As per Majikthise and Pharyngula: How many books on the American Library Association’s most-challenged books list have you read? Apparently having children gives you quite an advantage that I lack (I haven’t read any of the children’s books published after the 1970s). Looks like about 25 of them for me, though some of them I didn’t read all of (like William Powell’s idiotic and dangerously inaccurate The Anarchist Cookbook). I’m also not sure I actually read all of the Judy Blume books listed here. Do I get any bonus points for being a contributor to a challenged book (though not one of the top 100, it was actually removed from a South Carolina public library in response to complaints)? Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling Forever by Judy Blume Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger The Giver by Lois Lowry It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck The Color Purple by Alice Walker Sex by Madonna Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle Go Ask Alice by Anonymous Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard The Witches by Roald Dahl The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry The Goats by Brock Cole Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane Blubber by Judy Blume Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier Final Exit by Derek Humphry The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Beloved by Toni Morrison The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton The Pigman by Paul Zindel Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard Deenie by Judy Blume Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice) Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole Cujo by Stephen King James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy Ordinary People by Judith Guest American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume Crazy Lady by Jane Conly Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher Fade by Robert Cormier Guess What? by Mem Fox The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Lord of the Flies by William Golding Native Son by Richard Wright Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen Jack by A.M. Homes Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle Carrie by Stephen King Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge Family Secrets by Norma Klein Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole The Dead Zone by Stephen King The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison Always Running by Luis Rodriguez Private Parts by Howard Stern Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett Running Loose by Chris Crutcher Sex Education by Jenny Davis The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier ...

It’s now come out (via her book) that Ashley Smith, who was taken hostage by Brian Nichols after his shooting at an Atlanta courthouse, shared her crystal meth stash with her captor in addition to sharing with him about Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life. She says in her new book that she stopped using drugs the night before she was taken hostage, and that it was her hostage experience that persuaded her that she was a drug addict. ...

Pharyngula cites and quotes from a study in the Journal of Religion and Society which observes that In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies. The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so. Einzige (2006-12-09): Where is Wanchick's commentary on this, given that it is a direct contradiction to the claim he made recently that, e.g., teen pregnancy is up?(Please note that - if you couldn't already tell - my tongue is currently placed firmly in my cheek) ...

I don’t know precisely what to call this. A sad irony? A mindless contradiction? Sickening? Here we have a guy with a “Commies aren’t cool” T-Shirt on, and yet he is engaging in the most brazen form of state-worship I could imagine - short of blowing the president, perhaps. This is why I can’t stand conservatism - “neo” or “paleo”, it doesn’t matter. ...

When I read this article today, I couldn’t help thinking to myself that this tune sounds a little bit familiar. Then I remembered President Bush saying this just slightly more than 3 years ago: Today Saddam Hussein has the scientists and infrastructure for a nuclear weapons program, and has illicitly sought to purchase the equipment needed to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon. Should his regime acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year."Dee doo doo doo, dee da da da" is all I want to say to you. ...

Don Boudreaux, chairman of the George Mason University Department of Economics, weighs in - tangentially - on the housing bubble with this entry in his blog at www.cafehayek.com. R. Chapman (2006-12-09): I have a challenge for the Lippard Blog:To help increase the content and quality of our blogs, would you be interested in engaging in a dialogue on various issues in philosophy of religion?I propose to have mini-debates of 200 words or less on topics like "Is the Universe Designed" "Does the Soul Exist" "What Caused the Universe" and other issues.One of us could start with an opening statement, followed by a reply by the other, and a final statement by the opener. Each contribution just being 200 words.We could alternate who starts the various mini-debates, so no one gets the overall advantage in the dialogues as a whole.Are you guys interested? ...

After the district attorney, police chief, and mayor vocally defended the Portland Police Department’s practice of going through people’s garbage (arguing that it becomes public property when placed out on the street for pickup), reporters for Willamette Week went through their garbage. Suddenly, the police chief and mayor changed their positions (though I suspect they were legally right in the first place, and fools for not using shredders). The mayor went so far as to threaten legal action, even though all they got was her recycling (her trash was up against her house on her property, and they chose not to risk trespass). Only the DA responded without being upset. They got the police chief’s credit card number, found that his wife is a member of Focus on the Family, a summary of his wife’s investments, an email to the mayor about his application to be police chief of Los Angeles, a cigar stub, and “a handwritten note scribbled in pencil on a napkin, so personal it made us cringe.”

Michael Medved recently wrote that the documentary film “March of the Penguins” “passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing.” Andrew Coffin writes that the movie makes “a strong case for intelligent design.” These claims have been rightly ridiculed all over the blogosphere. Ed Brayton notes that there are gay penguins, as does the Reason magazine blog. Pharyngula notes that the penguins stand by while their eggs or children are eaten, that they get new breeding partners each season (so it’s serial monogamy without long-term commitment), and their practices could only have been designed by a cruel and heartless designer. Carl Zimmer points out that if we are going to take lessons in morality from the animal kingdom, there are even more horrific examples available, which is also pointed out in the book and British TV series Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation. The Panda’s Thumb provides a similar list of links to the above, and there are enjoyable and informative comments at each of these sites, such as one commenter on Zimmer’s site who pointed to this article about Boston’s lesbian swans. The variation of deviant activity in nature is greater than it is within the human species alone. I look forward to seeing an Intelligent Design theory that attempts to explain it. ...

This CNet article talks about the CubeSat program, which allows students to design, build, and launch their own satellites into low earth orbit (240-360 miles). The cost is about $40,000 to build and $40,000 to launch; the article quotes a Stanford professor calling these the Apple IIs of satellites.

City Councilman Mike Johnson was re-elected in my district (District 8) with more than 70 percent of the vote, defeating Al Sharpton protege, teenage Reverend Jarrett Maupin. Maupin, who was featured in a recent New Times article which leveled charges of institutional racism against my alma mater, Brophy College Prep, was apparently a Republican when he was at Brophy. Today he heads Sharpton’s National Action Network in Arizona and has a show on Air America in Phoenix. UPDATE (December 22, 2006): A lot of the links above have gone bad. Confirmation that Maupin was in the Young Republicans at Brophy can be found on this Brophy graduate’s blog.