new year ranting

I flew back to NY on the red eye Saturday night, got home early Sunday morning and saw this piece on airport security in the Times. Nate flew back to NY last week and was telling me yesterday of his security (mis)adventures at SeaTac Airport. He got to the front of the security line and suddenly remembered that he still had his half-empty water bottle in his back pack. He pulled it out, showed it to the security personnel, asked if he could just quickly drink it or throw it away. They said no. He had to leave the security checkpoint, find a trash can back in the main terminal, and wait on line again. This is insane. And this doesn't do anything to thwart terrorism, it just pisses people off so much that they're likely to punch someone in the face. I at least had no such hassles, and in fact was offered a free drink on my flight as thanks for switching seats with someone who wanted to be next to his family. Fell asleep almost immediately, though, and missed out on said drink. More than made up for it last night, though.

On the political front, Bloomberg Moves Closer to Running for President. Not sure how I feel about this one yet.

Yesterday, the last day of yet another year, saw yet another scathing, and heartbreaking, take on the Bush administration and the shaming of America.

Then there's Dahlia Lithwick's smackdown of the Bush legal team in yesterday's Slate.

And lastly, a little geeking out. Okay, a lot of geeking out.
Late Library Books Can Take Toll on Credit Scores, about the Queens Public Library System cracking down on recalcitrant library users, and a follow-up op-ed piece condemning this practice. Yes, this kind of stuff interests me. I had a woman come into my library a few years back to take out a book, but it turns out her borrowing privileges had been suspended because she'd exceeded the maximum fine limit of $299 (recently reduced to $99). In fact, she had exceeded the limit by about, oh, $32,000, give or take. And she was furious with me and my coworker for refusing to let her take the book, demanding to know who we thought we were, when her husband could buy our entire measly library! Given that we have about 400,000 volumes in our collections, and one of the most extensive Tibetan manuscript collections in the world, I doubt that he in fact could buy the whole thing. But if he could, then he clearly could pay off her library fines, too. So I'm not overly sympathetic to those complaining about the Queens system's harsh tactics. When you take out library books and do not return them, you have essentially stolen them, and are depriving other people of having access to them. The library should be able to take measures to get its property back. Of course, on the other hand, having your credit history destroyed by an $80 library fine might be a little excessive.

On a more pleasing library note, it turns out that adolescents aren't as stupid as I thought they were! Or at least, they seem to read more than I gave them credit for.

And really lastly, my new crush, librarian extraordinaire David Smith.