While we've yet to hear of any connection between Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin and video games, the New York Times reports that she explored a book banning campaign as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska in the late 1990's:
Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through...
Ann Kilkenny, a Democrat who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. “They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,” Ms. Kilkenny said.
The librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, pledged to “resist all efforts at censorship,” Ms. Kilkenny recalled. Ms. Palin fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office but changed course after residents made a strong show of support...
Politico offers this on Palin's book banning attempt:
According to the Frontiersman newspaper, Wasilla’s library director, Mary Ellen Emmons, said that Palin asked her outright if she "could live with censorship of library books.” Palin later dismissed the conversation as a “rhetorical” exercise.
Time has more:
Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.
GP: If Sarah Palin would ban books, would she also ban video games? It's certainly a valid question.
Comments
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
She didn't even try, she just supposedly inquired about it and didn't follow through with it. My favorite part is everyone forgetting which party is largely responsible for most of the anti-videogame legislation in this country.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
What books did she try to ban?
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Here is a list that was on both MSMBC and Barrack Obama's Website. It's been taken off Obama's website, but may still be on MSMBC.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by J ohn Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophane s
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Symbols by Edna Barth
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Ba$tard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
How is that relevant? Free speech applies to all speech, so what books may have been on the list doesn't matter in the slightest.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
I think she'd ban whatever the fuck she wants to.
~You Could Be Mine, But You're Way Out Of Line..~
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
I am not following this news story - Palin asked about banning "books" and ultimately didn't? Am I getting this straight? Why all the craziness on this site? It has likely not been covered by the 'mainstream' media because it is likely a non-issue.
I have to agree with some of the commentators that this really shows partisanship on the part of GP and I am disappointed.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
We have no way of knowing why she didn't follow through. She may have changed her mind, and she may have been shouted down by a backlash of her constituents, such as when she fired the librarian in question (who was later reinstated by popular demand).
Just because it didn't ultimately happen doesn't mean it was because of anything she wanted or did of her own accord. The fact that she wanted to look into it in the first place should set off warning sirens.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
The other aspect of this reporting is the NYT article itself.
Aside from the standard "republican = anti abortion = religous zealot = gun shooting fundamentalist", its the flavor of the article. They inject little tidbits of 'scary' but never follow up on them. There is nothing incorrect about the article but there is nothing of any substance either. In other words, nothing that is discussed in the article can be proven. But it is designed to instill doubt.
Example - they say she is a "book banner". The "proof" comes from a democrat saying that she discussed banning books. Are there any transcripts of this? Is there any context to this? What were the exact words? But we do know that no books were banned. They say she "fired the librarian" - and we are led to assume she did this over the banning issue. However, the NYT did not actually say that. Likely because there is no proof behind that assertion. What if the firing was completely unrelated? What if it was completely related. We don't know because the NYT can't tell us.
The NYT could have backed up the story easily with a quote from the librarian. But the librarian did not comment. I mean, anyone who worked at that library would know what actually happened and none were asked before this article was printed?
So we are left with an article that has a lot of the standard rumor, conjecture and rhetoric but it doesn't actually say anything.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Well a little added info...
-The librain was fired soon after Palin took office, however the librain was rehired after the public made a strong show of support (whatever reason Palin fired the libraian, the public did not agree with it); the librarian left a few years later and declined comment.
-Palin confirmed that their was talk of banning books as a local paper quotes her as saying that the conversations about book banning were “rhetorical.”
-The libraian was only one of numerous people who were fired once Palin took office; Some of these people were supporters of the previous mayor, but firing so many people was something that supposedly was unheard of in that town's past... She also placed a gag order saying that no one under her could talk to the press without her permission.
Frankly, the more i her about her the more i think she's firing anyone who will not bend to her will or share her world view... She doesn't fire people for doing a bad job but for not being a "team player"... it's either her way or the highway. "if you're not willing to ban books, i'll replace you with someone that will"
With that and her connections to Ted Stevens and the 527 thing it's all starting to make me think that Palin is to government corruption as Elliot Spitzer was to Prostitution. Though i'll just let the comming weeks settle that question...
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Yes, surely the librarian that said "Hell no I won't ban books" was fired by Palin because God told her that if the librarian came to work on a certain day, she'd run over a puppy! She did it to save cute innocent puppies!
In other news, I think my sarcasm valve is broken.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
It's like Karl Rove is working for the Democrats now!
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
If only; they'd be a shoo-in to win...But it's not like they aren't now (unless they screw up on an epic level).
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
So, we get to choose between a VP who thinks censorship is A-OK, and a VP who is in bed with RIAA and MPAA, loves the DMCA, etc. I hope to god that whoever ends up president doesn't die in office.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
While it's chilling if a politician ever actually got books pulled from a library, it's actually a long standing political trick used in conservative states. I grew up in the southeast and a couple of times in my memory a politician looking for points with conservative organizations would raise the issue of removing books from the local middle or high school library, but it never happened.
I'm more interested in what Palin's policy would now be on the issue of book and video game censorship. Is she as bad as Romney who thinks there are part of a sea of filth? Or is she more like Obama and just thinks video games are a time waster for America's youth? The funny thing was that Huckabee seemed to be the most friendly to video games, how many times did he pose while playing Guitar Hero.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
So apparently the article says she wanted to ban books (which ones? That'd be really nice to know), basing their allegations on hearsay from the almighty 'anonymous officials/residents' and one Democrat.
And on top of that, she apparently didn't follow through.
*rolls eyes*
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
So she is another one of those, "Tom Sawyer and Hucklebarry Fin promote racism" type of people. That is good to know.
I think both candidates screwed themselves over with their VP choices.
E. Zachary Knight
http://www.editorialgames.com
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E. Zachary Knight
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Random Tower
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
I don't think that's a valid conclusion without knowing what kind of book(s) she wanted removed from the library. For all we know it could have been one of the books attempting to claim the Holocaust never happened. Protected by free speech, yes, but the first amendment doesn't give you the right to have your book in the public library system.
Especially since it's uncertain whether she actually wanted books banned or not - it could really have just been rhetorical.
How misled can one person be?
rant
I don't think that's a valid conclusion without knowing what kind of book(s) she wanted removed from the library.
Would you care to explain how it even matters which books she wanted banned? Access to free media, just like the right to free press, is vital. Opinions shouldn't be silenced, no matter if YOU like them or not. You have no right, and neither does she.
For all we know it could have been one of the books attempting to claim the Holocaust never happened.
Well, what a shame if I am trying to do a report for school on this type of claim and my public library has no books on the matter because miss-holier-than-thou finds the content objectionable. You know what? I find the content objectionable as well - but I ask again why that matters even one iota?
[i]Protected by free speech, yes, but the first amendment doesn't give you the right to have your book in the public library system.[/i]
And the government doesn't have the right to make that call. In all reality, no one has the right to make that call. Books exist loaded with all kinds of opinions, some I agree with and some I don't. Every one of those books was written by a human being, some I like and some I don't. Every one of those human beings deserves the right to be heard. If the library felt that the book was a useful addition to their shelves, regardless of the reason, no one has the right to pull it.
Don't forget that the purpose of libraries is to have an aggregate of knowledge which is available to the public. If part of that knowledge base is silenced based on the morality-based opinion of some, then we have government-controlled access to facts, and thus government-controlled access to thought.
It comes down to choice. You don't like (fill-in-the-blank-book-you-detest)? Don't check it out. Don't read it. How dare you tell me I can't?
/rant
Especially since it's uncertain whether she actually wanted books banned or not - it could really have just been rhetorical.
^^That I agree with. No sense attacking the woman when we really don't know if it's even true.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Agreed. For all we know, she wanted to ban science books, or reading primers, or even the Bible. I'd be interested is seeing that list.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
"but the first amendment doesn't give you the right to have your book in the public library system."
It doesn't. But that's for the library to decide, not the government.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
It's not hard to make a logical conclusion when she wanted to have the public schools teach "creationism"
BTW, best video ever on evolution vs. intelligent design & creationism
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
It's certainly valid, and with her already thinking she can tell every woman in America what they can and can't do with thier own bodies... video games don't sound like much of a stretch.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
My word... IF the US votes Republican this time around, then the world will truly be fucked...
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Amen. If that happens, I'm moving to Canada.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
I really hope this was a rhetorical argument. Otherwise, I find it rather depressing that free speech has so little respect across the political spectrum. Whatever happened to a small-non-interfering government?
Gift.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
I also read here that she also wanted the public schools to teach the students "creationism"
Just another Bible beater...
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
not a supporter of Palin or McCain (Barr 08!), but...
Palin herself stated that she meant that open debate between the two ideas should not be prohibited if it came up in discussion, but that creationism did not need to be part of the curriculum. This was after what she said about creationism. She said this while running for governor. Not sure if she's suddenly changed her mind, but just saying...
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
"No major wars, no reining in on civil rights, no conflict...but merely peace, growth, respect, and prosperity."
Yeah I guess your idea of peace and prosperity is 800,000 people being slaughtered in Rwanda, a genocide in Yugoslavia, and being attacked 5 times by Al Quida and not doing anything. Yeah no conflict my ass.
This is an issue but this really just looks like a cheap shot at Palin, Dennis please you can do better then this.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Give him time, she's just been announced.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Given how many people are throwing anything they can find (or imagine) at the woman hoping that something sticks in order to smear her (see also: the insane baby-swap conspiracy theory..), it might be a good idea to double check this before jumping to conclusions. The only evidence so far is a few third-hand reports from a hostile, local journalist quoting a political opponent. Both of the latter may or may not have taken words out of context.
It could have really been a rhetorical exercise, as the Politico piece said. Or it could have been more of a "hey, some voters want to ban books, so give me an excuse why we can't" exercise in passing the buck. Or, yea, she could be a stealth book burner. Probably best to save the knee-jerk reactions for Jack though.
And, besides, the First Amendment doesn't guarantee a right to have your book purchased and distributed by the government. As such, it would still be a logical leap to link this to banning game sales between private entities.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
The times is really agressive about fact checking stuff. They issued an apology to a decade old error once. I'll give that to them at least - though they still don't cover a lot of stuff that should be much more widely reported on.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Perhaps, but the only facts they've alluded to in this case are the words from a decade old newspaper which the Time article said "came out very harshly against" Palin, and that of the librarian from an opposing party who declined to comment for the articles. Ergo, it's still pretty much hearsay.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
If she tries to ban videogames as hard as she tried to ban books then we've got nothing to worry about.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
GOPtards can go to hell, this is just as relevant to our interests as the fact that Obama's VP dreams of a world where he's the pope and the RIAA & MPAA are the crusaders.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Thank you Dennis for bringing this to light about Palin. This is the first place that I have seen this and I cannot believe that absolutely nobody in the "main stream" press has picked up on something like this. All they seem to be interested in is her daughter being 17 and pregnant.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Maybe her daughter read a book with a sex scene and felt compelled to go recreate that scene in the real world?
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Ouch
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Even though they are different because of the age and technology, Videogames and Books share many MANY things in common, so yeah, in my opinion a book censorship issue is deffinately related to a Videogame censorship issue.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Because like books, Videogames have also been targeted by governments over the world. And sometimes the statements of Anti-gamers are that Videogames are worse than books because of the interactivity of games.
Now when you look at a politician trying to use their religion as an escuse to try and bann books with objectional content, then who is to say that Videogames won't someday be targeted by the same person if they gain a more powerful position?
This is not just a issue related to Videogame censorship, but also movie censorship and also forms of censorship in many wide verieties of entertainment mediums.
And I believe that even when there are many Gamers are old enough to vite in the USA, they DO have a right to know about past information about the beliefs of Politicians in their local, state and federal governments and congress so they know who they are voting for.
Also I notice a few people here who are trying to bag Dennis on this site seem to be those of the Anti-gaming community that just come on here to bag Dennis for his good hard research source.
Remember that Dennis is not making news up, he is just writing and linking different articles that have some real solid ground on them. Just look at the links and find that most of the information is Secondary Material, therefore he is not making things up.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Can we PLEASE get back to the video game issues? This has about as much to do with gaming as cheese does to cheesecake.
Cheesecake is made of cream cheese.
Much as the same way games are a form of protected speech, like books. So...
You're absolutely right.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Am I not the only one surprised?
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
*the only one not
Some confusion
Wait in the first two sources they call the librarian Mary Ellen Emmons but Time calls her Mary Ellen Baker. Anyone know why?
Re: Some confusion
May have been married since the events. One of the names being her previous name (the author(s) just researched archived articles) and the other being her current name (author(s) actually followed up by contacting her).
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Dennis posted a valid question. If she is wanting the banning of books with "questionable material", what is stopping her from wanting to ban video-game material that has "questionable material"? A slippery slope indeed. The wanting to ban of one media, affects ALL media. GP as a video-game and politics site, which reports on all things politics and video-game related...this affecting interactive media (yes books are media...) this may or may not have profound impact on all of us, if she ever got into power.
Food for thought.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
I am tempted to say that given this happened years ago, there's the off-chance that Palin has seen the error of her ways by now, and would be moving into more tolerant waters.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
She hasn't yet stated any such thing. That's wishful thinking.
Also, the fact that she even attempted it means she's a threat to american freedom. You don't just dip into violating the First Amendment as a passing fancy. You do it because you are convinced in that you are right and the world is wrong.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
Oh come on, GP, this is just sad.
Can we PLEASE get back to the video game issues? This has about as much to do with gaming as cheese does to cheesecake.
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
You have the whole rest of the front page of the site to do that, dude. Why don't you do THAT?
Re: Republican VP Choice Sarah Palin Tried to Ban Books
You don't see the incredibally obvious parallels between the two? Could you at least see that this means she'll probably support video game legislation if it got to her?