"Jessa Crispin. When it comes to literature, sometimes it's OK to be slutty. Jessa's blog, Bookslut, remains the best place to find fast news about titles worth my time. (After Page Six, it's the first thing I read each day - but don't tell that to Jessa!)"

"In the case of the Parents Television Council, a million parents came together and they have announced very loudly and very clearly to the world, to the FCC, that these airwaves belong to the public - to these parents. They don't belong to the networks."

"It is believed that reports about the more surreal aspects of the ceremony - a group a male dancers dressed as anatomically correct ancient Greek art, and a topless female dancer wearing body paint - may have touched off the complaints.

"None of the nudity aired on NBC, which edited and broadcast the event."

"We don't allow profanity. We don't allow drugs or drinking. It seems rather contradictory to me that we can offer materials with this content in it."

"FCC Expected To Rule Saving Private Ryan Not Indecent"

"Or just type this into your search engine: 'Mediaweek, incompetent Michael Powell, gutless FCC, Parents Television Council killing the First Amendment, much ado about people who don't like nipples or gays or art.'

"That might get you some hits to start with."

"Over tremendous public protest, he foisted upon the American public an excessively-concentrated media that restricts free expression.

"Then, when that excessively-concentrated media inevitably produces indecent material, he censors it."

PLEASE SIR, MAY I HAVE ANOTHER: To the fraidy-cat TV executives who declined to show "Saving Private Ryan" -- on Veterans Day, of all occasions, because they feared FCC reprisals in the wake of the Janet Jackson fiasco. Hello! The cussing and gore helped make the film an epic.

"A four-year or doctorate doesn't guarantee you are truly educated. But an education in the sciences, writing, mathematics/ finances and architecture will make a strong foundation. This book only offers one thing, ideas on the destruction of humanity."

"Andrea Minnon of Lebanon said she had never heard of 'The Catcher in the Rye' before she learned that it was on her 14-year-old son Spencer's freshman reading list. After researching the book online with her husband, she concluded that it espouses immoral ideas that are inappropriate for freshman-age students. Now she wants it removed from the freshman curriculum."

"Look, I'm not a classical music fan, but I've heard of Pachelbel's Canon. I'm not a historian, but I've heard of Charlemagne. Who the fuck hasn't heard of The Catcher in the Rye?"

No one showed up to object and the library was left twisting in the wind. And with no vocal opposition, more moderate members of the commission were left without political cover. One commissioner who proposed a middle-of-the-road measure, which would have called for filtering only on computers used by minors, was pressured to withdraw it by Loeffel and her supporters. In other words, the victory went to those who simply showed up. Had anyone showed up to oppose the commission's intimidation of the library, things might have turned out differently.

• Teacher disappointed because she was trying to teach kids a lesson (in this case, about name calling): CHECK
  
• Board member who understands the lesson, but voted for the ban anyway: CHECK
  
• A high school student who points out the book banning won't solve the problem the teacher was calling attention to: CHECK
  
• Outraged parent who accuses gays of persuing an "aggressive agenda to indoctrinate children": CHECK

• Graphic comic was not fitting for the children
  
• Publication of comic strip was thoughtless
  
• Opinion Line
  ("Kids should learn about these things at home, not from a couple of irresponsible cartoonists.")

"A billion dollars worth of Veronese great master's frescoes they want paint-boxed out because of this cupid's willy. It is absolutely absurd."

"We didn't closely review these. We were told these games had more like cartoon violence."

"You might want to keep your eyes open for any reports of newspapers pulling today's installment of the Zits comic strip. A high school student puts a condom on a borrowed pencil, the punch line is something about the flu season. I was actually sorta surprised the Trib ran it, until I remembered that today is World AIDS Day. Nothing shows up in a Google News search yet, but I'm guessing that some newspaper somewhere refused to run the strip.

"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the networks."

"Because here's the fabulous thing: no matter what these faux-Christian groups do, no matter how hard they oppress and protest and clamp down, this is a road that leads, despite all dour headlines and sour prognostications otherwise, toward spiritual illumination, toward awareness, toward sexual openness and same-sex marriage and revelatory sodomy and free vibrators for teenage girls and lesbians kissing open mouthed in the streets. In Kentucky. In the daytime. On Sunday."