Defy the Ban: Send a Student a Copy of Slaughterhouse Five

The recent move by a Republic, Missouri, school board to ban Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s anti-war classic Slaughterhouse Five is not occurring without consequence. The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is offering to send up to 150 copies of the book to students in the high school who were going to read the book before it was banned.

The Library says, "We think it’s important for everyone to have their First Amendment rights. We’re not telling you to like the book… we just want you to read it and decide for yourself." Students can apply for the free books online at the Library's web site.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this move by the school board is that it was done at the behest of a Missouri University professor. He reportedly objected to the book's profanity, sexual content, and perceived insults to Christianity. The school board, never one to second-guess a learned professor, agreed to ban the book with reasoning that, with one or two word substitutions, could have come from North Korean censors: The book offenses include creating "false conceptions of American history and government or that teach principles contrary to Biblical morality and truth."

Yes, Biblical morality is being used by a public school system to ban one of the most celebrated books of the past century.

You can help the Library underwrite the cost of this effort by donating to the cause. And maybe buying a copy of the book yourself, and be sure to pass it along to a young person after you're finished reading it.

Roger Ebert Censored on Facebook; 16-year-old Kids Flame Him

Say what you will about film critic Roger Ebert. You might as well say it, because people are posting all kinds of profane and nasty things on his Facebook wall today in the wake of a couple of comments he posted about the death of the star of Jackass, which he implies was because of drunk driving.

Personally, I think Ebert is a hero. Since he lost his voice, he has found his voice in the new media world, becoming one of the bravest and sharpest (and one of the few intelligent) commentators on Twitter and Facebook and blogs.

But Facebook, which never seems to stop shooting itself in the foot (and must therefore have the most bullet-riddled shoes in the world), censored Ebert this morning by taking down his Facebook page as a result of some complaints about Ebert's comments. Now, Ebert didn't post anything that was outrageous. His comments weren't racist. They weren't inciting violence.

He commented, "Friends don't let jackasses drink and drive." He was referring to a photo that showed the Jackass star drinking shortly before the accident, which killed two people.

Facebook reportedly apologized for removing the page, but it is chilling that the company would remove the page anyway. Is there really no free speech on Facebook? Does Facebook think it is the arbiter of good taste? (This is, after all, a company caught red-handed on numerous questionable business practices, most recently when it was exposed as the company behind a public relations campaign to spread negative stories about Google.)

And then there are the unbelievably foul mouthed and uneducated brats who have "liked" Ebert's Facebook page this morning so they could post messages on his wall. Here's one message (dashes added by yours truly): "I pray every single one of you idiots mothers get raped and murdered maybe then you will think twice talking about someone who is gone. f---ing idiots." Or this charmer: "you sir, are a scumbag. and so are all of you're disrespectful little "followers". you know what you said was wrong and WAY to soon to be said. you don't even have the respect for everyone hurting, and crying, to apologize. why don't you grow up a little bit and APOLOGIZE. show some respect to Ryan's family, and to the members of Jackass."

To help counter the onslaught of crying tweeners on the wall, I posted my own comment: "Roger, I think this wall shows that you have the support of people who don't ride their skateboards to work. Keep up the good work." I was pleased to see it quickly earned a number of "likes," but sure enough, responses started coming in about what was possibly wrong with skateboarding to work. Sigh.

I guess what surprised me second most (following Facebook's creepy level of censorship, of course) is the vehemence of fans of the dead man. The comments on Ebert's wall refer to themselves crying, hurting, in pain. Those are feelings you should have when a family member or friend dies, not a star of a oddball TV show and movie series. It reminds me of a time in high school when I made some negative comments about Ted Turner (most definitely not nasty comments, just negative; I was probably commenting on his opportunism as a conservative at the time; Turner would later change sides and become a vocal and at times brave liberal); a classmate confronted me about criticizing his hero; the classmate worked himself up to tears as he described how he and his mother both idolized Ted Turner for his success in business. It was an unnerving experience.

Roger Ebert has a way of not being unnerving, nor of being unnerved. You can read his sensible follow-up to the controversy on his blog (which I urge you to bookmark and read regularly).

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Starlog Internet Archive Project: Starlog #5, May 1977: Start Reaching

Readers of Starlog for most of its first two and a half decades of life quickly came to recognize (and, I think, appreciate) a signature factor in the magazine's content and character: the "reach for the stars" philosophy and encouragement of co-publisher Kerry O'Quinn, and here we get the first of umpteenth number of editorials by O'Quinn in that spirit. This issue, O'Quinn also takes over as editor-in-chief in the wake of founding editor David Houston's departure (Houston would soon be named the West Coast editor of the magazine). Other staffbox changes include co-editorship by James M. Elrod and Howard Zimmerman. This issue sees the first ad for a Starlog Photo Guidebook, Spaceships; in the coming years, Starlog would publish dozens of these high-quality and lavishly illustrated trade paperback books on a variety of SF topics (Aliens, Special Effects, Space Art, etc.)

Starlog #5
68 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $1.50

The cover painting is by artist Don Dixon, who is also profiled in the issue. Space art would remain a strong love for the magazine (and its short-lived spinoff, Future Life).

Kerry O'Quinn kicks off things in his editorial by highlighting the success of people who made careers out of their love for space and science fiction. Communications is filled with interesting letters, including one from a "Richard A. Pini" in Taunton, Massachusetts. Is this the Richard Pini who, with wife Wendy, created the Elfquest comics? Log Entries has the usual previews and news, including some making-of info on the new King Kong and a report on William Shatner's college speaking tour; columnist David Gerrold writes about some religious pressure that resulted in the changing of a Star Trek animated episode to suit some Baptists' sensibilities; David Hutchison continues his extensive look at 3-D science-fiction movies; Robert M. Hefley puts together a "Science Fiction Address Guide" for television productions; David Houston interviews spacescape painter (and cover artist) Don Dixon, in an article illustrated with many of Dixon's beautiful SF paintings; in the magazine's first foray into controversial political topics, writer Frank Gilstrap looks at how an episode of the live-action Star Trek was censored by a Texas television station on religious grounds (a nice live-action complement to Gerrold's animated column this issue, eh?); Howard Zimmerman examines the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson UFO TV series; Tom Rogers contributes a complete episode guide for that UFO series; Starlog publishes an episode guide to the final six episodes of Space: 1999's second and (wait for it...) last season; a selection of reader letters on Space: 1999 are published in a special article; Star Teasers has some movie anagrams; and the Visions column looks at the search for extra-terrestrial life.

"This issue is dedicated to these people ... and to all of our readers who are equally demanding of their lives. Whether you have already done it or will demand it of yourself in the future, there is no greater success in life than turning your pleasure into your profession."

--Kerry O'Quinn, editor-in-chief (and co-publisher), From the Bridge

To view previous Starlog Archive issues, click on "Starlog Internet Archive Project" in the keywords below.

What Do Jay Leno and Google Have in Common?

They're both self-inflicted problems. The Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien debacle was all the result of terrible decisions by NBC management; Google's debacle in its China business is all a result of terrible decisions by its management, which had lowered its moral standards in order to rake in money in an authoritarian country.

Yikes.

China Blocks Access to Berlin Wall Anniversary Twitter Page

When I was in Berlin for the second time, a one-week visit in March 2001, I was only slightly luckier than when I visited a couple months earlier, at least when it comes to finding remaining portions of the now-defunct Berlin Wall. Despite plenty of time spent in the very impressive (historically speaking) government quarter in Berlin Mitte -- the central area of the capital city -- and the nearby Unter den Linden or the beautiful Tiergarten, I saw nothing of the remains of the Berlin Wall. The closest I came was a visit to former East Berlin to interview someone for Internet World magazine, whose offices were one block away from Mauer Park ("mauer" is German for "wall," so you get the memorial idea of the park, right?).

But I don't recall being able to find anything that looked like that hated wall. Objectively, that's probably a good thing. Germans are in no danger of forgetting about the division of their country in the Cold War aftermath of World War II. And, frankly, finding remants of it wasn't my top priority. When I travel, I prefer to get off the beaten path and wander into lesser-known neighborhoods and find restaurants and bookstores along the streets and just stop in to see what I'll find.

It was a nice trip to what has become a normal (thank goodness) city.

So the news that China has been blocking a Twitter page dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall seems like one more example of China acting like a hyper-sensitive child. Apparently, China's autocratic rulers were discomfited because Chinese were using the Twitter page to voice their not-so-nice views of the Chinese Communist government. Wonder which government will be most bothered by Twitter -- China or Iran?

Hmmm, maybe China's just upset that they're going to stop getting free money from Germany under the new government.

Vietnam Journalist Fired Over Blog Post Criticizing Berlin Wall

Yes, reform in some communist countries only goes so far. Deutsche Welle (aka Deutsche World, basically the German BBC) reports that Vietnamese journalist Huy Duc was fired from his newspaper job for writing a blog post in which he said good things about the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Calling it a "wall of shame" and said the former Soviet Union was a force for depriving people of freedom. Kind of hard to argue with that, I think, but his bosses didn't like his dabbling in politics, so they fired him.

Read more here.