A Disgrace to His Profession

3 Dollar BillMaybe you’ve seen this, but a Purdue library science professor and government documents librarian has blogged An Economic Case Against Homosexuality. Yes, it’s as ludicrous as it sounds. I’m leaving this off my professional blog, as it has little to do with librarianship, other than the fact that Professor Bert Chapman displays no traits of a librarian, despite his blog title “Conservative Librarian.”

You’ll see a comment by me… two, if they approve my last one. Not that I doubt it’s rationality, but it’s close to the 2,000 character limit they put on comments, so it may be held in moderation. Or then again, it may have been flushed down the toilet. It’s in response to a commenter named Adriana who takes me to task for bringing up the taboo of the “facts” Prof. Chapman’s economic publication lacks.

Here is my follow up, in case they don’t publish it:

Adriana,

The facts Prof. Chapman presents, but does not cite are:

1. Not only does he not cite his source of data, but Prof. Chapman attributes US Government expenditures on AIDS to a support of what he deems “a homosexual lifestyle.” Though he recognizes that the disease is spread by many means, he still presents it as a moral issue. But regardless, a librarian must state where his numbers come from and what “expenditures on this disease” encompass.

2. He cites as fact that behavior he deems immoral taints our blood supply without support of fact.

3. Chapman also claims that rape of male inmates by fellow males is a drain on taxpayer dollars. Does he cite how many of the offenders are homosexual? It may seem unthinkable to you, but heterosexual males rape men. I see no citations to established facts to support his claims that homosexual men are draining US tax dollars in this way.

4. At long last, the educated librarian cites an external work, “Do Domestic Partner Benefits Make Good Economic Sense?” by The Corporate Resource Center. He claims that it is available on a web site, but does not provide a URL. He does not even qualify where this center is or what affiliation it has, if any, to a larger organization. I challenge anyone to find this work available on the web. For this fraud alone, Prof. Chapman should be censured, at the very least.

5. Finally, the learned professor closes with a long list of ways that heterosexual entitlements may be diminished by the acknowledgment of same-sex relationships. There are no numbers given. There are no longitudinal studies cited. There is only the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) tactics of a frightened man with no other defense. The last paragraph reminds me of the FUD tactics of white families in the 1960’s who would incite neighborhood hatred against black families moving in, in the name of “decreased property values.”

I am not arguing against Prof. Chapman’s points. He has none.

The student furor over his blog post has led to calls for his dismissal from the university. Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first antigay blog post he’s written.


Update: I totally forgot to thank the dude who alerted me to this fiasco! Rob at wakingupnow.com is a really great blogger who has a fierce, but reasoned approach to civil action. Thank you, Rob. You set a good example.

New Library Service Ideas

Came across this blog post today. Got me thinking about how differently her experience would be if we had online communities on the library web site. As Web Services Manager for the Boston Public Library, its something I think we really need, but I sure hadn’t considered the direct user interaction she’s got in mind! Maybe we need to provide chat rooms too.

***UPDATE***

Since this post has been picked up by a few other blogs, I really guess I better be sure to point out that it’s entirely tongue in cheek. Well, not entirely. We do want to offer more user-participatory services on the BPL web site. But dating services and personals are not part of our current goals.

See? 😉   😉   😉   😉

St. Colford Medical Center: We treat uvulae, scrota, and giblets.

I’m home sick with the beginnings of a cold and took this opportunity to upgrade our WordPress installation. While I was at it, I took a look at our Web server stats. These were the top ten phrases used on search engines to find us this month:

  • swollen uvula
  • tattoo
  • computers internet blog
  • peace symbols
  • tiger tattoos
  • tattoo pictures
  • carol channing
  • just giblets
  • tiger stencils
  • uvula

I’ve often wondered if anyone besides our unusual friends sees our blog. Any semi-serious citizen journalism cred that my talented and creative husband generates by posting insightful book reviews has got to have been neutralized quickly by my dorky video posts of children cussing.

I’m honored that Carol Channing fans have found us and that I’m spreading the word about harmless (but alarming) uvular edema. Heck, maybe even girly tiger tattoos may become the fashion. Who woulda thunk I’d write the most Google-worthy posts?

Those top ten are great, but get this. There are more awesome phrases farther down the list. Here’s a selection of unusual search phrases that have brought people to us this month more than once!

  • pic of sudafed (I think the ban on over-the-counter sale is actually increasing interest in meth production.)
  • scary images of of people
  • medical wonders
  • crazy lady (I can’t imagine who that would be?)
  • swollen uvula anxiety (See? It’s really scary!)
  • balla powder tingle (Okay, now I’ve gotta try it.)

And of course there a few gems in the one-hit list.

  • sean connery red suspenders (Hot.)
  • batwing pharmacy (This cracks me up, realizing why it’s indexed.)
  • got giblets?
  • how to make a shy girl open up (WTF?)
  • are giblets good for you? (Need you ask?)
  • hooters of dayton ohio (Never been. Don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it either.)
  • abner i m closing the circle movie quote (I don’t know. But I think I want to see it.)
  • i miss kitty (This makes me sad and I wish the visitor had emailed me.)
  • sudafed pe makes me jittery
  • ernest borgnine what he attributes to a long life (You know what it is, right? But I didn’t post about that. I posted about him farting on Ethel Merman.)
  • men with large scrotums (Okay, that’s just eerie.)
  • pain in the giblet doctor

All in all, I think we’re filling a much needed gap in the consumer health web, if not for many physical issues, for mental ones. Shoot. I think we need an award, actually.

Indexed

Just when you thought you’d seen every possible use of a blog, you stumble across a true work of genius. I don’t know why I’ve not seen Jessica Hagy’s blog Indexed before, but dang. She’s brilliant. She’s even publishing a book at the end of the month, and for once, it seems to actually make sense to me that a blogger’s posts be compiled in print.

All she does is to graphically represent on index cards, usually in the form of graphs or Venn diagrams, some little ironic observation about life. And surprise, surprise — she works in advertising. Just dig this latest one.

Target/Walmart Card from Indexed

Isn’t that genius? Book = want.

My new favorite punchline

Let me catch you up. Amazing little off-Broadway musical (about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical), [Title of Show] (featuring Susan Blackwell of Susan Blackwell fame) ran at the Vineyard Theatre July to September of 2006. Limited run. Awesome cast album. But too bad, so sad, all good things must come to an end.

Or do they? The cast have kept the little show alive via their blog and obsessive fans like moi read it … well, obsessively. But about three months ago, the cast started posting short You Tube videos that they collectively call The [Title of Show] Show. The show chronicles the cast’s efforts to transfer the musical to Broadway (or play an out of town gig) and is a serial masterpiece in it’s own right.

But they’ve really outdone themselves with episode 6. If you know and/or care nothing about the show or fancy-schmancy musical theatre stars, then at least skip to the post-end-credit coda at timecode 9:30 to see the most awesome cameo punchline ever.

Even my mom would get and appreciate the joke, I think. Michael’s mom, no. But my mom, yes.