Now Showing at the Library: Porn

The Washington Post ^ | June 25, 2006 | Laurence Leamer

[plan2succeed.org]

While the debate rages over what to do with the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and whether we need a new central library for the city, a larger concern is being ignored: Internet porn at the library.

When I walked into the West End Branch Library on 24th Street NW last week, several men were sitting at the computers, looking at hard-core pornography on the Internet. Meanwhile, children on the other side of the room were also using computers. One child was running around behind the men, who were studiously observing the most intimate parts of a woman's body and couples performing sexual acts. I was sickened. I told a librarian that the library should at least limit such use to certain hours when children probably wouldn't be there. She said there are no limits whatsoever on the use of the Internet.

[plan2succeed.org]

Just as we have been saying.

FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH, THIS IS YOUR BACKYARD. YOU JUST APPEARED IN NEW ORLEANS AT THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION [ALA] MEETING. PLEASE DO SOMETHING TO HELP EXPOSE HOW THE ALA IS PARTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS VERY TYPE OF PROBLEM, RIGHT WHERE YOU LIVE, AND NATIONALLY. YOU COULD MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE -- YOU COULD EXPLAIN HOW THE ALA'S "AGE" DISCRIMINATION POLICIES ALLOW CHILDREN ACCESS TO ANY MATERIAL NO MATTER HOW SEXUALLY INAPPROPRIATE AND HOW THIS VIOLATES THE SPIRIT OF US v. ALA, THE US SUPREME COURT CASE THE ALA LOST BIG IN 2003.

SafeLibraries.org - Are Children Safe in Public Libraries?

[capt. norm]

Shouting (all caps) is not greatly appreciated here...or anywhere else except sporting events.

[pennconservative]

Wow, the library in my hometown has very specific rules regarding use of the Internet. You have to fill out a form to use the Internet, and if you violate their rules your privileges are revoked.

[rottndog]

I would like to see people who view porn in a public library in the vicinity of children arrested and prosecuted for lewd conduct in the presence of minors. I can't believe that what goes on here is legal.

[nmh]

Guess what!

YOUR tax dollars FUND this.

[Third Order]

Why wouldn't this fall under "contributing to the delinquency of a minor"?

[Windsong]

She said there are no limits whatsoever on the use of the Internet.

Never dare the government to do a damned thing.

[plan2succeed.org]

Sorry for shouting. I just wanted the First Lady to see this. I trust her and respect her and she was a librarian once. She has what it takes to stop the ALA in its tracks merely by speaking the truth.

[plan2succeed.org]

ping

[jazusamo]

The Ft. Vancouver Regional Library District in Southern Washington has libraries in three counties. Residents battled the board of trustees for 6 or 7 years over Internet porn and the board refused to act on it .

Last year a bond measure was defeated for the second time for building two new facilities and many people said they voted no because of the Internet policy.

Several months ago the board finally voted to filter all computers in the libraries for adults as well as children and we've got another bond measure coming up shortly.

It seems you have to hit them in the pocketbook to overcome the ALA and ACLU influence.

[khnyny]

Trust me, I've seen much worse. Are you with the FP? (Font Police).

[4yearlurker]

The very same thing happened to me about 6 or 7 years ago at our local library. I was helping my 12 year old daughter with her school report and could not believe what the gentleman on the computer next to us was viewing! I told the librarian and she seemed afraid to enforce the Internet viewing rules. Thats when I finally broke down and bought a computer.

[rlmorel]

capt. norm is correct. In an online forum, all caps usually has a specific meaning to convey emotion that cannot be conveyed in a non-face to face envirionment.

[capt. norm]

Are you with the FP? (Font Police).

What part of my reply sounded authoritarian/police-like to you?

I was trying to be polite, but I seem to have failed.

[zipper]

I think I'd just loudly ask him "Are you really looking at child porn in a library full of children? [doesn't matter if it is or not, just embarrass the crap out of them]. What kind of sick SOB are you? Were you raised in a whorehouse? etc.-- Generally, just make yourself and him the center of attention for the universe for a few minutes. And it makes it a pain for the librarians to have to put up with irate mothers/fathers every time one of these perverts exercises his 'right' to view porn at the library. If they don't like your behavior, fine, let them kick you out, it's worth it.

[little jeremiah]

Library + porn. What is wrong with this picture?

[al baby]

I went to your home page what did you kid bring home from school that was pornographic?</

[little jeremiah]

plan - you can alert wagglebee to these kinds of articles, he runs the Moral Absolutes ping list. People who don't already know about what's going on libraries need to wake up.

[MarkL]

Oh please...

You know that those men were simply medical students studying for their gynocological exams!

Mark

[GOPJ]

The Liberian's in idiot. Can you imagine for a second how the librarian would react if the same men were ripping books apart and throwing the pages around the room? In no time flat, she would establish "the rules". So, she's lying. She has control. The computers with no hold's barred can be moved to a more suitable location - maybe the men's bathroom... or a more private area of the library. Children don't have to be exposed to this stuff (no pun intended).

[Biblebelter]

I think this may be a red state blue state thing and of course if DC was state it would be the bluest of all. I can assure you that there are plenty of libraries in flyover over country that would not tolerate this, and make some pervert sue them over it, before they gave in.

[capt. norm]

Library + porn. What is wrong with this picture?

When I was a kid (this was in the 50's), I could complete your equation as follows:

Library + Porn = National Geographics

[zarf]

What's more American than good old fashioned porn?

[khnyny]

I don't know enough about the ALA or the policies in the public libraries to comment with authority. So, take this with a grain of salt please. I can understand some librarians being fearful of perceived "censorship". We live in a free society, and that society has certain rights. Several of which, IMHO, is the right of free speech and intellectual freedom, etc. That being said, COMMON SENSE should certainly prevail (sorry font police) and a middle ground, where children are protected from perversion should be enforced.

I always thought libraries were bastions of intellectual nerdom where ideas and dreams could come alive. Pornography SHOULD NOT even enter into the equation.

[A message]

Library + porn. What is wrong with this picture?

Everything.

[Jaysun]

Most perverts have the decency to view their pornography in private.

[acapesket]

HELL...OOO!
Dr. Laura Schlesinger (Radio Host) has been vibing this for years!
Where have you all been?
My kid is 12, when he was 5, I asked and was told that "it was a First Ammendment Right"
What if some one wanted to use the word "breast" to have sources for Breast Cancer? You couldn't "access" that and blah blah blah!!
Well Guess what?
I have never been to the Public Library again, nor has my son.
We did however have a very personal brush with breast cancer and It Did not affect any of the folks at the Public
Library.

Wake up and smell the Pornography... it's ruining our Nation!

[plan2succeed.org]

Okay, everyone here is right. Honestly, I didn't mean to convey shouting. This is the First Lady after all. I would not be shouting at her. The ALA itself does enough shouting at the First Lady. I just wanted someone to see it and possibly pass this message to her for her consideration. Not necessarily to get back to me, but just to consider. Her taking a stand on this could really serve to protect children from further harm nationwide. It was worth the caps to try to do what I just explained.

[zarf]

[khnyny]

[Most perverts have the decency to view their pornography in private.]

Except the exhibitionists, who go to the library on purpose.

[Marius3188]

Didn't CIPA already cover this?
http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=687

[al baby]

Well i hope that library hase porn in brail or they gonna be in deep do do with ADA

[al baby]

Dr. Laura has done porn in the past naked pictures remember

[capt. norm]

What's more American than good old fashioned porn?

In the 50's, National Geographic was about as pornographic as it got....but then this was in rural Iowa.

[Jaysun]

Except the exhibitionists, who go to the library on purpose.

While there they can also scope the place for children to molest, killing two birds with one stone.

[GOPJ]

The very same thing happened to me about 6 or 7 years ago at our local library. I was helping my 12 year old daughter with her school report and could not believe what the gentleman on the computer next to us was viewing! I told the librarian and she seemed afraid to enforce the Internet viewing rules. You were lucky you were with your 12 year old - what about the kids who wonder into these places without parental supervision? Pull the funding on these day time flop/porn houses.

[GOPJ]

The very same thing happened to me about 6 or 7 years ago at our local library. I was helping my 12 year old daughter with her school report and could not believe what the gentleman on the computer next to us was viewing! I told the librarian and she seemed afraid to enforce the Internet viewing rules.

You were lucky you were with your 12 year old - what about the kids who wonder into these places without parental supervision? Pull the funding on these day time flop/porn houses.

[al baby]

[Jaysun]

Well i hope that library hase porn in brail or they gonna be in deep do do with ADA

My wife has a pair of panties that say, "if you can read this you're too close", in braille.

[plan2succeed.org]

Valid point that librarians may be concerned about censorship. However, that question has already been asked and answered by the US Supreme Court in US v. ALA. The ALA knows the use of filters is not censorship under the law. Possibly as applied, but not under the law and there have been no as applied cases to this point of which I'm aware. Yet the ALA continues to rile up librarians and others with misinformation about censorship. It's pure propaganda, and many fall victim to this belief. That is why they need to read US v. ALA. That is why people need to be deprogrammed. Library filters no longer raise issues of censorship (except as applied), and anyone who says otherwise from the ALA is simply trying to deceive -- after all, it was the ALA itself that lost US v. ALA -- who better to know the truth, and why do they continue to say otherwise.

[Rastus]

I think I'd just loudly ask him "Are you really looking at child porn in a library full of children? [doesn't matter if it is or not, just embarrass the crap out of them].

Or if you *really* want to stop it, "Hey, everybody! This guy's looking at naked pictures of Helen Thomas!"

[al baby]

I know






just kidding

[capt. norm]

The I.R.S. suggested that very outfit for me in 1999. Cost me a little over $37K (which I might have possibly beat in court at a cost of nearly twice that amount) to get them to release their financial tentacles from my life.

If I'd had the right shoes to go with that "ensemble", it would have been my uniform of the day.

[sarasmom]

Do you even understand the "lessons" your daughter learned that day?
The one you taught her.
In a shared public facility, one you pay taxes to maintain, you made a token attempt to get the "governing authority" to enforce the rules, and when the incompetent bureaucrat did not do his/her job, you retreated, instead of standing up for your own, and the majority of law abiding patrons rights.

I have no sympathy for your "outrage".
Because had I been on the other side of the pervert that day, with my own daughter researching knowledge in a public library, you would most probably just have left the area, when I confronted the perverted rulebreaker directly.

Wouldn't want to cause a scene, would you? /sarcasm//
How much will you tolerate?

[khnyny]

[Except the exhibitionists, who go to the library on purpose.

While there they can also scope the place for children to molest, killing two birds with one stone.]

I'm sure it happens. I had an exhibitionist follow me around a public library, then expose himself in the parking lot. I would hope that this particular guy never went there again after I got done with him. I was so angry I scared him to the point where he was running for his life.:)

[jazusamo]

CIPA is not mandatory. It only states federal funding can be cut off if filters are not used for childrens computers.

After SCOTUS upheld CIPA, the Ft. Vancouver Regional Library District was still undecided whether they would filter computers for kids. They eventially did because of pressure from the public but the district administrator told me on the phone that federal funding was not really a consideration because they received very little.

[4yearlurker]

I remember the days when you told your parents you were going to the library to study. A very safe place back then. But not anymore I fear. That day I stormed out and was fuming! I mentioned it to my mother-in-law and she called the library and told them she will not be giving anymore donations.(Which she did every year.)

[plan2succeed.org]

Thanks to the ALA, 12 year olds now get sexually explicit books awarded with top honors so the books will be best sellers for years. I even got the author of one such book to admit he would not give his own 2006 award winning book to his own 12 year old! See this: Porn Pushers - The ALA and Looking For Alaska - One Example of How the ALA Pushes Porn On Children.

[capt. norm]

What's really funny is that you are the first person to post an image of "boobies" on this forum.

*Blue-Footed Boobies are sea birds that reside on the Galapagos Islands and possibly elsewhere.

Just seeing those feet makes me think of the Elvis "Don't Step on my Blue Suede Shoes" song.