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Two library stereotypes that may not always be true

Important note: we have resumed accepting interlibrary loan requests. Recently, two library stereotypes have been brought up a lot here. I’ve been hearing mentions of things related to the library that may have been true at one time but are not anymore. It’s easy to perpetuate stereotypes. We repeat them enough that they can seem to be true. The library has changed a lot in recent years. Here are two library stereotypes and how they stand up to the conditions of a modern library. Libraries are quiet: I still encounter patrons who, at checkout, whisper to their kids or shoosh ...

Deterioration has started in U.S. First, the moral collapse …

The United States is fraying at the seams. Perhaps because I am an attorney, what stands out for me is the erosion of standards of lawful behavior. It has become commonplace to see videos of people violently assaulting total strangers. Mobs of teens in Chicago riot, loot and set cars on fire, and the mayor makes excuses. Individuals walk into drugstores, department stores, even luxury boutiques and leave with armfuls of stolen items. The thefts are done with impunity, as if the thieves know that employees and owners who try to stop them or defend themselves face a greater likelihood of ...

Greed creates fake climate consensus

We are told climate change is a crisis, and that there is an “overwhelming scientific consensus.” “It’s a manufactured consensus,” says climate scientist Judith Curry in my new video. She says scientists have an incentive to exaggerate risk to pursue “fame and fortune.” She knows about that because she once spread alarm about climate change. Media loved her when she published a study that seemed to show a dramatic increase in hurricane intensity. “We found that the percent of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes had doubled,” says Curry. “This was picked up by the ...

Barack Obama’s self-made myths still stand

The media deification of Barack Obama has really never ended. His election to the presidency in 2008 was treated as a milestone, like man landing on the moon. Allegedly objective journalists lined up in every studio and on every front page to do him homage. It wasn’t journalism. It was more like idolatry. It was like Bryant Gumbel harshly replying in 1989 to new information about Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s adultery. He said, “When the truth collides with a legend, print the legend.” This line came to mind in reading a recent Tablet magazine interview with liberal historian ...

A case for Trump to not debate

With Mike Pence now qualifying for the Republican debate in Milwaukee on Aug. 23, there are now eight candidates qualified to participate. However, one of those eight is former President Donald Trump, who suggests that he is not inclined to show up. “When you have a big lead, you don’t do it,” noted Trump. “Am I going to stand up there by guys with zero, one, two, three percent -- maybe four -- and have them ask me hostile questions?” He now says he’ll poll supporters. Fox News, the network carrying the event, RNC Chairperson Ronna McDaniel, and some of the other ...

The Afghanistan withdrawal re-examined

One of the advantages to a change in majority in one or both houses of Congress is that the public gets to see what the other party won’t address or has been covering up. Such was the case on Monday when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) held a forum in Escondido, California, with parents of the 13 service members killed when a terrorist bomber detonated his vest during a chaotic withdrawal from Kabul Airport nearly two years ago. The parents claimed there has been a cover-up and insensitivity to their concerns from the Biden administration. Unlike so many hearings we are used to seeing in ...