Heretical Librarian

Signing Off

2008-07-07T01:47:00.002-04:00

Yes, and I really mean it this time.My sincere thanks to all who have read this blog or any part thereof. I hope it has been a useful source of information and analysis, regardless of whether or not you agree with my positions. In particular, thanks to everyone who sent me e-mail and my apologies for being so bad about responding. I also owe a debt of gratitude to those bloggers who linked to me

Egypt's Minister of Book Burning

2008-07-07T01:13:00.002-04:00

Two months ago, Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni was widely considered one of the favorites to be selected as next head of UNESCO. Now, his hopes appear to be in doubt. This article from the May 29 New York Sun explains why:Last week, a Muslim Brotherhood member of Egypt's parliament complained about Israeli books being in Egyptian libraries. Denying that such publications were available

Iran Ponders the Death Penalty for "Apostate" Blogging

2008-07-06T23:24:00.002-04:00

Iran's Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have spent the last three years engaged in a "Second Islamic Cultural Revolution" designed to save their unpopular autocratic regime by fostering Islamist ideology and curbing the growth of "un-Islamic" thought and expression. In early June, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty noted that Khamenei used the

Answering Peter McDonald

2008-07-06T22:43:00.000-04:00

Safe Libraries has the text of a message posted to the ALA Council listserv by radical leftist ALA Councilor Peter McDonald. I would be remiss if I signed off without offering my reactions to Mr. McDonald's comments. Three paragraphs in particular stand out. I'll address them one at a time:My sympathies go out to you my fellow Councilors. We have had to deal now 10 interminable years with Mr.

Change Coming to Campus?

2008-07-05T23:23:00.002-04:00

A July 3 article from the New York Times/International Herald Tribune argues that academia is becoming less dogmatically left wing as radical baby boomer faculty retire and are replaced by more moderate younger professors:Together, these Midwestern academics, one leaving the professoriate and another working her way up, are part of a vast generational change that is likely to profoundly alter the

Subverting the Che Cult

2008-07-04T01:07:00.002-04:00

I have been a frequent critic of the efforts to market the image of terrorist mass murderer Ernesto "Che" Guevara. It would appear, however, that Che merchandise has finally served a useful purpose.This Washington Post article on Wednesday's magnificent hostage rescue in Colombia, includes the following:Yesterday, two white helicopters arrived in a jungle clearing where the hostages were being

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-04T01:06:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to wish all of you a happy Fourth of July. Posting will continue until Sunday July 6.

Antioch College Closes its Doors

2008-07-03T01:46:00.000-04:00

I have blogged previously about the sad case of Antioch College. This once outstanding liberal arts college has devolved since the 1960s from a bastion of free inquiry to an ideological "boot camp" of radical left orthodoxy, extreme even by the standards of contemporary academia. As a result, the college shed both students and faculty until only a few hundred true believers remained. This process

The Sivas Massacre: 15 Years Later

2008-07-02T23:11:00.002-04:00

Today marks the 15th anniversary of one of the most horrific atrocities in Islamism's war on intellectual freedom. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet describes what happened in the city of Sivas on that terrible day:On July 2, 1993, a group of Islamic fundamentalists surrounded the Madimak Hotel in which many intellectuals were staying for the Pir Sultan Abdal Festival in Sivas, known as a stronghold

ALA and Cuba (Again)

2008-07-02T00:19:00.000-04:00

ALA's Annual Convention is underway in Anaheim. Those of you who remember my reaction to last year's ALA conference in DC will not be shocked to learn that I have skipped this year's festivities. Amazingly for an election year, this year's speakers lineup seems mercifully free of partisanship, though the Opening Session did feature that "impassioned, informed and gifted speaker" Ron Reagan. To be

The MEMRI Widget

2008-06-29T23:41:00.001-04:00

Just an administrative note; in order to keep this site useful after I stop posting, I have added the official MEMRI Widget to the right side menu:Get this widget!

"The ones who harm the Prophet"

2008-06-28T22:05:00.002-04:00

MEMRI recently compiled a must-read collection of comments by Arab and Muslim reformers on the question of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammed. The three individuals quoted courageously point out that Islamist fanatics are the ones who truly denigrate Islam: In an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa, titled "Muslims Against Islam," Kuwaiti liberal Dr. Ahmad Al-Baghdadi wrote: "In most countries

Other Rushdies

2008-06-27T23:52:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, Sir Salman Rushdie officially received his knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. The announcement of the award just over a year ago drew the usual round of threats from Islamists. Thankfully, they did not deter the Queen from bestowing this well deserved honor. Sir Salman has shown great courage in speaking out against the Islamist war on free expression. Especially since, contrary to

Absence Explained

2008-06-26T21:56:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the lack of recent posting. I've just been busy with other responsibilities, which explains why I'm giving this up in a few days. To make up for my absence, I will throw in a few days of free bonus blogging. Posting will now continue through July 5.

9/11 Denial at the UN Human Rights Council

2008-06-19T23:53:00.003-04:00

In March of this year, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) appointed Dr. Richard Falk to be its "Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967". Those familiar with the UNHCR's record will not be surprised to learn that Falk is a radical leftist who is pathologically hostile to Israel and the United States. In an article written

Banning Worldwide "Islamophobia"

2008-06-19T02:30:00.002-04:00

Writing in today's Wall Street Journal, Mark Dubowitz takes note of a disturbing new trend: the willingness of many Islamic states to use international bodies like the UN to globalize the censorship of free expression:Welcome to a world where criticism of militant Islam could land you in court or worse. In Vancouver, Canada's venerable Maclean's magazine awaits a hate-speech verdict from a

Banning a Book-Banner

2008-06-18T23:57:00.003-04:00

In a piece for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Aslan Doukaev notes a truly ironic development: One of the works of the late mass murdering book banning despot Ayatollah Khomeini is itself being banned, in Russia. Khomeini's most infamous act of censorship was, of course, his 1989 call for the murder of Satanic Verses' author Salman Rushdie. The regime he founded continues to ban books till this

Literature and Self-Liberation

2008-06-17T23:17:00.002-04:00

Claudia Anderson has written an excellent essay for the June 23 Weekly Standard comparing the lives of two outspoken and courageous advocates for freedom: Frederick Douglass and Ayaan Hirsi Ali:Born a little over 150 years apart, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born 1969) both had the experience, on the threshold of adulthood--he was 20, she 22--of fleeing the culture they'd

Blogger Arrests Increase in 2007

2008-06-16T23:37:00.002-04:00

The BBC summarizes a new report showing that the number of bloggers arrested worldwide increased substantially last year:Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.More than half of all the arrests since

Has the Internet Changed How We Read?

2008-06-15T21:57:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Max Boot at Commentary, I came across a truly provocative essay from the July/August 2008 Atlantic Monthly. According to author Nicholas Carr, the Internet is literally changing not only the way that we read, but also the way we think:I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the

"I was the right person in the right place."

2008-06-10T23:57:00.003-04:00

Courtesy of Martin Kramer's site, here is an interesting interview with Iraqi National Library Director Dr. Saad Eskander from the Guardian. The article has a slight anti-American spin, which is to be expected from the Guardian, but it is still very much worth reading:In 2003, Saad Eskander had just finished his PhD at the London School of Economics when he decided to return to Baghdad. Saddam

"The academic world that I entered is gone."

2008-06-09T23:23:00.002-04:00

Alan Charles Kors, a conservative intellectual historian at Penn, has written a terrific essay on the decline of academia. He describes how the campus has evolved from a place that welcomed intellectual diversity and open debate in the 1970s to one trapped in the stultifying ideological conformity of today. Dr. Kors makes abundantly clear that simply hiring a few professors of "Conservative

"Conservative Studies" at Colorado

2008-06-08T23:34:00.001-04:00

Via this post by Neo-Neocon, I learned that the University of Colorado has announced plans to endow a chair in "Conservative Studies" in order to foster intellectual diversity on campus. An article from the May 13 Wall Street Journal offers some details. These quotes from two CU students help explain why the university administration is pursuing such a course:Jack Roldan, vice chair of the

Site Update

2008-06-06T23:47:00.002-04:00

As previously promised, an update on the future of this blog. Posting will continue until June 30. After then, this blog will no longer be active.

Marketing a Mass Murderer

2008-06-05T00:24:00.002-04:00

In a piece from the June 1 Los Angeles Times, Ben Ehrenreich looks at the enduring popularity of terrorist mass murderer Ernesto "Che" Guevara:Snapped in March 1960, Alberto Korda's iconic image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara is possibly -- who's counting? -- the most-reproduced photograph in the world. Some version of it has been painted, printed, digitized, embroidered, tattooed, silk-screened,