Blasphemy – Page 2

Without evidence of benefit, an intervention should not be presumed to be beneficial or safe.

- Rogue Medic

Ray Bradbury Dead

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 08:00:05 -0400 by Rogue Medic

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Ray Bradbury died on Tuesday, but we can still listen to him read his most famous book. Fahrenheit 451. This is a wonderful experience in part because he still cared so much for the material so many years later.

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This was written several years ago –

Bradbury still has a lot to say, especially about how people do not understand his most literary work, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953.^[1]

We have been missing the point, but what is the point?

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HE SAYS THE CULPRIT in Fahrenheit 451 is not the state — it is the people. Unlike Orwell’s 1984, in which the government uses television screens to indoctrinate citizens, Bradbury envisioned television as an opiate.^[1]

Bradbury imagined a democratic society whose diverse population turns against books: Whites reject Uncle Tom’s Cabin and blacks disapprove of Little Black Sambo. He imagined not just political correctness, but a society so diverse that all groups were “minorities.”^[1]

Not being offensive has become a religion to many. This has resulted in a rebellion by some people of all political persuasions being offensive in large part for the sake of being offensive.

Maybe we do not need to go out of our way to be offensive, but do we need to stop going out of our way to avoid insulting idiots. When people make ridiculous statements, ridicule is appropriate. Pandering to fools is not appropriate.

When we pretend that there is anything too important to be criticized, we ridicule that which we try to protect, whether it is a spouse, a country, a religion, or anything else. Our desire to protect the image from reality is ridiculous.

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Here are some samples from Fahrenheit 451. There is an audio book version read by Ray Bradbury, that is certainly worth listening to.

We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?

We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.

Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it.

So few want to be rebels anymore. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily.

If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.

the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.

Others die, I go on. There are no consequences and no responsibilities. Except that there are. But let’s not talk about them, eh? By the time the consequences catch up with you, it’s too late, isn’t it,

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Books can be expensive, but reading does not need to cost anything. The following sites allow access to free books, including the library, which may have the latest best sellers as well as the classics.

eBooks @ The University of Adelaide

The OnLine Books Page at UPenn

Project Gutenberg

LibriVox.org

At your local library you can find out how to use a library card to download current copyright protected audio books to a computer or MP3 player. These downloads have a limited life (a couple of weeks) before they are no longer useful.

These books are free to use.

Even I can afford them.

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Footnotes:

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^[1] Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted – L.A.’s august Pulitzer honoree says it was never about censorship
By Amy E. Boyle Johnston
Wednesday, May 30 2007
Article

Filed Under: Blasphemy, Books, Heresy

Round 2 of Happy Medic’s Rules for Kidnapping

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:00:38 -0500 by Rogue Medic

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Also see Medic 51, who apparently started this whole topic with the well written Kidnapping Patients.

Happy Medic comments on Happy Medic’s Rules for Kidnapping, in which I commented on Kidnapping – The Cowtipping of EMS –

All excelent points Rogue. I think you expanded on my post however. My post refers to the patient who agrees to be seen, yet refuses to be seen at an appropriate facility for their chief complaint. Many would argue that it is a cut and dry kidnapping since I took them somewhere besides their intended destination. If so a number of cab drivers are in for a shock!

If a cab driver tells a person that the cab driver knows where they need to go and the cab driver is taking them there regardless of the person’s ability to make decisions for himself, then it is wrong and probably illegal.

Whether EMS is engaging in kidnapping or some other form of abduction by using our authority to coerce people is for a court to decide.

Agreeing to be treated is not the same as agreeing to be treated by whomever we want to treat the patient, or being treated wherever we decide to transport the patient.

The patient does have the right to give informed consent/refusal to each individual treatment and to transport. Consent to one part of treatment does not require consent to all of treatment and transport.

Consent is à la carte.

I may agree to let you check my rhythm on a monitor, because of an irregular pulse. That does not give you consent to give me amiodarone for couplet PVCs. It may be in your protocol to automatically treat couplet PVCs, but you still need my consent as long as I have the capacity to make informed decisions for myself.

My desire to avoid this treatment and your desire to follow protocol may be at odds, but that does not give you any authority to treat me against my will.

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I expanded on my “already transporting” post in a comment where I expanded and mentioned the comments you refer to in large red letters. And I agree with 1/2 of what you have Happy saying. In the event I assess a condition that warrants further evaluation I am the expert in that situation, not the patient. If someone needs to be seen and refuses I make my best effort to convince them. We can all agree that is step 1. Then it’s onto the “seizure, coma death” talk to try to scare them, but that could in some circles be seen as intimidation. Then we do the medical control route and turf the decision to an MD who has no more authority to force a patient to the hospital without court order than I do.

We are the experts. OK. Then we should be able to convince the person, as experts. We should not behave as thugs.

Can we convince the person without resorting to the What if . . . ? stories?

Let me rephrase that – Can we convince the patient with an informed discussion of the real possibilities, without resorting to scare tactics that in EMS are often based on an arrogant misunderstanding of medicine?

If we cannot, is that a sign of a mental defect on the part of the patient, a sign of a mental defect on our part, or a sign of something else – perhaps just a sign of a reasonable disagreement?

What is needs to be seen?

What need?

What evidence do we have that this person does not have a better understanding of what is the best treatment than we have?

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So, where does that leave us?

That should leave us at the destination the person requested, unless we have honestly changed the person’s mind.

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A person presents with a medical or traumatic condition, they are a patient. I must assess, treat and reassess, transporting when indicated. If the person refuses we do our best to convince them of the best care plan.

As long as the person has the capacity to make informed decisions, that person can refuse any part of, or all of what we are offering.

Offering? That makes it seem as if we are providing a service to people, rather than the people being there to meet our needs.

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You mention, “If this is right, why can’t you convince a person, who has the capacity to make informed decisions, that this is a good idea?” Because they are making a financial decision, not a medical one most times (situational dependant obviously).

Maybe some people are making financial decisions. Do our rights have an exemption for people who are considering the financial consequences of their decisions?

Why is a financial decision the wrong decision?

If the pperson is having cardiac chest pain, and is very worried about finances, is it good patient care to increase their stress level by forcing something unwanted on them?

Are we causing more harm than any potential benefit?

If not, on what do we base that claim?

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If a patient refuses care but can’t stand, walk, reach a phone and has a condition that warrants further treatment, we are shifting from perceived to actual liability. Gathering a signature and saying goodbye is not in their best interests if we’ve gotten this far.

None of those are mental disqualifications from making an informed decision.

If the person does have the capacity to make informed decisions about his care, then what law permits us to abduct the person against his will?

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But it is not kidnapping. That is the point I’m trying to get across.

Does it matter what we call this?

Is this wrong?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Abduction might not be kidnapping, but that does not make it right.

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Continued in –

Round 3
Round 4

Filed Under: Assessment, Blasphemy, Heresy, Mythology

Happy Medic’s Rules for Kidnapping

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:30:33 -0500 by Rogue Medic

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Happy Medic does not like the use of the term kidnapping for taking a person from one place, against the person’s wishes, to a place where Happy Medic believes the person will be better off. The person has the capacity to make informed decisions for himself, but Happy will not have that. Happy knows best.

Is this kidnapping? Maybe, technically, this does not meet all of the criteria to be convicted of kidnapping in a courtroom, but that does not even come close to meaning that abduction of people against their wishes, for purposes that the person believes to be nefarious, is not a crime.

Kidnapping – The Cowtipping of EMS

If what is best for the person is that obvious, then why can’t Happy convince the person?

If the person does have the capacity to make informed decisions, then maybe it is Happy who lacks the capacity to make informed decisions for that person?

We are told not to disobey the patient and do what they say, take them where they want, and 95% of the time that works out just fine. Your stomach hurts? Sure we can goto St Farthest. Your leg itches again? Kaiser patient, not a problem. Trauma patient wants to goto St Farthest? Aren’t we supposed to be patient advocates and do everything we can for them?

That depends on what we mean by doing everything we can for them.

Why is it so difficult to get a person to agree that we are doing everything we can for them?

Why isn’t consent a part of doing everything we can for them?

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In the pilot episode of Beyond the Lights & Sirens, I had a conversation with a regular named Val. She presented with chest pain, 10/10, radiating, with history, a mere 10 blocks from an appropriate facility. Her requested facility, 2 hospitals and 25 minutes away was on saturation divert, or no longer accepting patients by ambulance. I transported her, per chest pain protocol, to a hospital that was not her requested facility. No kidnapping charges were filed.

It isn’t a crime, as long as charges aren’t filed and the bosses don’t complain?

It isn’t wrong, as long as charges aren’t filed and the bosses don’t complain?

If this is right, why can’t you convince a person, who has the capacity to make informed decisions, that this is a good idea?

Perhaps we should spend less time worrying about vague definitions that don’t apply and spend more time in the airway lab?

Maybe we should improve our ability to explain to people what might be in their best interest and stop assuming that our patch entitles us to claim that we know more than the person knows about what that person would want if given all of the relevant information.

Almost all of us should also spend more time in the airway lab, but that has nothing to do with obtaining informed consent from a person who does have the capacity to make informed decisions for himself.

Of course, you need a blood-letting. I know what is best for you.

Continued in –

Round 2
Round 3
Round 4

Filed Under: Blasphemy, Heresy, Mythology

Getting Our Panties in a Bunch Over Being Called Ambulance Drivers

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:00:25 -0500 by Rogue Medic

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A lot of people are taking sides on the topic of just how disrespectful it is to be called an ambulance driver.

We demand respect, even though we don’t deserve respect.

Anyone who cares about respect does not deserve respect.

Any idiot can demand respect. A lot of idiots do.

Respect my politics. Respect my religion. Respect my job description. Respect my favorite TV show. Respect my hair style. . . . .

Certainly, we are not demanding respect for our maturity, because all of this preening and posturing is not remotely mature. We are no more mature than toddlers misbehaving in order to get attention.

My. My. My. My. My.

Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

Not a big difference.

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Image credit.

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Respect is earned.

Respect that is demanded at the point of a tantrum is just condescension to the person demanding respect. In what way is that respect? In what way is that worthy of any respect? This is just demanding that people be condescending to us.

To convince me that you do NOT deserve respect – demand respect.

When we demand respect, we are demonstrating that our priorities are completely screwed up.

In EMS, we can earn respect by demonstrating excellence at what we do.

Or we can make a mockery of what we do by worrying about respect.

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Other writing on this –

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Rogue Medic
Fri, 26 Mar 2010
Article

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T
A Day In the Life of An Ambulance Driver
March 24, 2010
Article

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“Respect”
The Handover at Life Under the Lights
March 31, 2010
Article

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Why Johnny Ringo, I’ll Be Your Ambulance Driver
The Social Medic
February 22, 2012
Article

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There are no “Ambulance Drivers” in Emergent Medical Services
EMS Outside Agitator
February 22, 2012
Article

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Respect: Earned, Never Given.
Coma Toast
February 16, 2012
Article

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I am NOT an Ambulance Driver
Medic 51
February 22, 2012
Article

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Get over yourselves, drivers
Captain Chair Confessions
February 20, 2012
Article

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Irritating people is what I do best
Captain Chair Confessions
February 21, 201
Article

Filed Under: Blasphemy, Ethics, Fraud, Heresy

Mysterious Tics in Teen Girls – What Is Mass Psychogenic Illness – Part I

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:18 -0500 by Rogue Medic

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How should EMS handle something like this?

Last fall, when a dozen teenage girls in a single upstate New York high school developed a condition that looked like Tourette’s syndrome — complete with sudden verbal outbursts, uncontrollable arm motions and facial tics — it seemed likely that a chemical toxin or infectious agent was to blame. But none could be found.^[1]

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Lights and sirens?

Activated charcoal?

Ipecac?

Naloxone (Narcan)?

Flumazenil (Romazicon)?

Sodium Bicarbonate?

Coma cocktail?

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I have had calls like this. My handling has been a thorough assessment (usually in the presence of parents, because they often seem to be called before 911 is called), perhaps cardiac monitoring (depending on the assessment), and a nice calm transport of all patients to the same hospital (in case there is a connection in the origin of the symptoms – chemical exposure, drug ingestion, food poisoning, whatever).

How did things work out in the case being covered by the media? There is no mention of EMS response or treatment, so I don’t know.

doctors have already diagnosed most of the girls with a disorder: mass psychogenic illness — otherwise known as conversion disorder or, to use an outmoded term, mass hysteria.^[1]

We act surprised when our minds do not do what we trust them to do – tell us what is real. When our minds mislead us, we don’t believe it, but this is not uncommon.

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Which line is longer?

Image credit.

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This is the Müller-lyer Illusion. Measure the lines. Print them out if you need to. There is truth and then there is what our minds tell us.

Magicians use our constant distortion of reality to convince us that they are defying the laws of physics. Magic is just deception. Fortunately, most magicians will tell us that they are deceiving us, although they probably won’t tell us how they are deceiving us.

I saw it with my own eyes, so it must be true.

That is a lie. If a con man wants to find an easy mark, anybody who believes that is extremely gullible. The rest of us can be deceived too, but not as easily as someone who thinks that everything they see is real. The job is already mostly done. All the con man has to do is ask the believer for the money.

The medical version for treatments we believe in is –

I’ve seen it work! ^[2]

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Hysteria is the most retrograde and non-womyn-empowering condition. It’s not supposed to happen anymore (we have Title IX!), but it won’t seem to go away. Both history and myth are filled with stories of girls exhibiting bizarre symptoms around the time of puberty — from Cassandra and her raving, to the girls of the Salem witch trials, to the girls whose households were believed to be the site of poltergeist hauntings, to cheerleaders in New York and North Carolina. Pubescent girls, it seems, are manifestly more likely to exhibit extreme and bizarre psychological symptoms than are teenage boys.^[3]

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The condition may sound unlikely, but it is real, and it has in the past caused significant problems for emergency services.^[1]

To be continued in Part II.

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Footnotes:

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^[1] Mysterious Tics in Teen Girls: What Is Mass Psychogenic Illness?
Time – Healthland
By Maia Szalavitz
January 31, 2012Article

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^[2] I’ve Seen It Work and Other Lies
Rogue Medic
Tue, 21 Jun 2011
Article

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^[3] Hysteria and the Teenage Girl
NY Times
Opinion
By Caitlin Flanagan
Published: January 28, 2012
Article

Filed Under: Blasphemy, Conventional Ignorance, Heresy

SOPA Will Protect Monopolies From US

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:30:10 -0500 by Rogue Medic

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For American Censorship Day, in response to the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation, this site will go dark tomorrow from 8 AM to 8 PM (Eastern Time – New York’s time zone).

SOPA and PIPA are about more than just privacy or copyright or due process, but I decided to address copyright.

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Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

…

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;^[1]

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How does that work for current copyrights and patents?

Works created in or after 1978 are extended copyright protection for a term defined in 17 U.S.C. § 302. With the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, these works are granted copyright protection for a term ending 70 years after the death of the author. If the work was a work for hire (e.g., those created by a corporation) then copyright persists for 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever is shorter.^[2]

95 to 120 years for copyright.

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Under current US law, the term of patent is 20 years from the earliest claimed filing date.^[3]

20 years for a patent, which includes the time during which approval is being sought from the FDA (Food and Drug Administration to sell the product.

I guess big pharma is not able to manipulate Congress as effectively as Disney.

The purpose of copyrights and patents is to provide exclusive government protection for the people who create things that are important without depriving everyone of the use of these things. Why would an author/artist/composer/et cetera need protection for something for 70 years after death?

How does this encourage creativity?

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nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;^[4]

How does eliminating due process, in this area, protect Americans?

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Footnotes:

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^[1]
The Constitution of the United States
Article I, Section 8
Wikipedia
Full transcription

Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;–And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Highlighting of the Copyright Clause is mine.

Wikipedia will not be available on Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA.

More information is available here.

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^[2] Copyright law of the United States
Wikipedia
Article

Wikipedia will not be available on Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA.

More information is available here.

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^[3] United States patent law
Wikipedia
Article

Wikipedia will not be available on Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA.

More information is available here.

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^[4] United States Bill of Rights
Wikipedia
Fifth Amendment
Article

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Wikipedia will not be available on Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA.

More information is available here.

Filed Under: Blasphemy, Ethics, Fraud, Heresy, Irrational Government Oversight

A Comment from CCC on How Much Harm Does Spinal Immobilization Cause

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:46:55 -0400 by Rogue Medic

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In response to How Much Harm Does Spinal Immobilization Cause there is a comment from CCC (The Confessor of Captain Chair Confessions) –

My questions are, since the majority of EMS seems to acknowledge the ineffectiveness of immobilization;

I disagree with your premise that the majority of EMS seems to acknowledge the ineffectiveness of immobilization

Based on my experience, the overwhelming majority of EMS consider it blasphemy to question the magic of prehospital spinal immobilization. They would sooner clean used bedpans with their tongues than question the magical healing powers of prehospital spinal immobilization.

When it comes to appropriate care of the patient with the potential spinal injury, the majority might as well be bleeding patients to get rid of the bad humors that make patients sick.

We are still Barbers.

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Joan: You charlatan! You killed my daughter, just like you killed most of my other children! Why don’t you admit it! You don’t know what you’re doing!

Theodoric of York: [ steps toward the camera ] Wait a minute. Perhaps she’s right. Perhaps I’ve been wrong to blindly folow the medical traditions and superstitions of past centuries. Maybe we barbers should test these assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a “scientific method”. Maybe this scientific method could be extended to other fields of learning: the natural sciences, art, architecture, navigation. Perhaps I could lead the way to a new age, an age of rebirth, a Renaissance! [ thinks for a minute ] Naaaaaahhh!

We have been wrong to blindly folow the medical traditions and superstitions of past decades.

We should test these assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a “scientific method”.

But the scientific method means dealing with probabilities. People do not like probabilities. People like certainties. People want lies – as long as the lies are delivered with certainty. People do not want the truth, if it means dealing with uncertainty. It does not matter how many more people have to be killed on this altar of Give Us Certainty.

Thinking and understanding are for professionals. We only play more attention to our uniforms than we do to our understanding of assessment and treatment.

After all, they are magic. We do A and B happens. We don’t have to think, or understand. This is a multiple choice world, not a world where thinking can improve outcomes for our patients.

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a.) Why do we keep doing it?

We would rather be deceived than have to think and understand.

We also do not want to admit to ourselves, or anyone else, that we have been harming patients. We need to believe that what we are doing is good. We can’t accept that we have been harming patients because of our choice of ignorance over understanding.

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b.) How do we convince our managers/medical directors that we need to stop?

Keep trying.

That is the most important thing.

I have argued with some of the smartest medical directors for changes to protocols. People have asked me how I can think that I know more than these medical directors.

Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceding generation … Learn from science that you must doubt the experts. As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way:
Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. – Richard Feynman.

I also believe that these experts are smart enough to eventually realize when they are wrong. They will not try to cover up their mistakes, but will accept that they were wrong and move on, because they are interested in what is best for the patients.

Sometimes I have been disappointed, but most of the time the rest of the experts realize that the evidence shows that they are wrong. These experts are smart enough to listen to the evidence.

It isn’t about listening to me, the annoying paramedic always complaining that we need to improve patient care.

It is about following the evidence. And I am not always right, either.

Science is about making mistakes, learning, and improving.

Tradition is about making excuses for the failure to improve.

If this were a crime story, this would be about arresting people based on the evidence of a psychic vs. arresting people based on genuine unbiased evidence.

Filed Under: Blasphemy, Ethics, Heresy, Mythology, Spinal Immobilization

What if I Read Something that Changes My Mind – Banned Books Week 2011

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 06:30:13 -0400 by Rogue Medic

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But, what if I do read something that changes my mind?

That is called learning – and learning is a good thing.

Learning is one of the things to be expected from reading – learning is not one of the things to be prevented.

Happy Banned Books Week.

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If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.

– Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. – Texas v. Johnson (1989)

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If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.

– Justice Robert Jackson – West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)

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Should I read anything special for Banned Books Week?

This should be done throughout the year, not just during one isolated week.

What should I read for Banned Books Week?

Read something you would not ordinarily read.

If a book would be on your personal do not read list, consider reading that book.

Are you a Liberal and avoid reading books by Conservatives?

Are you a Conservative and avoid reading books by Liberals?

Just avoid the screeds that explain why the Conservatives/Liberals are destroying the country. Whining is not appealing from anyone.

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Read something that may be shorter than a book, but much more important. The US Constitution and Amendments (for those outside of the US, read your own founding documents).

Anything that is so fragile that it must be protected from criticism is not worth protecting from criticism.

When I am told that I should be prohibited from reading something, I want to know what that persuasive book is.

What the censors are telling me is that this book is so much more persuasive than anything that they could come up with, that the only argument they can think of is to prohibit the book. In other words, the prohibitionists are the best promoters of banned books.

When we have been protected from thinking and discriminating among ideas, we lose our ability to think about anything. If we cannot reason for ourselves, does it matter what we read? If there is no ability to understand, then we should expect everything to be misunderstood.

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My favorite banned book is Fahrenheit 451. There is a wonderful audio book version read by the author, Ray Bradbury, that is certainly worth listening to.

We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?

We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.

Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it.

So few want to be rebels anymore. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily.

If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you’ll never learn.

the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.

Others die, I go on. There are no consequences and no responsibilities. Except that there are. But let’s not talk about them, eh? By the time the consequences catch up with you, it’s too late, isn’t it,

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While books can be expensive, reading does not need to cost anything. The following sites allow access to free books, including the library, which may have the latest best sellers as well as the classics.

eBooks @ The University of Adelaide

The OnLine Books Page at UPenn

Project Gutenberg

LibriVox.org

These books are free to use.

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Late addition – 9/25/2011 19:35 – some people requested links to lists of banned books –

Wikipedia – Banned Book.

American Library Association lists of –

100 most frequently challenged books by decade.

Frequently challenged books of the 21st century by year.

Most frequently challenged authors of the 21st century.