The 'lady' in Halsey is an example of why uptight people make me nervous. They tend to get into your face for such petty and trivial matters. But, it's their culture to do so. They just can't help it. They are programmed to try to program us into their narrow world.

That is when your middle finger salute comes quite handy.

There are Zom-Bushes everywhere!!! At least the Reich is now closing the spigots to the bigots. Representatives Marilyn Musgrave (CO-R) and Michele Bachmann (MN-R) are both being denied further funding by the National Republican Congressional Committee. While there are shortages of funds in the party, these two have also been expressing seriously devisive remarks of late. Obviously this is not working. McCain has made little progress with the smears. I'm encouraged, yet nervous about this redirection. Can a tiger change it's stripes?!? Only time will tell.

I just was about to suggest everyone send a copy to this library so they can just keep replacing it and charging her for them and all you swell folks already thought of it.

Haven't read this book. Get the impression it's supposed to be kind of lighthearted, but for a lot of people, suicide is a subject that's very difficult to laugh about. I'm glad for those that don't have a reason not to laugh.

From the O story:

"The library serves both middle school and high school students. Anderson said she will be at Monday's school board meeting to make her case. At the same time, she has softened her stance, saying she wouldn't object to the book being held behind a check-out counter for more mature readers.

"That," she said, "I could live with."

Suicide isn't probably a yuk-it-up subject in Halsey these days. Isn't that the small Oregon town whose citizens rely heavily for employment on the local mill that's been in upheaval lately? Seems as though the crisis has been somewhat resolved, but I imagine it's been hard.

So all of you liberals that are against logging and are willing to burn log trucks, buildings, ect... are justified and not "out there"?

Come on folks you can't claim the the conservatives are always going overboard without looking inward as well at times. All of our sides are going to have the extremes thats why humanity follows the bell curve so well

Isn't it interesting that she probably wouldn't have a prob with her son learning to hunt rabbits.

Really, this isn't a digression, but the essence of the evangelical position is domestication. It isn't about kids or rabbits; that's just how it's being sold. It's about suicide and abortion. How many times has it been said that conservatives think you have to be born so we can kill you? There's a reason for that; it's not simply incoherent nonsense.

Suicide is a huge threat to the domesticators. The life of a domesticated animal/human is hell and if you allow them to cash out they will. Kill on command, but don't kill yerself and dminish my livestock holdings!

Deriously, we just commemorated Columbus Day. Why did the natives have no immunity to ANY virus, not just a few lethal ones. The only thing that the Indians ever gave the Spanish was syphilis.

It's all the stuff you know about battery farming. That's why the black death happened; population density. Surviving it meant there was a human population that could exist in battery conditions. The population takes off in the 16th century and we invent commodities and commodity trading to replace farming. Because there are too many people we create circular tasks like acquiring, defending, importing, selling and drinking tea.

So when the surplus invade North America, they devastate the natives with their infections because the natives aren't domesticated. Even the Spanish call it domesticating the Indians.

Just like the buffalo and cattle. The cattle kill most the buffalo with their battery condition diseases. The buffalo communicate very little back, but Brucellosis is devastating and gets noticed because it is a nasty spirochete bacterium. Just like syphilis.

Religion- as opposed to spirituality or healing- only came about when some bright philosopher king got the idea to treat his subject like his livestock. Religion was invented as the maidservant. I have no doubts it never existed before the domestication project. The Dutch for religion is "goddienst" or "god service". If your king is a god then it's just service. You're my beast, you serve me, here's why.

Why are we so stuck with Republics? If you want to give the farm animals a voice, you gonna do that directly? They're not capable of direct representation. Their natural abilities have been worn down for dumb service.

Domestication causes imbalance in the environment. That's easy to see with crops, but consider humans. it was put pretty accurately by a former New Guinea headhunter, when asked if he still took heads. He said, "No. And the jungle has suffered to the point it is nearly dead".

Think you're not promoting the agenda? If you could choose between your child choosing to engage in risky behavior that had a 50/50 chance of their being dead by 40- though success with said behavior would dramatically improve the lives of all around them- or playing it conservative and living to a ripe old age, which would you choose? That's why this is actually on-topic. That's what set her off. It's the livestock owner insisting that no creature has the right to wander off, cash out, etc. if it diminishes their holdings.

Go to one of these adopt-a-China-baby tupperware parties. Tell me those people are not simply acquiring stock. Or most fertile couples. Oh, yeah, infertility isn't much an indicator of overdomestication, is it?

My favorite is when the talking heads put on filler that starts, "and surprisingly, more and more American pets are suffering from the same lifestyle illnesses as their masters". Really. What a shocker! So, if an uncaring farmer gives food with poor nutrition to his cattle and does the same with his chickens, that's a very surprising finding? It IS lifestyle. The life style of a domesticated animal.

Think of all the very complicated things you deal with everyday. How you doing with your weight? Smoking? Aerobic fitness? Why are they so much harder than the very complex things we pull off everyday? Let me put it this way. If your overweight cat decided that it didn't like feeling that way and wanted to feel like a wild animal, how much success would it have? The environment is such that you are exactly how you are, and you don't control the environment. And you no longer have a wild physiology. You can only be your master's happy, fat, cat. Or run off, or be a bad cat, or have a nasty attitude, none of which helps.

So, this may be a tiny news tidbit, but I think it is a very good illustration of exactly where we stand. And I'm saying that all domestication is the same, so to some extent it's just presentation; you share core values with the people that seem so different. This is a goo example of what makes progressives give up. Come full circle here, it WOULD be very comforting to believe that these are rare examples of extreme personalities.

Maybe December 23, 2012. Wipe it; start over. Like there's anything left of this one anyway!

Here are some examples of the cartoons from the book in case anyone was curious. Certainly it is evidence of the fall of humanity, democracy, apple pie, and baseball.

-tl

After looking at the cartoons, I would have to concur that it is probably not middle school age appropriate. Not quit sure why this would even be in a school library at all. I find it hilarious.

Book banning not so good. Discussion of this book in school library = good idea

"SHOCK: MCCAIN VOLUNTEER ATTACKED AND MUTILATED IN PITTSBURGH 'B' CARVED INTO 20-YEAR OLD WOMAN'S FACE... DEVELOPING..." http://www.drudgereport.com/

Give me the Taffey Andersons of the world any day.

Kari, I wasnt asking to become a cute troll, But thanks.

The point i'm trying to make is that within both sides of any argument is the extremes and this is just one. The fact that Carla makes this woman out to be the conservative extreme is just being countered by the example of folks like Tre Arrow justify their actions.

Kevin, enough liberals are making contributions to organizations like BARK that oppose any logging to the point that they are unwilling to flex when they are brought to the table to participate in the land managment process. I agree that clear cutting isnt always the answer but not all units that need management can be accomplished through selective cutting and thinning.

With that becoming so far of the topic maybe its a future debate on BO.

Well, Carla, when you go to unveil, you go all the way dontcha? :)... welcome to the world. I also stopped using opium: you are welcome to my share. You may need it soon if you keep at it this way.

Chris: hate to tell you this, my family is an outstandingly stellar exemplar of pathogenically socialized humanity.

And we loved dead baby jokes.

Sorry, buddy. Yer sick.

Chris, I agree with most of your essay drawing parallels between "dead baby" jokes and the current issue except for the popular but apocryphal story that "ring around the rosie" relates to the Black Plague.

-tl

The level of ignorance is astounding - and scary. Fortunately, we can take solace in humor. Check out this hilarious site I came across - www.buttheadpolice.com. It has obvious buttheads (like Sarah Palin and Dubya) nominated to get an butt stamped on their heads. LOL.

The level of ignorance is astounding - and scary. Fortunately, we can take solace in humor. Check out this hilarious site I came across - www.buttheadpolice.com. It has obvious buttheads (like Sarah Palin and Dubya) nominated to get an butt stamped on their heads. LOL.

The level of ignorance is astounding - and scary. Fortunately, we can take solace in humor. Check out this hilarious site I came across - www.buttheadpolice.com. It has obvious buttheads (like Sarah Palin and Dubya) nominated to get an butt stamped on their heads. LOL.

While many of us can relate to Chris Lowe's childhood exposure to spooky stuff and at the same time oppose the banning of books, we would do well to remember there are few absolutes. When it comes to providing books to children during their development years judiciousness is called for. Horrible crimes have been committed on occasion by children who were influenced by the wrong kinds of books (or other media). (Columbine comes readily to mind.) In other cases, what may be acceptable for one child could be risky for another. I haven't read the suicide bunny book, but the sample cartoons provided above cause me and will cause many others to question the suitability of this book for children.

The problem with middle school model is mixing of children just a bit too young for such with kids who are finding such on the web and elsewhere anyway.

It's definitely "dead baby in a blender" stuff, or, as we called them as kids, "sick jokes".

Can see why the mom was fluffed, not sure why she did not just keep going up the chain of command until she topped it out, dragging in media along the way and using "the system" to institute discussion?

Myself, I read from "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" to my seven year old at bedtime.... prolly wrong-headed, but it seems not to have harmed him. But what's tolerable for one eccentric kid is terror for another...

Audacity,

Now there is some evidence that the Taffey Andersen incident is a hoax. Even the Freepers are backing off.

Longtime lurker/reader, first time poster.

One of my advanced classes (after finishing Farenheit 451 and learning about/recognizing the ALA's Banned Book Week not long ago), brought this story to me a few days ago.

My students were outraged. Many of them knew about this series of books and brought in the hilarious series for me to see. The result after an hour long discussion? An online order from Amazon for another copy sent to Central Linn HS Library, care of the class.

Even in small town Oregon (and trust me, ours IS a SMALL 1A SCHOOL), we have some great future citizens!

I'm so proud of them!

:)

There are other books with gory and grotesque passages that manage to survive in libraries and made available to children by their parents. The Bible (Old Testament) and the Brothers Grimm fairy tales can be quite scary for children.

My nine year old really likes this book (it's in the library at his elementary school). He says it reminds him of Charles Addams and Edward Gorey.

Has this overwrought mother ever read the Bible? I'm sure she's got a copy somewhere.

My nine year old really likes this book (it's in his elementary school library). He says it reminds him of Charles Addams and Edward Gorey.

Has this overwrought mother read the Bible? I'm sure she's got a copy somewhere.

Next up for burning: Lemony Snicket. After all, there's all them big, scary WORDS.

Dead baby jokes lose most their humor when your tax dollars are funding them.

Yes, it's true, in addition to the Bunny Suicides, a lot of the books mentioned above, such as the Bible, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Lemony Snicket and others deal with grisly subject matter and dismal human experience. Of them all, it's the Bunny Suicides that uses the word 'suicide' in its title in as the author goes for a laugh. That seems risky to me, but kind of typical of the order of the day where conventions are defied in an effort to be 'hip' and 'ironic'.

Dismissing a mom as some kind of space-case as a result of her extreme reaction upon being presented with a book like this doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Someone should (and apparently people did) ask people like this why they reacted the way they did to find out if there's some legitimate reason for concern.

People do need to know about, talk about and understand this particular human experience, including people of high school age and younger as they're able and have the need. At the same time, its easy for certain types of people in need to be dismissed amidst all the laughter over touchy subjects

Yes, it's true, in addition to the Bunny Suicides, a lot of the books mentioned above, such as the Bible, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Lemony Snicket and others deal with grisly subject matter and dismal human experience. Of them all, it's the Bunny Suicides that uses the word 'suicide' in its title in as the author goes for a laugh. That seems risky to me, but kind of typical of the order of the day where conventions are defied in an effort to be 'hip' and 'ironic'.

Dismissing a mom as some kind of space-case as a result of her extreme reaction upon being presented with a book like this doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Someone should (and apparently people did) ask people like this why they reacted the way they did to find out if there's some legitimate reason for concern.

People do need to know about, talk about and understand this particular human experience, including people of high school age and younger as they're able and have the need. At the same time, its easy for certain types of people in need to be dismissed amidst all the laughter over touchy subjects

It only takes 18 seconds to define Mrs. Anderson. You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txrikNFX-8E

She won't return a library book, and plans to burn it after she files a complaint, regardless of the result of said complaint? While she's worried her children may see a frankly silly book about suicidal cartoon rabbits, she's teaching them that petty theft, and burning that which you don't approve of, is just fine? How about a little cognitive dissonance.

Which has absolutely nothing, by the way, with log truck arson or clear-cut logging. It has more to do with someone who has not learned basis adult skills in confrontation, disagreement, and argument.

Thanks, Carla, for posting that update. If it was all a hoax, I hope she will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If she was attacked, I hope the perp is found and treated similarly.

The outcome of this thread as it appears to be moving, is an opportunity to talk, again, of the incredibly broken-down mental health system of the U.S. and, specifically, of Oregon. And who is really online to address this substantively and who is not?

Carla, you game? Turn it inside out, hijack it to good purpose?

C- Misarticulated. Meant, "Which politicos are online [up and game to address]" viz mental health issues.

Did not mean, "Anybody home at BO?".

Heh. I've larned. Kinda. A liddle: when I consent.

But - it will be good to discuss, esp. if action can be fomented from discussion. -R

Perhaps one good thing will come out of this apparent hoax. It might wake up some people to the fact that Drudge and other right-wings hacks are not trustworthy. And, as Chris suggested above, there is a case for skepticism when it comes to evaluating similar incident reports regardless of where they come from.

I was actually thinking about OUR predisposition to the "jump on it" intensity, in the lust to be first to know, deepest to probe, etc. It's an interesting position to be in to ask my networks to stop sending me their political mailers b/c without exception we are a week and two weeks ahead of them, and sometimes I've caught sight of something further ahead than this board, and, surely others as well. AT the same time, these threads have gone deeply speculative, reactive, philosophical and then pugilistic rapid-pace before the hoax is uncovered (usually only hours or days, really); at which point, rather than take a breath, dwell in the moment of understanding where we all just WENT on the hoax, we instead SPIN it and turn it into a substantive conversation, quick to abandon the post of the fool.

And, as Chris suggested above, there is a case for skepticism when it comes to evaluating similar incident reports regardless of where they come from.

Add skepticism to anything from anyone with a political agenda.

And, as Chris suggested above, there is a case for skepticism when it comes to evaluating similar incident reports regardless of where they come from.

Add skepticism to anything from anyone with a political agenda.

But we can't survive only with skepticism. We also need hope for a better world. Consider this Playing for change video from Bill Moyers' Journal. Consider what might happen if the people demand that Obama deliver the change he has promised and what we might do to facilitate change.

The story of the McCain volunteer being robbed had to have seemed fairly incredible from the get-go. Did that story have anything to do with the Halsey Mom and her reaction to the Bunny Suicides book? Also note the considerable space the O devoted to indications of a rise in suicide in Oregon over the last year. Interesting coincidence.

ws - I think the point C. was making was that crazies abound. The stories had nothing to do with each other beyond the fact that every nutshell has a nutmeat in it.

rw; this thread may disappear before you see my response, but thanks for that explanation. I see the point, but think there is a difference between the example of a young, campaign worker with mental health issues that contrives some fabulous story for reasons that aren't exactly known(attacking he candidates opponent, amongst others), and; that of a small town mother living in an economically distressed town that finds herself particularly distressed about a book making light of suicide and marketed towards young people.

The mother's initial intentions regarding the book, as reported; to contrive to unofficially remove it from the library's circulation, thereby depriving others from access to it, was wrong. I don't disagree with that or with the idea that the book should be in the library. The reflexively cavalier assumption that the concerns of the mother, concerns that prompted her extreme response to the book, were not valid, because of the extreme response she happened to take, is what bothered me.

Hi ws: thanks for engagement and meaningful discourse. I think the point was the book-burning business, which is an extremist behaviour. And the desire to block others from ever seeing the book instead of choosing a tack of engaging discourse in the public domain.

Not certain what economically-distressed small town has to do with things, am sure you will elucidate that -- I've found myself in extremis on the economic underside in huge cities where that economic lack created life-threatening vulnerabilities for me... as well as crazy-making lack of opportunity and resource in tiny Nevada and OK towns. Have also experienced the complacency of people in towns like PDX assuming there "must" be plenty of resource in a supposedly progressive location -- and so ignorantly not seeking out awareness of how wide the cracks through which those living on the economic edge are falling - right here in our midsts...

Anyway, I think the underlying point is that there is a certain demographic of evanglistic personalities who will take matters into their own hands. Is it because they are completely ignorant of the public processes by which they can empower their own voices and reach their fellow citizens? Or is it because they have a complete distrust of identified or available processes?

Whichever, whatever, this woman elected to make herself the arbiter of justice and rightness, and, to boot, assumed nagatively of her fellow citizens in so doing. She never offered ANYONE the opportunity to show her that they might feel the same, they might value her concerns, etc.

Her solitary acts of book-holding/book-burning are inevitably going to feed her sense of isolation that may or may not be justified.

Just a thought. From one who has operated in a number of realms of the disenfranchised, both wrong headed and better-wishing.

I can see why you are reacting against the cavalier snobbery of the blogsters. The objectification is part of her experience of being "the only one who can right this wrong", thus further isolating herself...

oops, sorry - I was thinking ABOUT ws as I logged in to respond. Sorry - when I respond THOUGHTFULLY instead of in callow dissonance, I often must erase the name of my correspondent from the name box... for I'm in dialog with you in my head.

ws: alienation from culture is at issue, alienation from social processes and engagement with fellow citizens so as to build a sense of being in community -- seem on the surface to be at issue for this woman.

rw, no problem. I understand why the thread author presented this story as she did; because what this mom initially said she was going to do is typical of the more extreme right wing nut case actions some people take, such as that of some of the abortion clinic picketers, and of course, the clinic bombers and shooters. The author's reaction and some of the responding comments to the woman's story seemed a bit absolute though. A little bit more care is in order, I think.

Halsey is a very small Oregon town (there's a small wiki article) 740 people in 2003. Pope and Talbot, the owner of the mill in town went bankrupt: poof!! 180 jobs gone. That's probably a significant percent of the town's breadwinners(do a search...there's some articles out there including the O stories). Things have since been resolved somewhat. I don't know for a fact, but it just occurred to me that this experience might have had something to do with the mother particularly feeling that suicide wasn't such a light hearted topic. Her initial intentions about how to respond might not have been acceptable, but her concerns related to the book may have been valid based on things she knew of that were going on in her town that we're not privy to.

ws: let me posit something for you to consider. She might need to hear an absolute message from somewhere that while there are many who share her concerns, we do not support hte crippled and crippling ethos of absolutism she practices.

It's called boundaries, healthy boundaries. But this is all speculation. Do we really want to waste anymore energy on speculation?

and, ws: I say it again - I've lived what you describe in your speculation as to this woman's reality, down to the psychological blackhole. STILL no excuse.

I've walked roads you posit - it's all speculation.

"No matter what was going on in Halsey, stealing a library book and threatening to burn it is an extreme reaction." carla axtman

It is/was an extreme reaction. What I'm suggesting is that it's not such a good idea to just automatically regard a person as some kind of flake when they react in an extreme fashion, because there may be something else going on there besides political machination or a personal morality mission.

I'd be interested in hearing more of this mother's thoughts in the event they might shed more light on how she found herself initially taking such an extreme stance on her opinion of the book. It doesn't seem like she's a total flake, because she was at least smart enough to realize the absurdity of her threat and withdraw from following through with it.