November 29, 2005 by s.z.

Getting Kids to Read The parents in one Kansas school district have an interesting method to get high school students interested in literature: make it sound pornographic. If you go to the web site for Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools and click on the link to one of 14 assigned works which this group wants removed from the district's curriculum, you will get this warning: Warning Some of the material in these assigned school books is extremely controversial and many people consider it objectionable or inappropriate for children. The content you are about to view contains adult material that may not be appropriate for all users. Before viewing this page you must read and agree to the following: You are an adult (18 years or older) and have read and understand this warning. You understand that the material may involve language, content and themes of an adult, objectionable or controversial nature. IN NO EVENT WILL ClassKC.org BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND resulting from viewing or any other use of this material. If you agree, click here to continue. And if you do click there, what depraved, explicit, lewd work do you learn about? For one, Kate Chopin's "The Awakening." (Yes, the 1899 novella about a woman who questions her role in society, but who doesn't do anything more risque than kiss a man not her husband, if my dated recollections are correct.) The Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools (also known as "ClassKC.org") note that, "The book was widely criticized for its frank, open discussion of the emotional and sexual 'needs' of women, which culminate in a romanticized suicide."  Hey, I say we all try to hold ClassKC.org liable for the damages resulting to us from being exposed to the notion that women have "needs." Anyway, you can learn more about the ClassKC.org crusade from this Agape Press story; here are the highlights: Concerned parents in one Kansas school district are seeking to get 14 books removed from high school reading lists because they contain obscenities, vulgar language, or sexually explicit material. The effort is being led by parents with the group Citizens for Literary Standards in Schools, which believes students in Blue Valley schools are being required to read some novels that are pornographic in nature. However, the Blue Valley Board of Education is refusing to remove the controversial books from the district's high school curriculum. Even the ClassKC.org site notes that the books aren't technically "required" reading, since any student can request an alternate selection.  However, ClassKc.org feels that no students should read these books, since they are "vulgar," "indecent," "salacious," and may contain oral sex, bestiality, and the f-word.   (Others books on the list include One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Beloved, and All the Pretty Horses). Greg Motley, a spokesman for the parents group, says the board has a troubling moral worldview -- "and they're extremely sure that our worldview is not correct," he adds. Damn them for not believing in the correctness of a worldview which holds that they are immoral! Greg adds that parents in the community may be unwilling to take a stand and denounce the works of authors like Toni Morrison and Pat Conroy, because it could hurt the parents' bottom lines: "It's a very difficult line to draw in the sand to say I'm going to make my kid walk out of this classroom," he says, "[because] I'm going to cause my kid to be ostracized by the group of peers that he values -- and secondly, that my business might suffer because of the adverse publicity that I receive." Hey, nobody ever said that being a kook was easy. But Greg isn't standing alone: Motley says his group currently has 800 people on a petition saying the 14 books should be not read by any students in the Blue Valley School District. Thanks to the write-ups by Ken's group, I anticipate that every teen in Blue Valley will want to read these books.  Way to sell kids on literature! 2:54:13 AM

FoxNews Joins Anti-Christmas Army WorldNetDaily breaks this story: 'Holiday' hypocrisy hits Fox News? Fox News, the media company whose hosts have staunchly defended the public use of the word "Christmas," is raising eyebrows after posting a story on its website with the headline, "Holiday Trees Arrive at Capitol, White House."  The story written by FoxNews.com starts off with its lead sentence reading: "Two of the nation's three branches of government were adorning themselves with more branches Monday as holiday trees were delivered to the Capitol and the White House." [...] When Reuters issued its version of the story, it used the headline, "White House Christmas tree arrives." An Associated Press story was titled, "Christmas Season Begins at White House." We imagine that Roger Ailes has something to do with this. 1:57:26 AM

comment [] trackback []

Answers and Winners    Here are the answers to yesterday's round of "Who Said It?", plus the commenters who first correctly identified our Mystery Guests.   1.  Doug Giles - A point to Bistroist. Style points to Bistroist, for the response "Doug Gizzle in the hizz-ouse, oozing testosterone from every pore," and to Tara the anti-social social worker, for "Ebeneezer Scrooge (post-supernatural visitations), channeling the spirit of Jimmy Stewart from 'It's a Wonderful Life.'" 2.  Charles Krauthammer - Another point to Bistroist A style point to Tara the anti-social social worker for the guess, "Misstress Dominitra from House o' Whips & Chains." 3.  The Deacon (AKA Paul, the Littlest Powerliner) - A half point to Bistroist (he never should have told us that he copied from Tbogg's paper). A style point to Tara the anti-social social worker for "The demon who lives where Cheney used to have a heart before he sacrificed it to Lucifer." And a style point to Dave, for the quip about "Chief Inquisitor Cheney trying to wring useful information out of Dustin Hoffman in the movie 'Marathon Man'." 4.  Jonah Goldberg - Yet another point to Bistroist A syle point to Dave, because like julia said, the fact that people think that David Brooks writes like Jonah should cause Brooks to have one of those "I wish I'd never been born" moments.  Then Clarence the Angel would be sent from heaven to show Bobo how life would be if Jonah had David's gig at the NY Times -- and since things would be pretty much the same, Clarence would encourage Brooks to jump off the bridge. 5.  Star Parker - A point to bulbul A style point to Tara the anti-social social worker for her guess, "Ken Lay, who got more welfare rom us taxpayers than any AFDc recipient ever will." 6.  Pastor J. Grant Swank, Jr. -  A final point to Bistroist. And a couple of points to Clif, for naming all our Mystery Guests in one post (more or less), as follows: 1. The ridiculous Doug Giles 2. Charles Kraphammer 3. John "Ass Missile" Hindraker  Curly Deacon 4. Jonah "The Whale" Goldberg 5. Star "Why Are Black People So Lazy" Parker 6. My pen pal, the Swanky Pastor Swank   Congratulations to all our winners!  They are encouraged to save their point, because when they accumulate a 100,000 or so, they can trade them for great prizes like this extraordinarily tacky T-shirt from ChoiceShirts (it's reportedly one of their most popular items):     Oh, Brad R. will be getting a copy of Doug Gile's new DVD (the one where Doug asks Ted Nugent if he wants to go camping with him) as soon as Brad does his anti-Christmas tirade on "The O'Reilly Factor."