Comments on: Jon Stewart's America (The Book) banned

By: rambunctious07@aol.c

rambunctious07@aol.c — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:37:02 +0000

Jon Stewart is not funny and for sure is no genius. Hell, his real name is not even Jon Stewart. So, why are all of you wasting your time drooling over nothing more than a greasy headed purveyor of dirty pictures and filthy words?

By: anotherpanacea » Walmart: A sufficiently advanced capitalism is indistinguishable from socialism

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:29:57 +0000

[...] 1. Many of the objections that people have to Walmart are actually objections that we would levy at states. For instance, when Walmart won’t sell a book or cd for ideological reasons, we call it censorship. No one calls it censorship when a mom-and-pop bookstore won’t sell politically or sexually-charged media. [...]

By: pubiclibary

pubiclibary — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:39:56 +0000

Last I checked I can buy several magazines w/ scantily clad models sitting on cars I will never own. At the grocery store. Get over yourselves.

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:38:39 +0000

The use of the word “ban” is correct. It was banned, by one single government bureaucrat who is at retirement age. And then after the community heard about it, they decided they wanted the book in their libraries. If I had a problem with that, I’d probably be a right-wing fundamentalist Christian wacko. And while I might call for elimination of public libraries, at the moment there are bigger fish to fry.

By: foooo

foooo — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:40:31 +0000

If I were a book seller I might not sell this book due to the nude picture. Additionally if I were a public library I might not want to put this book out there for children to view.

Personally, I have nothing against Jon… his show is really funny and I’m definately not a prude. But I think that there is room for this kind of decision in public libraries… and certianly a business is allowed to sell or not sell whatever book it chooses.

As for your choice of words, the use of the word BAN is a little inflamatory. It would be more apropriate to say that the library will not be circulating the book. (Which is the actual quote from the librarian.) It should be noted that under your definition the magazines Playboy and Only Eighteen are “banned” from many libraries. Not because of government censorship… but because it just doesn’t make sense to circulate this kind of … erm… literature. You could also say rare, out of print or obscure books are “banned” just because they aren’t in circulation.

Essentially I believe your headline is misleading. I read that and I started thinking… oh that’s silly why would someone ban a liberal policital/comedy book?? But digging deeper I realized it was because of the perhaps distasteful picture.

A better headline might have been: Jon Stewartâ€™s New Book Banned for Naked Pics

If you have a problem with communities making choices about what books they want in their libraries, perhaps you should take a more libertarian tack and simply call for the elimination of public libraries. Then we won’t have these problems. Stores or private libraries will simply stock what ever material they please and the government won’t even enter in to it.

By: thud

thud — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 16:36:00 +0000

Saw the link on Slashdot – Just thought you should know that the book has now apparently been un-banned in this Mississippi library after much well-deserved ridicule. This was reported on local talk radio in Jackson this morning.

By: Azzurra

Azzurra — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 14:07:57 +0000

Hi, Michael — just wanted to let you know that from LJ if you click on the links it doesn’t get you anywhere, but from your blog it does. Hell, for all I know, you’re doing this on purpose — this way, we have to come to your site to follow the links.