Today marks the 30th anniversary of the American Library Association’s Banned Book Week. 30 years of tracking, cataloging, documenting, and reporting attempts to remove books from the shelves of schools, libraries, and bookstores forever. 30 years. The truth of the matter is that censorship has existed for as long...
A little over one week from now will be the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, the bibliophile’s annual celebration of the freedom to read, which this year takes place from September 30-October 6, 2012. Sometimes we forget in our daily struggles just how important our intellectual freedom...
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, also referred to as The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion, is an anti-Semitic hoax first published in Russia in 1903 claiming to document the minutes of a late 19th-century meeting of Jewish leaders discussing their goal of...
This month in my paranormal column, Across the Great Divide, I discuss a growing problem that does not belong in civilized society let alone as a part of scientific study. “Ghost Hunting Doesn’t Involve Breaking the Law” It seems that no matter how much I or other professional paranormal...
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, was first published in 1939 and would achieve both the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize that same year. When Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962 the novel was referenced frequently. TIME magazine lists it as one of...
The literary world lost another icon this week when Gore Vidal, author, playwright, politician, and commentator, died at the age of 86 last Tuesday from complications due to pneumonia. His over-the-top wit and unconventional wisdom shined in his literature and public opinions. He had a sullen regard for lost...
Harper Lee’s immortal classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, was first published in 1960 to instant acclaim- despite her editors’ warnings that it probably wouldn’t sell all that well. In its first year of release it would garner rave reviews by The New Yorker and Time magazines, as well as...
When incidents happen like last Friday’s shooting, we as a society always focus first and foremost on the negatives like the hows and whys, shouting endless, tired diatribes about gun control, violence, and social triggers from all points along the socio-political spectrum as we nitpick at the various elements...
Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, in summary judgment for Texas vs. Johnson, said, “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” Anyone is free...
If you grew up in the ’80s like me, many of you probably spent Saturday mornings watching the WWF and Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling. You knew every line of Hulk’s trademark theme song and sang along before he pummeled the latest WWF heel. Come on, sing it with...