Libraries say new safety law could mean no more books for kids.

The Kansas City Star ^ | January 30, 2009 | SARA SHEPHERD

[BuffaloJack]

I was wondering how the Socialists (I’m not going to refer to them as Liberals anymore) were going to institute a good old fashioned book burning.

[Mark was here]

So how many Republicans were responsible for this?

[6SJ7]

The federal law, which takes effect Feb. 10, requires that all children’s products be certified free of harmful levels of lead — whether they ever were suspected of containing lead or not.

I think we need to start mandatory testing of legislators. They definitely contain harmful levels of something. Until they are tested, they must be banned.

[csvset]

I think we need to start mandatory testing of legislators.

The local sports talk radio guy says politicians should be drug tested. Of all people, they can do the most harm. Yet somehow, they aren't tested.

[reformedliberal]

Just how would lead or any other heavy metal get into a book?
Paper/ink/cardboard/fabric/glue; none of these use heavy metals in production.

And why just libraries? What about used bookstores, retail booksellers, textbooks, yard sales, thrift stores?

I have been reading for 62 years. I used to join those bookworm clubs at the library over the summer, where you got points for reading each and giving an oral book report. The limit then was 10 books at a time. I would take out that many, read them, come back in 2 weeks and finally the librarian said I didn’t have to give a report, as she knew I had read them all. I got permission at age 7 to take out adult books until my mother decided she would vet them, first. That lasted about 6 months, when she found me reading my father’s library books while he was at work. I have had no negative results except increased knowledge and a way to escape from almost any social situation or contrived media.

There is probably more danger in kids being online all the time then there is from lead in books, or even most toys, clothing or whatever else they feel a need to control.

[elc]

Could we please ban all the liberal nannies in government.

And the "conservative" ones too. This bill passed almost unanimously.

[elc]

There are a lot of good links in this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2173430/posts

Or do an internet search for “National Bankruptcy Day”

[Richard Kimball]

But they are required to have mercury in the light bulbs in their rooms. Part of the problem with legislation that is passed on the basis of panicking, grandstanding and bribes is that you end up with different laws that contradict each other.

[DaGman]

“The 63-page act does not specifically mention books.”

[keepitreal]

I buy beautiful handmade children's clothing from a small American manufacturer (American jobs) that has been forced to close due to this law. From what I understand each “batch” of clothing has to be separately tested for lead. Since they make such small lots, unlike the large overseas manufacturers, practically every garment must be tested and certified. They can't afford to do it and will be closing down in two weeks.

[Senator John Blutarski]

A perfect example of legislation written by passionate sophomoric ideologues and enacted by grandstanding politicians, neither of whom have taken a moment to consider the broad impact of their acts. Fortunately for them the people most hurt by such laws are the ones least able to shovel big political donations into the DC money [ i.e. - bribe ] hopper.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

I think we need to start a rating program for all legislators. Their immediate product is the “bill.” We should start grading the quality of their bills, just like term papers in college for instance. We could even take away their power to give themselves pay raises, and base their pay on their grade.
At the very worst, we would probably see a significant decrease in the number of bills submitted.
That’s got to be a good thing. :)
____________________________________________

Kinda like ‘Rate My Professor’. :)

[SelmaLee]

Yes, and there are literally thousands of ‘small manufacturers’ (AKA grannies who sew and knit) who face the same future.

What this bill has done, is kill all opportunity to buy local, safe, and handmade things for children, and opened the door widely to more junk from overseas.

The saddest part is that there are many folks out there who still have no idea what this bill actually covers. Unfortunately, many of these are in congress...

[Flash Bazbeaux]

“or testing for pencil marks/comments (that alone will stimulate the replacement of most text books)”

Absolute nonsense. Pencil “lead” is not really lead. Pencil “lead” is really graphite — a form of carbon. This bill will not require ANY testing for pencil marks, because pencil marks are not lead.

Pencil mark removal is going to be mandated by the carbon-footprint reduction bill.

[3catsanadog]

Year ago I worked for a big oil company and the department heads would each get the daily Federal Register. The daily FR was about 1/4 inch thick with the fine newspaper print paper. And the print inside was small.

This was the total of all the Congressional blah, blah, blah on a daily basis. One could not really read the whole thing every day and still get their work done.

So, yes I definitely believe what you say about all the junk laws they pass in Congress that by this time, most of us are ignorantly breaking every day.