Library Porn

Context:

If someone wants to look at internet pornography at a public library, they should have that right, says the executive director of the Ontario Public Library Association.

"Is that appropriate? No," said Shelagh Paterson. "But people should be able to access whatever they are looking for in the library."

The association does not set rules for public libraries in the province, but encourages them not to restrict access to information -- including on the internet.

"It's certainly an issue of concern for libraries," she said yesterday from Toronto.

She was responding to the concerns of Rob Nichol, a parent and owner of a cyber safety business who saw someone looking at porn near children at the Queen's Square library branch in Cambridge this week.

So first off, who goes to a library to look at porn? But whether you're a pervert or not, you should still have that right. Parents, and other squeamish types: if you're offended by porn, mind your own business and that of your children and don't gawk at people's monitors in the library. Its certainly not safe practice, but some people are in situations where they have to do things like bank online or similar sensitive matter wherever they can get a connection. If I were one of these people, I wouldn't want people staring at my screen, and its pretty reasonable to expect that kind of privacy. The same kind of thing should go for any browsing.

If you're gonna look around and snoop into other peoples business, then you deserve whatever eye-full of cheerleader girl-on-girl action you get. The library has done what should be expected of them in filtering the content in the children's area of the library. Outside of that, teach your child about respect of privacy, or keep them in the children's area. In my experience, the public access computers tend to be somewhat separated from the main book racks, so if you're that concerned, just keep your child away from the unfiltered computers.

All that said, again, who, aside from doing legitmate research (??), goes to the library to surf porn?

Pride by Division

I was browsing through the local AM news radio station's website this morning, which I find to be one of the better sources of timely local news, despite its less than insightful writing typically filled with grammatical and spelling errors.

On occasion I look over at the national and international columns to see if there's anything I missed in the bigger news sources, and I did so this morning, to see a mention of the first annual North America Outgames, which apparently slipped past me earlier in the week on CBC.

Now I've made it known before that I have no issues with people's lifestyle choices, so long as they don't adversely affect others, in ways beyond just making them uncomfortable for whatever reason. But when groups of whatever minority or belief go out and bitch to society about not being more broadly accepted or feeling segregated, and then create for themselves an event like this, you have to wonder what they really want.

Are they saying that being gay makes them uncompetitive in sports on other levels? The valid (and correct) argument is that gay people are no different than anyone else save for their lifestyle choice. Are they intentionally trying to draw parallels between themselves and those that truly are disadvantaged, for whom the Special Olympics was created?

If you want to do a better job of being accepted rather than shunned by certain communities, it would seem like a good idea to stop perpetuating mentalities of difference where really none exists. If you can't hack it as an athlete, you can't hack it, go on and find your calling elsewhere. Its not prejudice that's keeping you from Olympic gold.