Latest Lists

What do you think of Palin's list of banned books,...?

Haven't you read any of these and enjoyed them? Sarah Palin's book ban list and Chris Hedges on "American Fascists" When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. Sinclair Lewis, 1935 Below is a list of the books Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla, Alaska Library. When I was in Anchorage two years ago, residents of Wasilla I met described the place as a growing, more-and-more suburban community north of Anchorage. In her speech, Palin called the area "the valley." Mayor Palin would seem to be a strong force in the suburbanization of the village of Wasilla. When the Wasilla librarian refused to trash these books, Mayor Palin tried to have her fired. This caused a stir in Wasilla which then turned into a drive to protect the librarian. Some of my favorite examples of American literature are on this list. This is the act of a patriotic American? No, this is the act of a religious fundamentalist trying to squeeze herself into the role of a mythic frontier American. The attempt to ban American literary masterpieces like Catcher In The Rye, Grapes Of Wrath, To Kill A Mockingbird, Death Of A Salesman, Leaves Of Grass, As I Lay Dying, Huckleberry Finn, Catch 22 and Tarzan indicates, flags and Bible citations aside, her ascendance to national power would be downright un-American. In the realm of Rovian political marketing and the unfolding effort to win the Presidency not with ideas but with a cult of personality, McCain is the humiliated warrior ready to "go to the gates of hell" to preserve American exceptionalism and Sarah Palin is his fascist "bride," a mythic frontier mom able to shoot, gut and cook a moose while nurturing her family who has said publicly our war in Iraq is supported by God and people should pray to God to get the Alaska gas pipeline approved. This is a pivotal moment in American history, and we all need to expose this cult of personality for what it is, a cynical sham. Please pass this on far and wide. John Grant This list is taken from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library Board. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Blubber by Judy Blume Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Carrie by Stephen King Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Christine by Stephen King Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Cujo by Stephen King Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Decameron by Boccaccio East of Eden by John Steinbeck Fallen Angels by Walter Myers Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes Forever by Judy Blume Grendel by John Champlin Gardner Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling Have to Go by Robert Munsch Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Impressions edited by Jack Booth In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Lord of the Flies by William Golding Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein Lysistrata by Aristophanes More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier My House by Nikki Giovanni My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara Night Chills by Dean Koontz Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Ordinary People by Judith Guest Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz Separate Peace by John Knowles Silas Marner by George Eliot Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain The Bastard by John Jakes The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier The Color Purple by Alice Walker The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs The Grapes * 12 minutes

Public Comments

1. >>What do you think of Palin's list of banned books?<< I think it's fake. Questions: 1) How did Sarah Palin attempt to ban the four Harry Potter books when they had yet to be published at the time? 2) Emmons said, "But I told her (Palin) clearly, I will fight anyone who tries to dictate what books can go on the library shelves," and that she "has been offered help if it is ever needed on censorship issues from the state library association's Intellectual Freedom Committee and the National Freedom to Read Foundation." Why then does June Pinell-Stephens, chairwoman of the Alaska Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee since 1984, have "no record of any phone conversations with Emmons about the issue back then"? 3) Emmons said "the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would get involved, too" in any attempts at censorship. Why has the ACLU not released any information on this case in which they surely would have gotten involved, had it actually happened? http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2008/09/06/breaking_news/doc48c1c8a60d6d9379155484.txt http://news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1117009&srvc=2008campaign&position=15 EDIT: While researching where you got your information, I found a document from the City of Wasilla indicating that only four library items have been challenged and that all four of these challenges occurred either well before or well after Palin was mayor. Go to http://www.cityofwasilla.com/index.aspx?page=136 and click on "Banned or Censured Books Response."
2. Well, if you can post an official link to the documents that prove this is true, then I'd have to say Palin is the wrong person for any job in American government.
3. You had me at Hello
4. I've read about this fake list before. Do you realize that some of them weren't even published when this was supposed to have happened? Are you Dan Rather? fs Editor's note: This story first ran in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman Dec. 18, 1996. It has been typeset and posted here to accommodate numerous requests for the story from media worldwide and curious individuals. Please note that not at any time were any books ever banned from the Wasilla city library.
5. The Books on her list are some of my favorite reading. Government is not to dictate to me what I can and cannot read. Shades of Hitler.WTF Kick a$$ Kris. Thank You
6. I was unable to locate this "supposed" list of books from the Wasilla Library. Please post your sources more consisely before slandering a candidate. Personal opinions do not count as grounds for persecuting an American citizen.
7. This has already been debunked from a left wing smear site.
8. I think you have been suckers by the lefties of the world! http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/06/the-bogus-sarah-palin-banned-books-list/ The very bottom of the page---Palin did ask the librarian to resign--along with several other city employees that were appointed by the prior MAYOR. But there is no evidence that Palin ever asked the librian to ban specific books or that she wanted to fire the librarian for any other reason than she was a political appointee from the prior MAYOR
9. Who cares. Reading is a wast of my time !!!!!
10. Hello people this was in the news cast.Without the list.I think it is interesting.The woman interveiwed said she was asked to leave because she refused to remove certain books.And you can not find any onfo because suddendly this womens dealings have been scrubbed clean.Politics.
11. In Barack Obama’s wildest dreams he couldn’t have anticipated the Republican candidate’s running mate. A woman who has a grizzley bear skin on her office couch, is pro-gun, wants to drill Alaska for oil, won’t declare polar bears endangered species, is feverishly fundamentalist -- look, let us not go on. http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=5K_1Eit0pxM There’s more than enough in that CV to establish the Alaskan governor as so far out of the ratbag end of the redneck right she’s a dot on the horizon.
12. Maybe if she wouldnt of banned all those books her daughter could of been reading rather then getting humped.