k wrote:

Jean says: "A news story from the School Library Journal describes how threatening emails and phonecalls saying that the library's summer reading program was promoting "withcraft" and "drug use" led to the librarian decided to cancel the program to keep preschoolers safe from picketers and threatened violence."

The Pickens County Library System’s half-hour summer programs for middle and high school students were supposed to take a light-hearted look at the topics "Secrets and Spies: How to Keep a Secret by Writing in Code or Making Invisible Ink" and "What’s Your Sign?" Another program was to examine astrology, palmistry, and numerology; and others were to feature tarot cards, tie-dying t-shirts, how to make a Zen garden, and yoga.

Now the programs are cancelled in the wake of phone and e-mail threats from the community, believed to emanate from a single local Baptist church. The astrology program was labeled as "witchcraft" by callers, while the Zen garden and yoga programs were objected to as "promoting other religions." The t-shirts workshop? "Promotes the hippie culture and drug use," callers said.

"If you have an anonymous call of a bomb, what do you do?" asks Library Director Marguerite Keenan, explaining her decision to cancel the YA programs. "You clear the building, you close the building for the protection of the children. And that’s hugely sad."

Domestic terrorism. It's not just for abortion clinics anymore!

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, this is the same wellspring that gave us such luminaries as James Earl Ray, Eric Rudolph and the KKK. They've been bombing abortion clinics, burning down black churches and growing strange fruit across the south for over a century.

(Coincidently, they're also "The Base" of the Republican Party, and as we know, "The Base" in Arabic is translated as Al Qaeda)

k wrote:

Jean says: "A news story from the School Library Journal describes how threatening emails and phonecalls saying that the library's summer reading program was promoting "withcraft" and "drug use" led to the librarian decided to cancel the program to keep preschoolers safe from picketers and threatened violence."

The Pickens County Library System’s half-hour summer programs for middle and high school students were supposed to take a light-hearted look at the topics "Secrets and Spies: How to Keep a Secret by Writing in Code or Making Invisible Ink" and "What’s Your Sign?" Another program was to examine astrology, palmistry, and numerology; and others were to feature tarot cards, tie-dying t-shirts, how to make a Zen garden, and yoga.

Now the programs are cancelled in the wake of phone and e-mail threats from the community, believed to emanate from a single local Baptist church. The astrology program was labeled as "witchcraft" by callers, while the Zen garden and yoga programs were objected to as "promoting other religions." The t-shirts workshop? "Promotes the hippie culture and drug use," callers said.

"If you have an anonymous call of a bomb, what do you do?" asks Library Director Marguerite Keenan, explaining her decision to cancel the YA programs. "You clear the building, you close the building for the protection of the children. And that’s hugely sad."

Domestic terrorism. It's not just for abortion clinics anymore!

Where's Homeland Security on this one? Why is it that Boston PD mobilized an anti-terrorist campaign because of some neon signs but the NSA isn't tapping the phones at the library to see who's calling in these threats? Come on people. Walk the walk if you're going to talk the talk.

flynn23 wrote:

k wrote
Domestic terrorism. It's not just for abortion clinics anymore!

Where's Homeland Security on this one? Why is it that Boston PD mobilized an anti-terrorist campaign because of some neon signs but the NSA isn't tapping the phones at the library to see who's calling in these threats? Come on people. Walk the walk if you're going to talk the talk.

Sadly, we all know the answers to that question.

1. Homeland Security is, by and large, not well run and incapable of dealing with it's mission.

2. There's political liability in going after some bomb-threatening wackjob when that wackjob is, as Mike the Usurper notes, part of the administration's core constituency.

3. Targeting homegrown psychos doesn't play as well on the evening news, and doesn't generate nearly enough fear to serve the intended purpose.

4. People are fucking retarded.

k wrote:

flynn23 wrote:

k wrote
Domestic terrorism. It's not just for abortion clinics anymore!

Where's Homeland Security on this one? Why is it that Boston PD mobilized an anti-terrorist campaign because of some neon signs but the NSA isn't tapping the phones at the library to see who's calling in these threats? Come on people. Walk the walk if you're going to talk the talk.

Sadly, we all know the answers to that question.

1. Homeland Security is, by and large, not well run and incapable of dealing with it's mission.

2. There's political liability in going after some bomb-threatening wackjob when that wackjob is, as Mike the Usurper notes, part of the administration's core constituency.

3. Targeting homegrown psychos doesn't play as well on the evening news, and doesn't generate nearly enough fear to serve the intended purpose.

4. People are fucking retarded.

ah... we need to come up with a sarcasm emoticon. Just to be safe.

flynn23 wrote:
ah... we need to come up with a sarcasm emoticon. Just to be safe.

Hah! Apologies, we sure do... been missing a way to do that for years.

While we're at it, can we brainstorm a middle finger one? I've been wanting to flip people off textually pretty much since i first discovered chatting and message boards.

k wrote:

flynn23 wrote:
ah... we need to come up with a sarcasm emoticon. Just to be safe.

Hah! Apologies, we sure do... been missing a way to do that for years.

While we're at it, can we brainstorm a middle finger one? I've been wanting to flip people off textually pretty much since i first discovered chatting and message boards.

I thought that's what mlm was for

flynn23 wrote:

k wrote:

flynn23 wrote:
ah... we need to come up with a sarcasm emoticon. Just to be safe.

Hah! Apologies, we sure do... been missing a way to do that for years.

While we're at it, can we brainstorm a middle finger one? I've been wanting to flip people off textually pretty much since i first discovered chatting and message boards.

I thought that's what mlm was for

I've used that in a pinch, but am unsatisfied with the relative extension fo the middle finger and also the width of the other fingers. If we could use a scaled down "m", say, 50%, then that would work well. I suspect there's an answer somewhere in Unicode, but haven't yet worked through to it.