Idiocy

I once had a web page devoted to news and descriptions of some of the more inane activities of censors today. I have found some selections that still have live links!

December 2001

Which is which? Take the Ashcroft - McCarthy test! From morons.com

Flag burning controversy

the Missouri republican who introduced legislation to legalize beating up flag burners. Sad to say, I'm not making this up!

The opposite extreme from people who wish to outlaw flag burning comes from people who would ban the flag:

Flag banning idiocy from Boulder Colorado. In this ALA-Online article, look to the end of the piece about prohibiting the display of the U.S. flag.

More flag banning cases:

• A library director in Florida attempted to ban workers from wearing patriotic stickers, mostly ones depicting the U.S. Flag (?!) read: Librarian suspended for banning patiotic stickers (from Ananova.com)
  
  
• Company orders removal of workers' stars and stripes. Idiotic, but not illegal since a private company can have any dress code it wants, but later in the same news item read about the children told not to wear U.S. flag t-shirts to school.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in his own words:

"Freedom is about authority." Mayor Giuliani, NY Times 3/17/94

"You don't have a right not to be identified".
Giuliani- NY Times 12/17/98 "Giuliani Backs DNA Testing of Newborns for Identification"

"An exhibition of paintings is not as communicative as speech, literature or live entertainment, and the artists' constitutional interest is thus minimal."
- Giuliani appeal brief 's argument against street artists having First Amendment rights, Giuliani v Lederman et al and Giuliani v Bery et al, filed with the US Supreme Court 2/24/97.

"Civilization has been about trying to find the right place to put excrement."
--Giuliani quoted in NY Times, 10/13/99

"The whole school system should be blown up, and a new one put in its place. I feel like a prophet today."
--Giuliani-Daily News 4/23/99

"When they make the decision to shoot they have to shoot to kill".
--Mayor Giuliani on NYPD policy CBS News 9/2/99

"Let's say somebody is acquitted, and it's one of those acquittals in which the person was guilty, but there is just not quite enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt," the Mayor said. "That might be a situation in which the car would still be forfeited."
-- Giuliani, NY Times 2/23/99 "Police Seize Three Cars in Crackdown"

"Streets do not exist in civilized cities for the purpose of people sleeping there. Bedrooms are for sleeping."
--Giuliani - Daily News 11/20/99

"If teachers want to put up the Ten Commandments, they should be allowed to do that,"
--Giuliani -Associated Press 2/10/2000.

"The comparisons to Adolph Hitler and fascism have to stop".
-- New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. NY Times 3/28/99

Filtering Follies

Some of the more amusing cases of web filtering censorware run amok:

Beaver College forced to change its name. Internet filters did not think the name was appropriate for children?!

Nice irony here: Conservactive christian Congressional candidate Jeffrey Pollack, whose web site fell victim to CyberPatrol's filtering. He used to advocate adamantly to place web filters on all public library computers.

And there's more! Dick Armey's personal web site blocked.


The U.S. Congress. The debate in Congress over filtering the internet in public libraries has taken an absurd turn after four web filtering programs block the Starr report of President Clinton's conduct with Monica Lewinsky. Tom Tomorrow's cartoon asks what would have happened if the Communications Decency Act had not been ruled unconstitutional?!


Making schools safe?

The Owasso School District in Oklahoma for suspending a student for writing a poem about killing a teacher. The usual suspects determined the student posed no actual threat but inflicted a nearly full-year suspension anyway.

The Harrison County (Mississippi) School Board banned the Star of David as a Gang Symbol (Hey, how come the Philistines never thought of that?). The Board later reconsidered its position.


State dictates science

The Kansas Board of Education has ruled that "Creation Science" must be taught as Scientific Theory on par with Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. Some interesting links:

• The Kansas Board of Education's meeting minutes in which they made this decision
  
• Follow-up article from Freedom Forum: Education, civil rights groups mount efforts to save evolution science
  
• The Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas has mounted a "virtual" exhibit entitled "Is Man an Ape or an Angel?" The exhibit contains a first edition of "On the Origin of Species," as well as a letter which Darwin wrote to a U Kansas faculty member.