Tag: libraries

Dems Demand Pete Hegseth Halt ‘Orwellian Book Purges’ In Military Schools

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Dems Demand Pete Hegseth Halt ‘Orwellian Book Purges’ In Military Schools

After DoDEA last month directed its schools to pull lessons from its curriculum related to immigration, gender and sexuality, the schools responded with things like book bans, a portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama being removed, a Harriet Tubman poster being pulled down, rainbows being taken down in kindergarten classrooms and bans on school clubs for LGBTQ+ students and girls in STEM.

Ironically, Vice President JD Vance’s memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” was also banned. 😹😹😹

How to DOGE USAID: The Wall Street Consensus under Trump

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

How to DOGE USAID: The Wall Street Consensus under Trump

We often hear that the new Trump administration inaugurates the age of technofeudalism. Just look at Elon Musk, pontificating about so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) democracy from the Oval Office while undemocratically occupying the US Treasury payment system. But is the administration simply using bullying as a mode of power, as Adam Tooze recently diagnosed it, destroying institutions without measure or plan?

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OCLC Says ‘What Is Known Must Be Shared,’ But Is Suing Anna’s Archive For Sharing Knowledge

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
How do you think I get most of my Ebooks?! 😉

Back in March, Walled Culture wrote about the terrible job that academic publishers are doing in terms of creating backups of the articles they publish.  We also mentioned there two large-scale archives that are trying to help, Sci-Hub and Anna’s Archive.  Legal action by publishers against the former seems to have led to a halt to new items being added to its collection.  This has resulted in the rise of Anna’s Archive as the main large-scale archive of academic papers and other material.  It has also led to a lawsuit against the site, as TorrentFreak reports.  The legal move is by the non-profit OCLC, which was originally the Ohio College Library Center, then became the Online Computer Library Center, and is now simply OCLC.  It describes itself as follows:

OCLC Says ‘What Is Known Must Be Shared,’ But Is Suing Anna’s Archive For Sharing Knowledge

Related:

Anna’s Archive

Alternative site 1

Alternative site 2

Note: I’m not a fan of copyright. Any information inside my documents is free to use. If it’s an article or a blog post that I’ve written, please ask for my permission before using it.

Today’s Russia Is Upholding the Best of the Soviet Legacy

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

By Victoria Nikiforova – Dec 5, 2022

The following essay is written and published by a columnist at Russia’s main state media outlet, RIA Novosti. The essay provides an overview of the achievements and the lasting legacy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) for today’s Russia and for the world. It is not a comprehensive history of the USSR; that is for historians to continue to write and debate. The essay’s most salient feature is the insight into the thinking of the people of the Russian Federation at this very turbulent turning point in their history.

The essay voices the wholesale loss of positive expectations of the Russian Federation people for the Western imperialist countries as the latter escalate their drive to isolate and weaken their country and its government. Many other such writings are appearing in Russian media. Altogether, they reflect a deepening understanding in Russian society that world imperialism—headed by the United States and including the major powers of Europe and Japan–is very much alive, dangerous, and, quite literally, out to get them. There is a profound upheaval taking place in the political thinking and the aspirations of the many peoples of the Russian Federation.

Today’s Russia Is Upholding the Best of the Soviet Legacy

Texas School District Decides To Just Ban All Books Flagged For Review… Including The Bible

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

If you’re not familiar with the story and history behind the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, then go read up on it, because it’s a great story. For you lazy bums out there, I’ll summarize it thusly. A 24-year old in Oregon got sick of religious types in Kansas trying to inject the teaching of intelligent design in public education institutions under the guise of “teaching the debate” or “equal time” with, well, actual science. As a result, he created a spoof religion centering on a monster made of pasta that uses his noodley appendages to do all kinds of things in our world, including changing carbon dating results so as to hide the actual age of the world and universe. He then argued for “equal time” for this religion in Kansas, stating that if it was good enough for Christians, it was good enough for “Pastafarians”.

Texas School District Decides To Just Ban All Books Flagged For Review… Including The Bible

At least they’re being consistent!