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- Path: sparky!uunet!caen!spool.mu.edu!agate!curtis
- From: curtis@cs.berkeley.edu (Curtis Yarvin)
- Newsgroups: misc.writing
- Subject: Re: support for the arts in the US
- Date: 15 Dec 1992 23:21:57 GMT
- Organization: UC Berkeley CS Dept.
- Lines: 38
- Message-ID: <1glpalINNgik@agate.berkeley.edu>
- References: <1992Dec14.144232.21162@syma.sussex.ac.uk> <1gikq6INNra5@agate.berkeley.edu> <1992Dec15.175442.423@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: adder.cs.berkeley.edu
-
- In article <1992Dec15.175442.423@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu> johnh@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (John J Humpal) writes:
- >In article <1gikq6INNra5@agate.berkeley.edu> curtis@cs.berkeley.edu (Curtis Yarvin) writes:
- >>
- >>When you spend X dollars on libraries for the poor, instead of giving
- >>the poor X dollars, what you are saying is:
- >>
- >>"You do not have enough money to spend on things you need, but we do not
- >>trust you to decide what things you need. Therefore, instead of giving you
- >>money, which you would not spend wisely, we will give you what we think
- >>is best for you."
- >>
- > My goodness. Who ever said that libraries were only for the poor?
-
- I must thank the sewer sprites of Baltimore that I somehow escaped from
- that place. There's lead in them thar steam leaks. If I'd spent more
- than a year at Johns Hopkins I believe that to this day the inside of
- my skull would be plated with a fine film of solder.
-
- And lead, they say, corrodes the mind. The first sign is the infamous
- "Homewood Shamble," but rot in the imagination cannot be far behind.
- Fortunately I am a liberal type and well willing to compensate for the
- handicaps of other; so I shall introduce you to the concept of a
- "private library," which is exactly the same as yer vaunted public
- library in all respects, save that it is not financed at gunpoint, but
- in the same way as your local racquetball club, solder-scraping plan,
- or slicemonger trade school.
-
- If you can still get onto the roof of the NEB and have a good Aerobie
- arm you should be able to hit one such. Two if it ain't snowing.
-
- >Do you believe that libraries are mere book repositories? Perhaps you
- >ought to visit one. Speak to a reference librarian. You'll find that the
- >modern library does far more than simply lend books; it is an information
- >resource.
-
- Ooh.
-
- c
-