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FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury This one, with gratitude, is for DON CONGDON. FAHRENHEIT 451: The temperature at which book-paper catches fire and burns PART I IT WAS A PLEASURE TO BURN IT was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With...

I am of Viking ancestry. In my part of the World, things like fighting spirit, balls and an appetite for destuction matter much. We also dispose of some decent brain power. Bohr and Nobel both were Scandinavians. My tiny Sweden is furthermore the only nation that successfully has took Moscow (- in 1610 Swedish field marshal De la Gardie entered Moscow and was cheered by large crowds. Everyone knows Swedish rule equals law and order. We might be a boring bunch, but we wholeheartedly hate chaos, injustice, disorder and crime. Leave it to us, we'll fix it.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1w7e46pHuc

While the world was watching the Academy Awards ceremony, the people of Mosul were watching a different show. They were horrified to see ISIS members burn the Mosul public library. Among the many thousands of books it housed, more than 8,000 rare old books and manuscripts were burned.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Tuesday voiced concern over reports of mass book-burning in Iraq, saying it would be one of the most "devastating" such actions in history if confirmed. Referring to reports that thousands of books on philosophy, law, science and poetry have been torched in recent weeks, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said it was part of a campaign of "cultural cleansing," reports AFP. "If confirmed, this would be one of the most devastating acts of destruction of library collections in human history," UNESCO said. "Such destruction is a cruel reminder that the nations...

When Islamic State group militants invaded the Central Library of Mosul earlier this month, they were on a mission to destroy a familiar enemy: other people's ideas. Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books — including children's stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science — into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts. The rest? "These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned," a bearded militant in traditional Afghani two-piece clothing...

A charter school in Southern California is facing the threat of a lawsuit for “purging” Christian books from its library. snip ....Brad Dacus told WND that among the books was “The Hiding Place,” the story of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch woman sent to a prison camp by the Nazis of World War II for helping Jews escape. Dacus said PJI’s legal team and the district have exchanged letters already. snip Strictly religious books, such as the Bible or the Quran, routinely are on library shelves, he argued. Dacus said an immediate correction of the school’s policy would prevent a...

American leaders denounced the burning of a Christian leader's library in Tripoli, Lebanon, last Friday night as based on false pretenses and said it's a threat to religious liberty. "The really bad news is that this is not out of the ordinary," Robert P. George, chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), told The Christian Post in an interview on Monday. George emphasized the need to advocate for religious freedom across the world to prevent attacks like this one. The Friday night fire burned two-thirds of some 80,000 books and manuscripts in the Al-Saeh library owned...

May 16, 2013 Column One: Obama and the ‘official truth’ Caroline B. Glick Nakoula Basseley Nakoula has been sitting in a US federal prison in Texas since his photographed midnight arrest by half a dozen deputy sheriffs at his home in California for violating the terms of his parole. As many reporters have noted, the parole violation in question would not generally lead to anything more than a court hearing. But in Nakoula’s case, it led to a year in a federal penitentiary. Because he wasn’t really arrested for violating the terms of his parole. Nakoula was arrested for producing...

What could prompt two college professors to burn a book? Disagreement with the contents, of course. Two San Jose State University professors took a picture as they held a match to a book that takes on the idea of global warming, and the photo landed on an official school website until some realized the idea of academics burning books is not exactly scholarly. The image depicted Alison Bridger, a professor and chairwoman of the university’s department of meteorology and climate science, holding a lit match beneath “The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism: Mankind and Climate Change Mania” as the...

Extremists burn ancient texts in Mali The Associated Press Posted Jan 28, 2013 @ 07:32 AMSEVARE, Mali (AP) — Islamist extremists torched a library containing historic manuscripts in Timbuktu, the mayor said today, as French and Malian forces closed in on Mali's fabled desert city. Ousmane Halle said he heard about the burnings early today. "It's truly alarming that this has happened," he told The Associated Press by telephone from Mali's capital, Bamako. "They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people."

No word yet on what the violation was, but I assume it must be far more serious than using an alias or a computer. Given the insanity of the past two weeks, replete with the White House nudging Google to pull the video off of YouTube and the State Department running ads on Pakistani TV to apologize for a movie they had nothing to do with, I can’t quite believe the DOJ would risk the perception that they’re punishing this guy for a thoughtcrime unless something serious was involved. There has to be a real crime underlying this. Right? The...

Religious materials -- including Qurans that were burned at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, sparking Afghan protests -- were removed from the library of a detainee center "because of extremist inscriptions" on them, a military official said Tuesday. There was "an appearance that these documents were being used to facilitate extremist communications," a military official said. "Additionally, some of the documents were extremist in and of themselves, apparently originating from outside of Afghanistan," the official said. The official said the material was burned, but authorities are attempting to determine how much. The uproar prompted Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO's International...

Whaddya do when someone sends you two boxes of Bill O'Reilly's book, "Pinheads and Patriots"? You burn them. No, it wasn't the Occupy Wall Street crowd. It was a bunch of soldiers in Afghanistan. The unnamed soldier who tells the tale goes by the name Everqueer on Tumblr, where, for the most part, he posts on the stuff that people post on Tumblr: what they're reading, stuff he's listening to, with occasional dispatches from life in Afghanistan, like this photo of warming up for baseball and a weather report. But three days ago he posted a photo of the books...

Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who oversaw the burning of a Koran last month, said he did not feel responsible for the violent protest at a United Nations compound in Afghanistan today that left at least 11 dead. Instead, he said the violence proved his point. "We wanted to raise awareness of this dangerous religion and dangerous element," Jones said. "I think [today's attack] proves that there is a radical element of Islam." As for the 11 dead, which included seven U.N. staffers and guards, Jones told "Nightline" anchor Bill Weir, "We do not feel responsible, no." The deaths followed...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has expressed a willingness to ban protesters from burning the Koran as the modern day equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater.The Supreme Court has ruled burning the American flag in protest is protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.Breyer spoke to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America today:But Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on "GMA" that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater,” Breyer...

This comes to mind in light of General Petraeus's warning "against" the planned Koran burning protest by an independent fringe church in Florida. The wrong way to protest.In Afghanistan, where General Petraeus is the new commander, Bibles were confiscated by U.S. military authorities from a soldier and burned last year. That was an absoluely repugnant action. One that every U.S. citizen in this country should have protested and denounced. And why did our U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan do that?-because Al-jazerra reported it's "concern" that the Bibles could be given to Muslims and used to share with them the Good News of forgiveness of sins through Yeshua [ Jesus], the Messiah. The U.S. military authorities...

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Christian minister said Tuesday that he will go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite warnings from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan and the White House that doing so would endanger U.S. troops. Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center said he understands the government's concerns, but plans to go forward with the burning this Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the attacks.

Once They Burned Books by Ari Bussel The flames could be seen clearly in small streets far away from the city square. It was not the smoke or ashes, rather the sense of excitement that provided warmth and exhilaration. Jan came running in from the outside, his face red, eyes shining. His mother looked at him puzzled. Short of breath he exclaimed: They are burning books – tomorrow we are not going to school! It was many years ago in a different part of the world books were burned. Treatises on philosophy, history, culture, the arts, sciences and medicine were...

Some cash-strapped British pensioners are buying books from charity shops and burn them to keep warm as freezing temperatures gripped the UK, a London newspaper reported Tuesday. Workers at a charity shop in Swansea, in south Wales, told London newspaper Metro that pensioners were looking for thick books such as encyclopedias — which are sold for a few pennies second hand — as a cheaper alternative to coal.

Volunteers have reported that ‘a large number’ of elderly customers are snapping up hardbacks as cheap fuel for their fires and stoves. Temperatures this week are forecast to plummet as low as -13ºC in the Scottish Highlands, with the mercury falling to -6ºC in London, -5ºC in Birmingham and -7ºC in Manchester as one of the coldest winters in years continues to bite. Workers at one charity shop in Swansea, in south Wales, described how the most vulnerable shoppers were seeking out thick books such as encyclopaedias for a few pence because they were cheaper than coal. One assistant said:...