cathy the librarian: June 2005

PBS in trouble

PBS was in danger of losing all its funding recently. That would mean no more Sesame Street, Cailou, Nova or This Old House. There would be no more NPR or my local PBS station in Rochester NY, WXXI. I listen to the WXXI radio station as I'm falling asleep every night. I want my son to have nice educational programs to watch, such as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers, whic I grew up on. He wouldn't have the radio station, which is the only one in Rochester that plays classical music, to use as background music when he's dancing around in the living room like my sisters and I did when we were younger. As a kid with both parents working full time, PBS was something we had when we couldn't go outside or we didn't want to play inside. People have been saying that PBS is biased and leans to the left, but I don't really think that Barney, Mr Rogers and Big Bird had some secret agenda. Luckily, through places like MoveOn.org the word has gotten out and over a million people added their signatures to a petition to restore funding. Granted, on look at the website and you'll know that MoveOn.org hates our current president and obviously pretty liberal thinking, I don't think that PBS had that intention.

In closing, it was really freaking hot today! According to the local newspaper it only got up to 92... but I think it was hotter than that.

Oh well, I must be going. My baby is giggling!

I'm WHAT movie? Jeez...

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Reading Lolita in Tehran

I wanted to read this book when it first came out, but I never had the time. Now however, it seems a very appropriate time to be reading this book. In the current state of our own country, I think we should take heed of what this book is letting us know. Giving up simple freedoms such as whether or not you wear a head scarf, may not really be that simple. Once these so called "little things" are decided for you, other things soon take their place and you are eventually left with no freedoms at all. Hmm, can we say patriot act? The people in this book live quite similar lives to our own in America, but the government starts taking more and more control away from the individuals until they are left with no freedom at all. They can't do so much as shake hands with people of the opposite sex or read certain books.
I was watching an episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit about "Big Brother" and they talked about the USA Patriot Act. This act was apparently the quickest one ever passed, and a lot of Congressmen (& women) didn't even read it!

This is making me depressed... I need to go look at my son... You should too (but not in any dirty ways, thats gross, and not in the Michael Jackson kind of way, that's creepy)