Book Burying

See, they don't want to burn books, they just want to bury them:

MONTGOMERY - An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries.

A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for "the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the "homosexual agenda."

"Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle, [but mostly just from the radical religious right -- Mark]" Allen said in a press conference Tuesday.

Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed.

"I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them," he said.

I will not bring up Nazi analogies... I will not bring up Nazi analogies... dang, just did.

Liberal Elevator Pitch

A few months back I wrote about the American Prospect's contest to come up with an elevator pitch to describe the liberal agenda. I don't know if anyone ever won that contest, but a large number of selected entries can be found here, many of them good, some of them bad, none of them great. I think my favorite was one of the shortest:

A liberal believes that the purpose of government is to improve the life of its citizens. --M.B., Wheatley Heights, NY

Although it isn't very specific, probably less specific than it should be, it does have the important trait of being something the conservatives disagree with, yet sounds good to almost everyone as Matt points out here. Many want us to say we are for the middle class, but everyone is for the middle class, or at least will say it. The distinction is we want to increase the size of the middle class -- a classless society. In our ideal world, everyone is in the middle class and there are no poor and no super wealthy. Of course, we can't really have that ideal world for a whole host of practical reasons, but that's why we are in favor of projects like head start to pull the next generation out of poverty and inheritance tax, to prevent runaway unearned wealth.

We also believe it is better to prevent problems then to react to them and this requires investments up front. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We also believe in protecting the environment for future generations. How about:

We believe the purpose of government is to improve the life of its citizens. We must invest in the future, increase the size of the middle class and protect the environment for future generations.

Still not great, though, is it?