How on earth does Slate make the leap from "Palin asked the Wasilla library 'how she could go about banning books' with offensive language" to answering the question "Did she want to ban books from the public library as mayor of Wasilla?" with a "Yes"?

Making an inquiry into what procedures are in place in a public library for making a complaint or otherwise registering a point of view hardly constitutes 'book-banning'. Get a grip, Slate, last I heard it's a free country, and that includes freedom of speech. (Which includes making your views known at the public library).

Did she want to ban books from the public library as mayor of Wasilla?

Yes, at least according to John Stein, the town's former mayor. Stein says Palin asked the Wasilla library "how she could go about banning books" with offensive language. It's not clear whether any book was ever banned.

dajhilton:

How on earth does Slate make the leap from "Palin asked the Wasilla library 'how she could go about banning books' with offensive language" to answering the question "Did she want to ban books from the public library as mayor of Wasilla?" with a "Yes"?

Making an inquiry into what procedures are in place in a public library for making a complaint or otherwise registering a point of view hardly constitutes 'book-banning'. Get a grip, Slate, last I heard it's a free country, and that includes freedom of speech. (Which includes making your views known at the public library).

Did she want to ban books from the public library as mayor of Wasilla?

Yes, at least according to John Stein, the town's former mayor. Stein says Palin asked the Wasilla library "how she could go about banning books" with offensive language. It's not clear whether any book was ever banned.

Total fail, you can't even understand the meaning of the word "want". She wanted to ban books. WANTED TO. Not DID ban books. Duh. Those are short words, "want" and "did", how far did you get in school?

Yes, at least according to John Stein, the town's former mayor.

"Slate, last I heard it's a free country, and that includes freedom of speech."

Huh? You mean freedom of speech except for John Stein.

Worst part of your failing? The inability to understand that there is no reason to even ask how to "go about banning books" unless there is a desire to ban some books. Critical thinking, try it sometime.

And last I heard, there is no department of "registering a point of view" at the library, unless you write a book and add it to the stacks.

Mindblowing really that you want the freedom of speech to "complain" at the library. Who the fuck cares? What would you expect to have happen? Really, What would you expect to have happen? You think they are going to pull the book off the shelf? That would be against the freedom of speech.

Christ on a cracker. You're an idiot.

"there is no department of "registering a point of view" at the library"

So every book that's ever been published is in every library?

Fascinating.

Hey, if you've got the phone number to that Point of View Registration Department, pony it on up.

Are you trying to make sense? If so, you've failed. Seems like you are saying that the only reason a library might not have a particular book is because someone registered a complaint about it. You can't really be saying that, can you?

Again: is every book that has ever been published in every library?

Come on TheWolf, how do you expect anyone to take that question seriously?

The point is that Sarah Palin saw herself as a moral authority. Enough so that she felt suffiently confident that she could impose her will on a library, one of the bastions of the First Amendment, and have books banned.

I'm sure that if she were a Liberal and she went to the local gun store and wanted semi-automatics banned, the NRA and the GOP attack hounds would be all over her like flies on feces.

But as far as Conservatives are concerned you can burn the Constitution so long as you keep the Second.

"as far as Conservatives are concerned you can burn the Constitution so long as you keep the Second"

It's hardly obvious that you're much of a judge of what should and should not be taken seriously.