Digital Media: Blog Publishing And Mark Twain

But the truth is, that when a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn't anger me.

- Mark Twain Letter to Mrs. F. G. Whitmore, 2/7/1907 From Twainquotes.com

The use of censoring software in public speech has, I do believe, gotten a tad over-heated. I'm in a conversation now about the "banning" of blogsearch.google.com at a local library. Not search words like nudie or whatever but the entire search engine.

The result of this is searches for things like "cancer support group" or "name of local congressman" is blocked. Heck, try "cookies for grandma" and a screen pops up that makes me feel like Aunt Sally found me reading Hustler at the Kitchen Table. I've met the local congressman a few times, and he may laugh at off color jokes, he could only be construed as pornographic if under the influence of some *very* odd medication.

I feel empathy for the people administering this. The fear mongers have good people twitching with concerns about pornography and impure thoughts far beyond the actual menace. I refuse (so far) to flame the folks trying to do their job under these digital draconian measures.

So, watch this space for future developments.

My take: If you find a couple of ticks, don't kill the zoo.

And if you find a surly teen (redundant) searching for porn at the library, throw him out/embarass him. At some point erotica became pornography; tastes vary and its pretty dumb to do some things in public (e.g., the Library).

But the search for the modern version of dirty playing cards will continue no matter which version of god or mammon we consider for guidance.