Whilst our Congress and Senate do nothings do nothing, Bush goes today to MEXICO to meet with Vicente Fox whom Bush has implicitly relegated control of the southern border and the Canadian Prime Minister who oversees our northern border to reach a political consensus so that our Congress and Senate will rubber stamp a deal to offset voter disapproval in any upcoming elections.
Hmmm, I've read Mein Kampf. It is a bitter, disturbing look into the mind of a psyophantic writer (Hitler didn't write it, no matter what a skinhead tells you), authoring for a psycotic mastervilin that too shortly would gain real power, and implement his stated plan.
I'm against banning books, ANY books. Even those I despise have worth, have merrit if only to show how NOT to act, how NOT to think. But, I love books, banning them is an antithetical to knowledge, that which books represent to me. I take great pride in the variety of my book selection, and of the variety that I've read but don't (yet) own. Perhaps some people don't see books in such a way, especially if they work in a library or own a bookshop. Perhaps they should find other gainful means of employment...
I hate racism, I hate nazis, and I hate Hitler. Mien Kampf however, is an interesting read. It blows away lot of things people said about Hitler and allows a person to see the true horror of what he envisioned for the world. I also hate censorship, which is why Mien Kampf should be sold in all bookstores.
“I hate racism, I hate nazis, and I hate Hitler. Mien Kampf however, is an interesting read.”
Yup. And if I were the type to start banning books, that’s the one I’d start with. So it’s a good thing I don’t get to make those decisions. Indeed, I wish no one got to make such decisions. Since there’s limited space on the bookshelves, and the market is closest to impartial, we’ll just have to let that mechanism decide...
This stinks of corporate cowardice. I feel sorry for the slobs that have to put up with me the next time I go there and ask, "I see that you carry the Necronomicon - a book that has been banned by the Vatican. But no Mohammed cartoons, huh?"
Scott.
don't be a dick. The people who work there don't have anything to do with the policy. You'd be like one of the people who comes into my store and puts the bibles in the fiction section. They think they're being funny, but it's really just a pain in my ass...
I worked in a university bookstore when Khomeini put the hit out on Salman Rushdie for his book "The Satanic Verses". The clerks got together and decided to put Satanic Verses in the window. When our manager saw it, she told us to take it down because a bookstore had been firebombed in San Francisco. We refused to do it, and she implied that if anyone was hurt as a result, it would be our fault.
We took it down but put it back later when the manager went home. Nothing happened, the copies all sold the next day, but I felt guilty about taking the 'risk'. I think I felt guilty about that until 9/11, when I realized that terrorism is similar to a hostage situation. A tiny group of people intimidates a larger group, mostly with empty threats. The larger group could easily overpower the hostage takers, but only if they work together. Usually, people cooperate with the intimidators rather than with each other.
Anyway, Border's employees don't any need more grief then they're already getting. If people decide that they want to protest the decision, maybe they could buy some copies of the magazine and distribute them outside the store?
Nonetheless as booksellers, we are the guardians of knowledge, the purveyors of human understanding.
Oh, please. As booksellers, you are businesspeople, pushing a product and hoping consumers will buy it. Why else do you have shelves of reprints of books from the 1800s? Nobody really needs another reprint of Moby Dick with a pomo cover design.
If you want to get into the "guardians of knowledge, purveyors of human understanding" business, I suggest you get a job at a library.
Bryan AWS...the fact that people are businesspeople, trying to make money, doesn't mean that they don't have other values or responsibilities to those values. Do you think the people at Boeing don't care about aircraft safety? Do you think the people at GE Medical Systems don't care about curing sick people?
I don't think that those who work at "nonprofit" institutions (such as libraries and universities) have any superior moral standing whatsoever compared to people who are practicing capitalists.
I once went into a Borders to get a copy of the John Waters movie, "Pink Flamingos". I had just seen it with a friend and I wanted to have my own copy.
The guy sniffed at me and told me they don't carry such trash.
He definitely let me know that there was something wrong with me just for wanting that movie. I've never gone into a Borders since.
While it has every perversion and vice you can think of in it and is probably the most sick, twisted, depraved (but funny) movie I've ever seen and I will only watch it with certain people, if a bookstore wants to let me know they think I'm despicable, that's cool. I like Amazon better anyway. And they sold it as a two-dvd package with an equally sick, twisted, but not as funny, movie "Female Trouble".
My Borders manager would have fired that guy for acting like a jerk.
That particular manager decided to stop working for Borders a few years back because they wanted to micromanage the stores and stop him from actually running the store in a manner that had increased the customer base steadily over his tenure.
I also remember that we carried a copy of the Turner Diaries, published by a guy who instead of making a cover decided to put a statement about how publishing such screeds is important, because we have to know what some people believe. I fully agree. Publish Mein Kamp. Publish The Turner Diaries. Publish the Unabomer* Manifesto.
Publish them with warnings or disclaimers if you must, but don't sweep them under the rug where they can fester and turn poisonous.
*This is the correct spelling, as "UnaBOM" was the code name the FBI gave to the case.
the fact that people are businesspeople, trying to make money, doesn't mean that they don't have other values or responsibilities to those values.
Yes, but don't assume that the values you have are necessarily the same ones that the corporate parents of Barnes &Nobles has.
Disclaimer: I shop at Barnes &Nobles all the time (even own a b&n membership card). I find them ridiculously overpriced on most things (except for the crap they're trying to get rid of), just like every other book and music store. OTOH, the atmosphere is great as compared to the bookstores that inhabited the mall town I grew up in back in the '80s.
I don't think that those who work at "nonprofit" institutions (such as libraries and universities) have any superior moral standing whatsoever compared to people who are practicing capitalists.
You assume that the people who work at non-profits are not "practicing capitalists." We are *all* practicing capitalists - at least those of us who have jobs.
Bush has a borders problem. Big time.
Whilst our Congress and Senate do nothings do nothing, Bush goes today to MEXICO to meet with Vicente Fox whom Bush has implicitly relegated control of the southern border and the Canadian Prime Minister who oversees our northern border to reach a political consensus so that our Congress and Senate will rubber stamp a deal to offset voter disapproval in any upcoming elections.
Tom Tancredo for President
You definitely offer a unique and valuable perspective.
And now we all know McKeirnan is an asshole.
How about a new motto:
"Borders: The Neville Chamberlain of Bookstores"
I'm against banning books, ANY books. Even those I despise have worth, have merrit if only to show how NOT to act, how NOT to think. But, I love books, banning them is an antithetical to knowledge, that which books represent to me. I take great pride in the variety of my book selection, and of the variety that I've read but don't (yet) own. Perhaps some people don't see books in such a way, especially if they work in a library or own a bookshop. Perhaps they should find other gainful means of employment...
Yup. And if I were the type to start banning books, that’s the one I’d start with. So it’s a good thing I don’t get to make those decisions. Indeed, I wish no one got to make such decisions. Since there’s limited space on the bookshelves, and the market is closest to impartial, we’ll just have to let that mechanism decide...
Nice rant, and I'm a big fan of Tom Tancredo (see this award my organization gave him).
This stinks of corporate cowardice. I feel sorry for the slobs that have to put up with me the next time I go there and ask, "I see that you carry the Necronomicon - a book that has been banned by the Vatican. But no Mohammed cartoons, huh?"
don't be a dick. The people who work there don't have anything to do with the policy. You'd be like one of the people who comes into my store and puts the bibles in the fiction section. They think they're being funny, but it's really just a pain in my ass...
We took it down but put it back later when the manager went home. Nothing happened, the copies all sold the next day, but I felt guilty about taking the 'risk'. I think I felt guilty about that until 9/11, when I realized that terrorism is similar to a hostage situation. A tiny group of people intimidates a larger group, mostly with empty threats. The larger group could easily overpower the hostage takers, but only if they work together. Usually, people cooperate with the intimidators rather than with each other.
Anyway, Border's employees don't any need more grief then they're already getting. If people decide that they want to protest the decision, maybe they could buy some copies of the magazine and distribute them outside the store?
Oh, please. As booksellers, you are businesspeople, pushing a product and hoping consumers will buy it. Why else do you have shelves of reprints of books from the 1800s? Nobody really needs another reprint of Moby Dick with a pomo cover design.
If you want to get into the "guardians of knowledge, purveyors of human understanding" business, I suggest you get a job at a library.
I don't think that those who work at "nonprofit" institutions (such as libraries and universities) have any superior moral standing whatsoever compared to people who are practicing capitalists.
The guy sniffed at me and told me they don't carry such trash.
He definitely let me know that there was something wrong with me just for wanting that movie. I've never gone into a Borders since.
While it has every perversion and vice you can think of in it and is probably the most sick, twisted, depraved (but funny) movie I've ever seen and I will only watch it with certain people, if a bookstore wants to let me know they think I'm despicable, that's cool. I like Amazon better anyway. And they sold it as a two-dvd package with an equally sick, twisted, but not as funny, movie "Female Trouble".
That particular manager decided to stop working for Borders a few years back because they wanted to micromanage the stores and stop him from actually running the store in a manner that had increased the customer base steadily over his tenure.
I also remember that we carried a copy of the Turner Diaries, published by a guy who instead of making a cover decided to put a statement about how publishing such screeds is important, because we have to know what some people believe. I fully agree. Publish Mein Kamp. Publish The Turner Diaries. Publish the Unabomer* Manifesto.
Publish them with warnings or disclaimers if you must, but don't sweep them under the rug where they can fester and turn poisonous.
*This is the correct spelling, as "UnaBOM" was the code name the FBI gave to the case.
Yes, but don't assume that the values you have are necessarily the same ones that the corporate parents of Barnes &Nobles has.
Disclaimer: I shop at Barnes &Nobles all the time (even own a b&n membership card). I find them ridiculously overpriced on most things (except for the crap they're trying to get rid of), just like every other book and music store. OTOH, the atmosphere is great as compared to the bookstores that inhabited the mall town I grew up in back in the '80s.
I don't think that those who work at "nonprofit" institutions (such as libraries and universities) have any superior moral standing whatsoever compared to people who are practicing capitalists.
You assume that the people who work at non-profits are not "practicing capitalists." We are *all* practicing capitalists - at least those of us who have jobs.