah Palin, he said the more I learn about her the more I dislike her. He gave me an envelop and asked that I read the contents and tell him what I thought.

Thinking that it was going to be a scholarly piece about Sarah Palin, I expected it to be a hard read. Upon opening the envelop, I found 4 pages of babble that had appeared in the LA Progressive. After reading it, I made a note on the envelop for my elderly friend that it reminded me of a review that one of my students once wrote about me. And I suggested that he’d probably had one student write a similar review about him as well.

Curious, I went to the LA Progressive on the web to see if what I just had read was typical for the Progressive. The very first article I encounter was by some Ph.D. that had been a POW with McCain. It was just as bad as what my friend had asked that I read. So I looked no further.

Being, by nature, a scientist, I’m not really impressed by sample sizes of 1.

Why don’t they seem to understand that we’ve been living in a partly socialist economy from the getgo? Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, ANY government-sponsored program that aids citizens is a form of socialism.

Free-market conservatives want to eradicate these and other programs in favor of market-driven solutions, but what they ALWAYS fail to remember [or, if I may be allowed cynicism, do not not wish to remember] is that, generally, these solutions are untested and DON’T WORK when they are. How many examples do we need of government de-regulation leading to an immediate spike in corruption & unfettered, grab-all-you-can greed?

Again, my point is that we already ARE a socialist economy. We have been as long as we’ve been a nation; there’s nothing wrong with it, so why does it cause such consternation among conservatives?

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Now more than ever we need to be much more discriminating of the candidates – including the ones we support!

I must beg to differ. “Women everywhere” do not love Sarah Palin; as a woman from a family of Hillary supporters (all of whom will be casting their ballots for Obama this fall,) I can assure you that I and the women in my family are not only seriously frightened by the selection of Palin for the GOP ticket, we are deeply insulted. The Republican party assumes that supporters of a politically seasoned Democrat and tireless champion of women’s rights like Hillary Clinton would vote for a candidate who would deny all women the right to make their own medical decisions, a woman who believes that it is HER place to decide when and if people have children, simply because she is a woman. They need to think again. The idea that this pathetically unqualified, relentlessly moralizing, and politically vindictive woman could sit a heartbeat away from the presidency frankly terrifies me- were Palin to sit in office and instill the same policies as President as she has as governor of Alaska I, my sister, and the women of this country would have fewer reproductive rights than my mother’s generation. Unbelievable. McCain and Palin are no choice for women’s lives.

I didn’t really expect to “un-earth” the willingness of my Conservative friends to accept at face value what little they know about the latest VP choice. I truly expected people to be slightly more cognizant of who she was and what she has done, but I was wrong. Why should I be surprised, though? The average American has become complacent and lives in total ignorance. As long as they can aquire a mortgage that they can’t afford, buy a designer car that they don’t need and pretend to have the American Dream that will give them a heart attack, then why mess up a good thing?

We have over 300 million people in the country, give or take a few. When you look at presidential qualifications, you want someone who is grounded in foreign policy knowledge, educated about economic issues and well-versed in government policy. One would hope that a qualification would include reading and understanding the U. S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

Out of 300 million people, we came up with a man whose claim to fame is a POW camp (and God Bless him for his service), but there were over 600 other POW’s who actually were imprisoned as well and some were in captivity much longer. We have a candidate who got into the Senate through the help of his wife’s beer distributorship fortune and has managed to become presidential material after the scandals of womanizing and Keating Five.

We have another presidential candidate who is a Harvard graduate and a lawyer, but lacks the foreign policy and economic experience that is preferred for the presidency. Yes, he is charismatic and a great speaker, but the lack of experience is somewhat troubling at best.

I think about all the many people who would be truly qualified to run for office on either party ticket because of their vast knowledge of domestic and world affairs, people with years and years of proven experience. The many government leaders, strategists and diplomats who have traveled the world and understand foreign policy…..The many college presidents, professors and lawyers who have extensively studied economics, political sciences and functions of government……The many people who have worked in the private sector and government for decades and who have formed policy that is tried and tested.

But, what is America interested in? Stage presence and the ability to hunt down Alaskan wildlife. Today, I am deeply saddened because there are so many people who are unwilling to stand up and be counted, to tell the truth about our current state of affairs. Until people begin pounding on their Congressmen and Senators and keep their phone lines hot in pursuit of good leadership…….until people stop accepting the status quo and turn up the heat on Washington, DC, then things are truly not going to change. When our nation’s future becomes more important than the latest flat screen TV, then maybe we will have a glimmer of hope and someone truly qualified will be voted into office.

What I understand is that Palin sent a letter of termination to the librarian, but withdrew it after a public outcry. I don’t know if Palin has ever publicly identified the books she wanted removed from the library. But there are plenty of people like her who believe that it is important for them to decide what is safe or unsafe for us to read and do, and also believe that they should impose their beliefs on us.

But don’t forget the focus here. Palin in nominally second on the ticket. The significance of much of this stuff is that McCain seems to have mortgaged himself completely to the ultra-right wing fundamentalists in his desparate attempt to win the election. We have consider whether we can afford the payments, over the next four years, of the mortgage he is signing us all up for.
(Of course, if you consider supreme court appointments, the price will be paid over many more than four years.)

Tom