see? i can be champion for the right

The stupidity of FEMA continues to amaze me. What sort of lunatic thinks that raising the houses 3 feet, when water was clearly higher than that, is a good idea? I understand that the cost is significantly less than if they went with the expected 9 or 10 feet, but what is the point of rebuilding if this is just going to happen again? 3 feet just seems so arbitrary. And easy. And cheap. I get it: everyone wants everyone to be able to go home, but the practicality of that just don't seem to make sense. There were 2 different articles I read about this. This one is from the NYT and this one is from USA Today. Check out the differences in the tone of the stories.

As I was sitting here checking out my library and information science news listserv, I came across this really fantastic case involving a head reference librarian an Ohio State University. He volunteered to be on a committee to pick a book that all incoming freshmen would read-sort of a One Book, One City thing. There were no real guidelines other than asking committee members to suggest books that could relate to a variety of issues and create discussion. The librarian, whose last name--ironically--is Savage, suggested that many of the books that were being offered up were “ideologically or politically or religiously polarizing.” He was referring to books other members brought up by authors such as that politically polarizing bastard Jimmy Carter. He then suggested a nonideological book: Freakanomics. However, his comments about picking a nonideological group struck a nerve with some committee members. One individual said the university “can afford to polarize, and in fact has an obligation to, on certain issues.” Armed with that statement, Savage then suggested the following books: The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat YeÂ’or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum.

I bet you'll never guess what happened next in The Liberal Land of Academia...

Two professors are suing Savage for harassment based on sexual orientation. It seems The Marketing of Evil has some things to say about the gay community. This is copied and pasted from this site:
"While the book has many targets, gay people rank high as a source of problems, with frequent implications of a gay conspiracy hurting society. Publicity material for the book blasts the gay civil-rights movement for changing “America’s former view of homosexuals as self-destructive human beings into their current status as victims and cultural heroes” and says that this transformation campaign “faithfully followed an in-depth, phased plan laid out by professional Harvard-trained marketers.”

Adding to the hilarity? Savage is a member of a conservative Quaker group known as "plain Christians" (so I guess I was wrong about all those Quakers being a bunch of pinkocommiebastards, Peter). He avoids modern technology and uses a horse and buggy for transportation. He does, however, use email in order to do his job.

Okay, it's more than a little odd that the head of reference eschews all modern technology given that the field of library and information science is supposed to be ahead of the curve on most of that, but GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK! They asked for books that would generate discussion. I don't know, doesn't it look like any one of those books would have done just that? When is the left going to grow up and stop whining whenever we get our feelings hurt. There is very little merit to the lawsuit. What will happen is that once again the left comes out looking stupid and petty. Way to go, higher education. Way to go.

I'm wondering if I should become a bookie and start taking bets on when and/or if Rumsfeld is going to resign..