I'm pretty sure the Bible has some sexual stuff in it. In fact, the only part of it I like is the "Song of Songs."
The gist of it is that Texas don't want no darn books in the state. Books are sexy and perverted. Let kids grow up without knowing anything about sex and things will work out just fine. Until your son wants to marry a dolphin.
It is interesting how rabidly radical-righters oppose books, but vehemently protect guns. If they had their way, schools would have more guns in them than books.
Not Texas, but speaking of book banners: Moms For Liberty's Tiffany Justice was on Joy Reid's show this week, partly to whine about our protest, but the rest of the world just heard "blah blag dildo blah blah blah dildo dildo."
Let's face it: the basic reason Texas wanted the booksellers to rate the book FIRST is because they simply didn't want the homework of having to read it for themselves. The initial rating would be a shorthand that notified the TEA that there were sexy parts in a particular book, and then they could simply override the bookseller's rating at will, again without having to actually READ A BOOK, and ban it outright. It's a Tom Sawyer-ish way to get booksellers to do the bulk of the fence-painting themselves.
Will they ban the book that contains "There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses."? That and the entire Song of Solomon.
If I'm reading the article correctly, once the booksellers deem a book "sexually explicit", the book cannot be bought by any Texas school district (it didn't seem there was any appeal from the booksellers' classification, even by the Texas educational bureaucracy (who should for shits and giggles still be located in the Texas Schoolbook Depository in Dallas, shouldn't they?)). So if they all took your passage from Song of Solomon, the scenes in Genesis where Sarah is pimped and where Dinah is raped, and the lengthy description of the types of rape and its consequences in Leviticus, they would have no choice but to deem all versions of the Bible "sexually explicit."
Ya done fucked up, Texas! You let your stupid, culture war bullshit piss off big bidness. They don't like anyone to fuck with their bottom line, not even righteous conservatives.
You need to read “Lear for Republican Dummies.” Everyone lives happily ever after. Hamlet becomes the new king and the Merchant of Venice is Secretary of Commerce. They never worked Julius Caesar into the plot, however.
Additionally, Macbeth as Sec of State and Iago in charge of DEI initiatives.
LOVE THIS!!
(also, this sounds like the 18th C rewrite wherein Cordie and Edgar get married. i've never actually found a copy of it, but man i'd love to produce it in some way or other...)
It seems the wingnuts vision for Texas is to limit interstate travel for women, block interstate commerce of books and contraceptives, and decide immigration policy on their own. As I recall, interstate commerce, travel, and immigration are decided by the Federal Government not the states.
I'm kinda waiting to talk to some certified librarians about this, because I never quite understood what this bill actually would accomplish. We've been shaking our heads at this one, for a while.
Right? Books aren't rated like movies or video games on content, because librarians have historically been more concerned about whether kids were willing and able to read than about what specifically they were reading. There aren't 18+ sections in libraries - certainly not in school libraries, but I'm not aware of ever having found them in any library.
I read a lot of adult women's romance novels as a teenager. Instead of making me quite eager to jump into sexytimes as a teenager, it instead made me wait until I found someone who worshipped the ground I walked on (which took until I was about 22 years old, as it turned out. We're still together 22 years later. Damn, half my life. Didn't realize it til just now.)
Of course, Texas conservative men are probably also upset about women getting those kind of ideas in their heads, too.
The thing is so unconstitutional on its face that this is unnecessary to knocking it down, but the fact that the internet has everything that the booksellers are apparently prohibited from selling is another constitutional infirmity.
Happily (but still absurdly) that one was only "flagged for review" and then quickly unflagged, but the school administrators still looked like idiots.
In the early days of these kinds of searches, our law firm was doing a keyword search for terms related to sexual harassment. One thing that came up was an order for honey-baked ham because it included the word "honey."
Ugh, who knew that Footloose could somehow still be relevant in 2024.
I'm pretty sure the Bible has some sexual stuff in it. In fact, the only part of it I like is the "Song of Songs."
The gist of it is that Texas don't want no darn books in the state. Books are sexy and perverted. Let kids grow up without knowing anything about sex and things will work out just fine. Until your son wants to marry a dolphin.
How are you going to keep them working on the MAGA farm once they’ve read a book?
It is interesting how rabidly radical-righters oppose books, but vehemently protect guns. If they had their way, schools would have more guns in them than books.
Hey Texas! Stop electing knuckle draggars!
“[F]ew of the main characters in Lonesome Dove live to see the last page (oh, spoiler for a 38-year-old novel).”
Goddamnit! I really wanted to read that!
(Old bookseller joke.)
Thank God, I can still get Game of Thrones in the local High School library.
Not Texas, but speaking of book banners: Moms For Liberty's Tiffany Justice was on Joy Reid's show this week, partly to whine about our protest, but the rest of the world just heard "blah blag dildo blah blah blah dildo dildo."
https://twitter.com/CraigNi40397745/status/1748879221080891815
Let's face it: the basic reason Texas wanted the booksellers to rate the book FIRST is because they simply didn't want the homework of having to read it for themselves. The initial rating would be a shorthand that notified the TEA that there were sexy parts in a particular book, and then they could simply override the bookseller's rating at will, again without having to actually READ A BOOK, and ban it outright. It's a Tom Sawyer-ish way to get booksellers to do the bulk of the fence-painting themselves.
Will they ban the book that contains "There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses."? That and the entire Song of Solomon.
If I'm reading the article correctly, once the booksellers deem a book "sexually explicit", the book cannot be bought by any Texas school district (it didn't seem there was any appeal from the booksellers' classification, even by the Texas educational bureaucracy (who should for shits and giggles still be located in the Texas Schoolbook Depository in Dallas, shouldn't they?)). So if they all took your passage from Song of Solomon, the scenes in Genesis where Sarah is pimped and where Dinah is raped, and the lengthy description of the types of rape and its consequences in Leviticus, they would have no choice but to deem all versions of the Bible "sexually explicit."
Ya done fucked up, Texas! You let your stupid, culture war bullshit piss off big bidness. They don't like anyone to fuck with their bottom line, not even righteous conservatives.
well thanks doc i had never read that book and now it's ruined for me.
next thing you'll be telling me King Lear doesn't have a warm happy retirement in a stable kingdom surrounded by a loving family.
jeesh.
You need to read “Lear for Republican Dummies.” Everyone lives happily ever after. Hamlet becomes the new king and the Merchant of Venice is Secretary of Commerce. They never worked Julius Caesar into the plot, however.
Nah. Hamlet was a liberal.
Additionally, Macbeth as Sec of State and Iago in charge of DEI initiatives.
LOVE THIS!!
(also, this sounds like the 18th C rewrite wherein Cordie and Edgar get married. i've never actually found a copy of it, but man i'd love to produce it in some way or other...)
It seems the wingnuts vision for Texas is to limit interstate travel for women, block interstate commerce of books and contraceptives, and decide immigration policy on their own. As I recall, interstate commerce, travel, and immigration are decided by the Federal Government not the states.
Shows how much you know. Is Texas preventing the Border Patrol from patrolling the border or not?
I'd be perfectly happy to let them secede. Then order a lot of popcorn and watch them turn into a 3rd world hellhole.
They can, however, continue to pay their aliquot share of the national debt while of course receiving no further federal tax money.
This is great news for the Texas Book Depository, or maybe not.
I constructed a berm to divert water in my backyard. I call it my grassy knoll.
I'm kinda waiting to talk to some certified librarians about this, because I never quite understood what this bill actually would accomplish. We've been shaking our heads at this one, for a while.
Right? Books aren't rated like movies or video games on content, because librarians have historically been more concerned about whether kids were willing and able to read than about what specifically they were reading. There aren't 18+ sections in libraries - certainly not in school libraries, but I'm not aware of ever having found them in any library.
I read a lot of adult women's romance novels as a teenager. Instead of making me quite eager to jump into sexytimes as a teenager, it instead made me wait until I found someone who worshipped the ground I walked on (which took until I was about 22 years old, as it turned out. We're still together 22 years later. Damn, half my life. Didn't realize it til just now.)
Of course, Texas conservative men are probably also upset about women getting those kind of ideas in their heads, too.
So schoolkids have to get all their sexual information from the intertubes. lolololol
The thing is so unconstitutional on its face that this is unnecessary to knocking it down, but the fact that the internet has everything that the booksellers are apparently prohibited from selling is another constitutional infirmity.
Wait…what? There’s sex on the internet? Why wasn’t I informed?!?
I was going to tell you as soon as I, uh, got done.
I guess books about the titmouse are out
Just so you know that these books are being banned based on keyword searches, a book was banned because the author's last name is Gay. So, yeah.
Happily (but still absurdly) that one was only "flagged for review" and then quickly unflagged, but the school administrators still looked like idiots.
In the early days of these kinds of searches, our law firm was doing a keyword search for terms related to sexual harassment. One thing that came up was an order for honey-baked ham because it included the word "honey."
Ahh, the STUPIDITY is the point. That's in addition to the CRUELTY is the point. So "conservatism" actually has two principles..