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Kathianne said:What DO you want? I responded to what you posted. Now you want me to interpret what you post?
Pray tell, one word on Iran? Dhimmi all you like or not. Not going on your merry-go-round.dilloduck said::chillpill ---Where did I ask for an interpretation ? I'll ask again---why do you assume that I am opposed to pre-emptive strike against Iran?
Kathianne said:Pray tell, one word on Iran? Dhimmi all you like or not. Not going on your merry-go-round.
Well Borders and you seem to think so. Some of us are for preemption.
Pale Rider said:WHAT is Dhimmi/Dhimmitude?
Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, "protected people," are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur'an's command that they "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, is part of the law that global jihadists are laboring to impose everywhere, ultimately on the entire human race.
dilloduck said:Before you run
wanna tell me what you meant by that comment ?
rtwngAvngr said:The implication is you're NOTfor preemption. But maybe my glasses are on upside down.
March 31, 2006
To Bloggers from Borders
An Open Letter from Gregory P Josefowicz CEO/Chairman of the Board/President/Director, Borders Books to Charles Johnson, Director, Pajamas Media, CEO Little Green Foosballs, Rock 'N' Roller in the Free World, Stealth Cyclist.
Dear Mr. Johnson (or can I call you "Charles"?),
The last time I read the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States it seemed pretty clear that the government of these states is ordained and established to "Provide for the common defense," not Borders Books.
Charles, I've got a book store to run and having you sic a bunch of bloggers on me and tell them to ride my ass because we're not shelving a pip-squeak magazine from those tools at the "Council for Secular Humanism" (Jesus wept!) is just not getting it done.
Don't get me wrong. In my 26 minutes of free time every day, I read and love Glenn, and Roger, and Allahpundit and The American Thinker and all the rest of you down to the roots of my remaining hair. I respect their courage and their dedication to principle. And then, finally, Charles, we come to you....
Now I like Little Green Footballs a lot, except for those Kos-o-vite trolls that keep spraying flecks of sputum all over your comments sections. But if you and your other blogomeisters think for one split nano-second that I'm going to stop being the CEO of Borders and take on the marching Muslim morons so that Western Civilization sleeps comfy in its free-speech security blanket, you've got one deflating green football on your hands. And I respectfully suggest you regroup.
Let me lay it out for you.
I run a bookstore. A book store. I run a big bookstore. I've got 34,000 people, real people, working for me every day in lots of places around the US and in other countries too. Those people owe Borders, every day, one good day's work. Borders owes the people who work for it a safe day's work. I've got stockholders too, but let's leave them aside for now, because as much as you may think so, this is not about money. (And yes I caught that business about the fact that we're trying to open stores in Arab and Muslim countries, but as you may have noticed every country these days contains an Arab and Muslim country.)
My bookstore is in a lot of places and it has, in employment and other matters, an open door policy. It advertises its address. It's not hard to find. You can Mapquest it. If you are lucky you can park your fully-loaded van or truck right next to it and set the timer. During business hours, all our employees are "home." Call me paranoid, but you don't get to be the CEO of a big corporation and not think about these things.
Like the United States itself, we're into "Open Borders." Like the United States, Borders lets anybody in. But we're not running some sort of NSA airport check-in deal at the door. You open our door and you walk in and somebody says "Welcome to Borders." You can come as you are and wear whatever you choose under that long and suspiciously large coat. We've no dress code when it comes to our customers. You can be locked and loaded in more ways than one because, hey, its a free country with a strong Second Amendment as well as a First.
Yes, we have security, but you may have noticed that they are not wearing body armor, carrying automatic weapons and patrolling the cookbook section in an up-armored Humvee. It's just not the Borders Way, bloggers. If you ever stopped filling up your cart with clicks at Amazon.com and visited a store, that's what you'd find.
Don't get me wrong. At Borders we make a "business" out of Free Speech and Free Expression. It's a core value. Three other not-so-obvious and possibly competing core values at Borders are 1) Make a profit, 2) No riots in the store, ever, especially not in the Children's section, and 3) All employees and patrons get to home at the end of the day without a side trip to a hospital.
Now you and the other bloggers who are sitting around safe in your undisclosed locations may feel that I have a duty to carry the 46 copies of Free Inquiry magazine with those drawings of the Prophet (Peace be upon his raggedy ass.) in the name of being the last, best bastion of Free Speech in America. I feel your pain, but after due consideration I must respectfully instruct you all to just pound sand.
Who do you think we are up here in Ann Arbor, the 82nd Airborne?
Let's review. Embassies and other buildings set on fire. People injured and killed for months across the globe. Islamics freaking out everywhere. (Very excitable and childish culture and religion that.) All because some newspaper way up in the corner of Denmark pumps out a few drawings.
And no major US newspapers prints them. No major US media shows them. No real action from the US government other than tongue clucking. And everywhere around the world there has been no significant moment when these whack job Muslims are getting their asses roundly and dependably kicked for rioting.
Nope, there is no place outside of Afghanistan and Iraq where violent Muslims are getting their asses kicked by government or the press.
You want this shit to stop and people able to draw and publish what they want anywhere in the world at any time without being afraid of getting a bread knife in gut from some hyperventilating Islamic idiotarian with a religiously implanted mental disorder? Start getting governments that can grow a pair at home as well as overseas, and start kicking some Muslim ass whenever and wherever this crap gets started. Don't come bitching to me that Borders has to step up and take the hit.
Is it really the case that your guys expect me, after months of watching this global governmental cowardice in the face of Islamic intimidation go down, to pin a big "Kick Me" sign on the backs of every one of my employees? Dudes, I worked in the grocery business for most of my career and if I am the last line of defense here, log off and head for the mountain redoubt with a box lunch because the terrorists have won.
I can't believe that your guys expect me to step up and make my company the front line of defense against the Muslim hordes which, as far as I can see, get a free pass to do whatever they want whenever they show up in groups of like two?
I read the New York Times and the Washington Post and I didn't see these cartoons in those papers. Maybe I missed them. Were they in the Sports section under "Global Riot League Scores Today?" Maybe they were. I can't keep track of who's a coward and who's a hero in this whole thing outside of our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. All in all, I'm not really getting that safe and secure feeling out of the State Department or the White House these days, you know what I mean?
Like I said, I run a bookstore not an army. You bloggers want the Muslim idiots brought under control so that Free Speech takes place everywhere and not just in the magazine section at Borders? Tell it to the Marines.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to head down to the main floor, fire that quisling who's writing tell-all email, rearrange some Korans, and check out our new window display of Glenn Reynolds' "An Army of Davids." Good book that, its just blowing out of the stores. I don't care if he did call me a coward. A man's gotta know his limitations.
Yours,
Greg
LOL, no way the CEO of borders wrote that.rtwngAvngr said:What a coward.
Sure. I never bet unless I know I've won. You?Kathianne said:You may be right, wanna put money on it?
Sept. 23-29, 2001: Celebrating 20 years of Banned Books Week
Event reminds Americans that our freedoms are fragile and need protection
Lara Luepke
Posted: 9/27/01
This year marks the 20th anniversary of libraries and bookstores across the country working to call attention to the fact that books are under attack. By celebrating Banned Books Week, they do just that.
Borders Books, Music, and Cafe, 4030 Commonwealth Ave., hosted a reading in honor of banned books week. This was the first in a series of three readings in the Eau Claire area to increase awareness about banned books. Nine area residents read excerpts from their favorite banned books.
Elizabeth Preston, a lecturer in the English department, read an excerpt from A Farewell to Arms, by Earnest Hemmingway.
She became involved in the reading because she helped organize last years events.
Reading of banned books
Time: 7 p.m.
Date: Thursday
Place: L.E. Phillips Memorial Library, 300 Eau Claire St.
This year I was asked to read, and since I am a strong supporter of the Freedom to Read Act, I agreed, Preston said.
Her selected book has been challenged for having sexually explicit material. It has been banned in many countries for its realistic portrayal of war.
Thoughts on banning books:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The First Amendment
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
Benjamin Franklin
I dont want to be shut out from the truth. If they ban books, they might as well lock us away from the world.
Rory Edwards, 12 Washington Post
Its not the books under fire that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.
Judy Blume
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
If we dont believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we dont believe in it at all.
Noam Chomsky
God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is as indefensible an infanticide.
Dame Rebecca West
If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable.
Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire
I was surprised to see it on the banned books list, Preston said. I get so moved by the way Hemingway shows the American soldier maturing and learning how to deal with the inevitable unfairness and cruelty of the world.
Carole Spenser, a lecturer in the communications and journalism department, also read a selection. Her excerpt came from Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters.
Spenser said her selection was challenged for containing anti-marriage sentiments and inappropriate and offensive language.
Between 1990 and 2000, there were 6,363 challenges reported to or recorded by the American Library Associations Office for Intellectual Freedom.
The majority of the challenges, 1,607, were based on the idea that the challenged novel contained sexually explicit material. It is estimated that less than one-quarter of all challenges are reported or recorded.
Ive found that teaching the conflicts, discussing what is objectionable in a novel and why, is very rewarding, Preston said.
Seventy-one percent of the challenges were to materials in schools libraries. Another 24 percent were objections to material in public libraries. Sixty percent of the challenges were brought on by parents, 15 percent by patrons and nine percent by administrators.
The top reasons given for challenging books are sexually explicit material, material that uses offensive language, material unsuited to the age group, and material with an occult theme or that is promoting Satanism, according to the ALA. Other reasons are racism, anti-family, sex education, nudity, violence, promoting homosexuality and promoting a religious viewpoint.
Where is the line between banning a book and banning a group of people from reading? Who is in charge of drawing that line? I find all this truly terrifying, Preston said.
In 2000 the most challenged book was the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. The reasons given for banning the book were that it contained occult themes, Satanism and anti-family themes. However, it is also one of the best-selling books of the year.
Good show!
