Do not miss reading this extremely compelling account of Head and his family trying to evacuate during Hurricane Rita. Sometimes I'm very glad that I live so far from the coast.

Throughout history, more and different kinds of people and groups of all persuasions than you might first suppose, who, for all sorts of reasons, have attempted--and continue to attempt--to suppress anything that conflicts with or anyone who disagrees with their own beliefs.

In his book Free Speech for Me--But Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other, Nat Hentoff writes that "the lust to suppress can come from any direction." He quotes Phil Kerby, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times, as saying, "Censorship is the strongest drive in human nature; sex is a weak second."

I was surprised to see how few of these books I have read. I notice that many of them are books that are intended by marketers for "junvenile" or teenage readers, like those by Judy Blume. This is probably why I haven't read all that many of them. Not that there's anything wrong with them. I have read a few books oriented toward that demographic, long after I was a member of it, and many of them are very good. I was kind of expecting to see a book called I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier. But then his The Chocolate War is on the list, which I haven't read. I Am the Cheese is a book that I first read in high school and was deeply troubled by it. In fact, memories of it haunted me for years. Many years later I found a copy of it in a used book store and finally re-read it. It is still very disturbing, by what is revealed in the first-person narrative as well as the third-person bits of information that intersperse and end it. I don't know how Cormier could have conceived such a plot, or what possibly inspired him, except that he must be a writing genius.

So here is a list of the ones from the big list that I have read. One other comment: a book-loving aunt of mine gave me Tom Sawyer for Christmas when I was five years old, and I pretty much grew up reading it--multiple times.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (own)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (read but don't own--same with many Steinbeck novels)
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling (own first three)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (read but don't own)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (own the whole series)
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (own)
The Witches by Roald Dahl (own a few by Dahl)
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (read but don't own)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (own--also The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell)
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell (own)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding (read but don't own)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (own)

Also on this list was Flowers for Algernon, which I'm pretty sure I have here somewhere, but I've never read it. (Why would I want a library full of books I've already read?) And I may actually own some of the books listed, but I haven't seen them in so long I've forgotten if they are actually mine or not. I have a lot of books. It's hard to keep track of them all. I also have several books by authors who are on this list for some other book.

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

Banned Books Week (BBW) celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

quotes taken from the American Library Association website

The Truth About Gun Control has some excellent comments about the latest scare tactics of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Lawful Self-Defense Reduce Gun Violence:

Let's look at that. If you were a criminal, would you be more or less likely to attack someone if you knew he had a lawful duty to run away before he could use force against you? Would you, the criminal, support a law that restricted how people could defend themselves against you?

If lawful defensive shooters actually obeyed the duty-to-retreat law, undoubtedly many of them would be maimed or killed by the attacker they tried to run away from. People that were armed and capable of stopping an attack would still fall victim to the criminals. The whole point of carrying defensive arms would be thwarted-- which is obviously what the Brady bunch wants. If they can find some reason to say that defensive arms don't help save lives, they can make the case that carrying arms should be banned. And they don't care how many good people have to be killed by criminals to achieve that end.

As usual, read the whole thing.

Several days ago I posted about learning of a group called the United States Concealed Carry Association. After reading some stuff about them on the Internet, I went ahead and subscribed to their magazine. I just wanted to point out that there is one thing for sure that separates them from certain other gun mags: they encourage and solicit submissions from their members/readers, instead having all articles written exclusively by a paid staff. I had been looking for a good opportunity to mention this, and decided today would be a good day because of a form email that I just received. It states, in part:

The toughest part of every issue of Concealed Carry Magazine is coming up with a good cover image. The last three cover images of the magazine were taken by USCCA members.

Based on the great results we had with these members, we would like to include all of our USCCA members and/or subscribers in this opportunity to be on the cover of CCM.

Aside from the rule that we always want a "person" and not just a gun on the cover, we're open to pretty much anything. We'd like to stay away from the traditional "gun magazine" photo of gun with tactical knife nearby alongside some scattered ammo!

Would you be interested in submitting a potential cover photo?

We are asking for only high resolution digital photographs. A standard 3x5 print will not work.

This is another opportunity for you to have a positive impact on the firearms community and be on the cover of a magazine!

I have yet to receive my first issue, but I think I can already safely say that I'm going to enjoy reading this magazine.

The War on Guns has still more info from Bill St. Clair.

Well, new to Wadcutter, anyway. Check out his comments on this extremely fun hand cannon.

Some readers may have noticed the little weather sticker in the sidebar. I've had something similar to this on just about every web page I've ever had, because it interests me. However, one should note that this information is taken from a weather station at (I think) Randolph Airforce Base (or possibly Stinson Field), both of which are some distance from where I actually live. I have a mini-weather station at my own house which recorded a wild temperature variance yesterday, with a low of 69 at about 7:00 AM and a high of 109 at about 4:30 PM. I think this is what's left of Rita's energy falling apart and washing out over the country for hundreds of miles. High temperatures should return to the high 90's in a couple of days. Actually, they are predicting a high of only 89 for Friday. Won't that be nice.

Oh yeah, the kids have a day off school because of a "teacher's work day." So I'm home baby-sitting today instead of working. I get to hide from the heat, this time.