16 October 2007

so i had to share...

some of you have already seen this i am sure, but it came up again recently in a paper i am writing on conduct books from the middle ages because the similarity really struck me...

from 1406... "She will be overjoyed to see him, and when she is with him she will try hard to say everything that ought to please him, and she will keep a happy expression on her face."

from 1953...
(click to see all of the detail)

eerily similar, no? one might think no progress had been made at all...

15 October 2007

06 October 2007

banned book week - the closer...

so this is the end of banned books week and i thought that i couldn't let it pass without saying something, so...

U.S Airport Screeners Are Watching What You Read
"They are noting people's race and they are writing down what people read"
"The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment."


really the whole article is about the censorship of travel... soon they will decide when and where you are allowed to go... the loss of personal freedom is huge, and when you start with small things like what people are reading and what they are allowed to read - it very quickly leads to bigger things... "Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings."- Heinrich Heine

some links in the fight against censorship...
Delete Censorship
The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000

Banned Book T-shirts
The Forbidden Library
Controversial & Banned Books
some more quotes on censorship...

"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education."
-- Alfred Whitney Griswold, Essays on Education

"If the human body's obscene, complain to the manufacturer, not me."
-- Larry Flynt

"Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance."
-- Lyndon Baines Johnson, February 11, 1964

and my personal favorite...

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who will watch the watchers?"
-- Juvenal

so, go read a banned book...

05 October 2007

some funny craziness...

Arabian Formula- a crazy cross cultural marketing incident

Vulva Perfume (NSFW) - this one may have been visited by the flock before- but still vastly disturbing with a bit of amusement thrown in for good measure - what is new to this community is the smell test - now you can find out what men really think of the scent of a woman...

i was gonna find more, but i guess this is enough crazy for today...

enjoy =)