According to the American Street, there’s a library out in Washington that’s standing up to the Patriot Act. Drop them a line and say “thanks,” and if you’re capable, drop them a couple of bucks as well.
Related Posts
Reading Iran
Via MoorishGirl (have you bought her book yet?) I found this wonderful list from Azar Nafisi (of Reading Lolita in Tehran fame) on books on Iran. Her list: (asterisks are ones I’ve read) Encyclopedia Iranica (*as much as one reads an encyclopedia) The Blindfold Horse: Memories of a Persian Childhood Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope www.TehranAvenue.com www.fis-iran.org www.abfiran.org My Uncle Napoleon (*I just saw the new edition of the English translation. I’ve read the original Persian, and it’s a hoot.) Persepolis [vol. 1 and vol. 2] (*love it) Strange Times My Dear The Secret of Laughter Rubaiyat…
‘Alif the Unseen’ by G. Willow Wilson – NYTimes.com
‘Alif the Unseen’ by G. Willow Wilson – NYTimes.com. Ms. Wilson fills “Alif the Unseen” with an array of observations about contemporary culture: new questions of theology (if a sin is committed in virtual reality, is it still a sin?); fantasy literature and, most conspicuously, Western culture. At one point the conversation turns to Lawrence Durrell and the Alexandria Quartet, the question being if the novels are Eastern or Western literature. “There is a very simple test,” Vikram says. “Is it about bored, tired people having sex?” Yes, he is told. “Then it’s Western,” Vikram decrees.
Book Review: “Muslim Women in America”
Not my review, and the only reason I highlight this review is because the reviewer gets it: The authors admit that their book “concentrates primarily on Muslim women who are actively affirming Islam.” Skeptics, doubters and agnostics are scarcely acknowledged (Irshad Manji, the controversial author of the important work The Trouble With Islam, is disposed of in a paragraph). The book’s unstated focus is Sunni Islam and the (African-American) Nation of Islam. Little attention is paid to women’s experiences in Ahmadiyyah, Ismaili Shia or Twelver Shia communities—all of which are thriving in the United States. (The Islamic scholar Linda Walbridge’s…
2 thoughts on “PATRIOT Act refused. A truly patriotic act.”
Comments are closed.
Here’s a link to the story without the brain-dead cheerleading on American Street,
http://www.komotv.com/stories/33363.htm
And what’s the good news here, exactly? Civil liberties and law enforcement are at times competing interests, but neither is an absolute good. It’s not only wrong legally, but wrong practically, to argue that government in a criminal investigation may NEVER discover who checked out a book in a library, i.e. the library as “haven” theory. Why should a library become a haven for criminal activity because it’s a library?
On the other hand, more reasonable minds have argued that the issue with the Patriot Act amendments is that the provisions minimize or do away completely with judicial review. This, to my mind, is a plausible objection to some provisions of the Patriot Act amendments. This position asserts that libraries aren’t “havens,” but that government CAN discover who checked out a book upon application to a court with appropriate procedural protection (articulable facts that show the relevancy of the requested information to the investigation, etc.). Judicial review is a cardinal principle of due process in cases where such process is due.
Tony, I’m actually trying not to advocate “havens.” I know that when I make purchases with my credit card, those purchases can be tracked. I have entered into an implicit trade-off between my privacy and convenience. However, I do believe in the power of judicial oversight. I don’t expect this library to win the larger argument they are making about never having to release patron records, but I do hope that they help to get some of the provisions of the PATRIOT Act overturned. Any time there’s any resistance to this law, I think it’s a good thing.