Hope the deck's not being stacked. But then again, let's go back to the last library board meeting.... All things are possible.
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
6:30 PM
1115 S. Main Street
West Bend
(Entrance on the back side of the police station - Eder Lane parking lot)
City Council chambers is on the 2nd floor.
6:30 PM
1115 S. Main Street
West Bend
(Entrance on the back side of the police station - Eder Lane parking lot)
City Council chambers is on the 2nd floor.
6 comments:
Ginny, you say, "Hope the deck's not being stacked."
The "deck" may or may not be "stacked," but it's harmless. The Mayor is entitled to select whom she wishes. The Council is allowed to affirm whom it wishes. The citizens are allowed to submit their applications.
Suppose only people with one particular viewpoint submitted their applications. The deck would be stacked right there, but the people on the other side had an equal opportunity to submit applications.
Suppose only people on one side are selected by the Mayor. Making a selection is her function, that's not stacking.
Suppose only people on one side are selected by the Board. That selection is its function, that's not stacking.
An example of stacking would be if the Mayor announced only people with a certain viewpoint should submit applications. That happened in Overland Park, KS. The Overland Park Mayor demanded only resumes of those proclaiming adherence to ALA diktat. From what I see, that is not the case in West Bend. I see no stacking in West Bend by West Benders.
However, the deck may be stacked where outside organizations like the ALA provide false and misleading information to citizens. The citizens then think they are acting independently when in reality they are acting under the illusion of reality as presented by the ALA. For example, if the ALA says no material should be kept from children and does not reveal the US Supreme Court told the ALA that it is legitimate and even compelling to protect children from inappropriate material, that's stacking the deck. That misleads citizens. Citizens may chose to follow the ALA guidance based on the misinformation the ALA provided.
Indeed the deck may have been stacked long ago when the ALA, on its own thanks to a former ACLU leader in the ALA, changed how libraries interact with children. Under the new ALA/ACLU policy that no local communities were even aware of but was forced into their communities, libraries no longer protect children from inappropriate material. Talking about stacking the deck, that's stacking the deck.
Now here you are suffering the effects of the ALA stacking the deck in libraries nationwide. Thanks to the ALA stacking the deck, the suggestion of protecting children from inappropriate material is now treated as radical by the very organization that stacked the deck in the first place.
Politico-religionism was a bad idea from the start. Attempting to get the state to underwrite one religious perspective damages the religious freedom of all who do not share that perspective.
More, and enormous backlash has begun, affecting all religions in the US, largely because of the activities of the fundamentalist few.
Please stop damaging religious freedom by attempting to co-opt the state.
/PS the human body is the Image of God. This is the WORD of the LORD.
You know, Mr. Safe Libraries, I am a lawyer who did a lot of work in mental health law. I both prosecuted and defended civil mental commitments (over 100) and was involved in pleas of not guilty by reason of mental disease and competenct to stand trial in criminal cases. I also worked several years in juvenile court where there were always psychologists, psychiatrists, and mental health social workers. I have more than a passing familiarity with DSM IV-R (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association.) Oops. Is that bad? After all the APA may be a lot like the ALA.
I don't think you are psychotic, you probably function acceptably in most areas of life. At first I thought you might be suffering from a paranoid personality disorder, but I don't have any suspicions about other areas in your life. But you do have a mighty powerful bug up your ear (or other handy anatomical orifice about the American Library Association. You talk of them as if they are the Great Satan about to bring about the end of the world. The ALA has some sort of national agenda to take over the country. Why not the whole world? Your fears and claims are so excessive and unfounded that they can only be labeled delusional. I always pictured librarians as sedate older ladies with sensible shoes, thick glasses, plain clothes, and a pencil stuck in their chignon. But then, that might just be a stereotype.
Well, I think I came upon the right diagnosis for a man with a mission like yours. That would be DELUSIONAL DISORDER. This is what Wikipedia has to say about that. "Delusional disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a psychotic mental illness that involves holding one or more non-bizarre delusions[1] in the absence of any other significant psychopathology (signs or symptoms of mental illness). In particular, a person with delusional disorder has never met any other criteria for schizophrenia and does not have any marked hallucinations, although tactile (touch) or olfactory (smell) hallucinations may be present if they are related to the theme of the delusion.
A person with delusional disorder can be quite functional and does not tend to show any odd or bizarre behavior aside from these delusions. "Despite the encapsulation of the delusional system and the relative sparing of the personality, the patient's way of life is likely to become more and more overwhelmed by the dominating effect of the abnormal beliefs".[2]
In contrast to paranoid personality disorder, the delusion is more restricted in scope, and the impairment in social functioning is less severe.
So, there you have it. The perfect diagnosis for a wacky one-note Johnny. But I probably should not continue. The illness is chronic and frequently lifelong. There's no hope, Mr. Safe Libraries. The ALA will always be there. You will almost always lose. You will never graduate to EX- Delusional disorder as there is no cure. And your frustration will never end.
Robert, your comment still gives me a chuckle even though I already read it where you left it on my own blog.
Now you are a lawyer, and you likely know a lawyer should never ask the question "why" without first knowing the answer. Here's an exception. I have no idea why you posted the comment on my blog, then on Ginny's blog. So will you please tell me, why?
A quote from SafeLibraries previous comment:
"The citizens then think they are acting independently when in reality they are acting under the illusion of reality as presented by the ALA."
I feel like I could argue that other citizens are acting under the illusion of reality as presented by their religious beliefs.
...I apologize if that comment offends anyone, but I believe it's true.
ALA succeeded in getting the two previous statutes thrown out. The only thing that saved this one was its tie only to funding. The Supreme did reiterate their view that government cannot compel censorship of ideas in a public library. The CIPA wasn't compulsion, it was only a bribe.
Oh, maybe I will go to your site to post this. I want to see if you posted my last one. And I prefer to tell someone what I think directly to their face rather than behind their back.
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