Category Archives: Libraries & Archives

Finding Love (& Living In Sin) In the Library

I never fell in love in a library.

But several times I fell in love with a library, and the experience repeatedly changed my life.

The first time came flooding back yesterday, when I saw this news report from AP:

Hegseth, AGAIN?? Sheesh, every time I turn around, he’s messing with me: this time with important memories.

“Army and Air Force libraries have been told to go through their stacks to find books related to diversity, equity and inclusion, according to new memos obtained by The Associated Press.

The orders from service leaders come about two weeks after the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, removed nearly 400 books from its library after being told by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office to get rid of those that promote DEI.”

Continue reading Finding Love (& Living In Sin) In the Library

Hegseth Headed For the Door?? I’ll Believe It When I See It

Dow-down-900

Well, rest in peace, Pope F, but the crazy merry-go-round of news moves so fast you could have slipped away a month or two ago. But after all, you were 88.

For that matter, by mid-afternoon the stock market was down again — but only by another 900+ points; I, mean, Ho-hum, right? 401k panic is so last week.

The big late Monday news buzz was a growing swell of oddly-camouflaged, anonymously-sourced reports that the SuperLethal Crusader SecDef Pete Hegseth is on the way out.

The podcasts and news shows practically had him already being ushered out of the Pentagon by a team of Navy Seals. Was that a champagne cork I heard pop? Continue reading Hegseth Headed For the Door?? I’ll Believe It When I See It

EXCLUSIVE: A Leaked View of the “Afterlife” of the U. S. Institute of Peace

March  22, 2025

From confidential Washington sources, the following excerpt is drawn from an account of the aftermath of the March 17 seizure and closing of the U. S. Institute of Peace, by armed agents of the DOGE administration. The account has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Brief Encounter at 2301

Mid-March, 2025, on the edge of the National Mall, not far from the Vietnam War Memorials.

It was almost break time, the leftover dinner pizza was hours cold, and Hennigan thought he heard something.

Standing up from the desk chair, he closed the Security Inc. employee handbook, which was making him drowsy anyway, and peered across the open atrium: first left, then right, following the protocol.

Everything seemed in order: several tiers of closed offices rose or each side. Lights were dim. Nothing moving.

Continue reading EXCLUSIVE: A Leaked View of the “Afterlife” of the U. S. Institute of Peace

Military Schoolkids: Kiss These Books Goodbye! – Hegseth /Trump Censorship Starts

The DOD “guidance” memo was blunt:

”Identity Months Dead at DOD.” 

Besides banning Black History Month observances in the military, Hegseth/Trump is now pressing their anti-DEI extermination mission by purging the shelves of Defense Department schools, which  67, 000 elementary & secondary students attend at 160 locations worldwide. (One of them was me, a long time ago.) The goal is, in the words of a presidential executive order (EO): “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” Continue reading Military Schoolkids: Kiss These Books Goodbye! – Hegseth /Trump Censorship Starts

Quaker Book Giveaway: Turning the Page on Florida Censorship

Florida Quakers give away hundreds of Black-history books

BOOK GIVEAWAY A SUCCESS — Members of the DeLand Quakers stand in front of a portion of the books on Black history collected to be distributed at the recent rescheduled Juneteenth celebration. In front, from left, are Kathy Hersh, Heba Ismael, Carol Reed and Bill Brennan. In the back row, same order, are Jim Cain, Beverly Ward, John Heimburg and Bill Kwalwasser. PHOTO COURTESY KATHY HERSH

Continue reading Quaker Book Giveaway: Turning the Page on Florida Censorship