Unnecessary Censorship
As long as there have been books there have been dumbasses trying to ban them, and America’s dumbasses are among the most obnoxious, Jesus-freaked, censorship-mad, and delicate-fee-fee’d in the civilized world.
According to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), there were 2,452 book titles targeted for censorship last year. Thus the reason why the ALA has designated this Banned Books Week:
Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in libraries, bookstores, and schools. The annual event highlights the value of free and open access to information and brings together the entire book community—librarians, educators, authors, publishers, booksellers, and readers of all types—in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.
The theme of this year’s event is “Censorship is So 1984. Read For Your Rights.”
By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.
This week’s honorary chair is George Takei, who says, “I remember all too well the lack of access to books and media that I needed growing up. First as a child in a barbed-wire prison camp, then as a gay young man in the closet, I felt confused and hungry for understanding about myself and the world around me.”
And who are the current crybaby book banners?
The 2024 data reported to ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) shows that the majority of book censorship attempts are now originating from organized movements. Pressure groups and government entities that include elected officials, board members and administrators initiated 72% of demands to censor books in school and public libraries. Parents only accounted for 16% of demands to censor books.
The top 5 banned books last year were (cue the sound of conservative fake MAGA Christians grinding their teeth):
1. All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson
2. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
3. (Tie) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
5. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
Kudos to you all, you’re definitely worth reading. Look ‘em up online, kids!
See the various events scheduled for the rest of the week here. The closest I ever came to banning a book from our house was the time I almost tossed an old Rush Limbaugh screed in the trash. How it got here in the first place is still a mystery, but we held on to it. Makes a great doorstop.
And now, our feature presentation...
Cheers and Jeers for Monday, October 6, 2025
Note: Due to the government shutdown, the whole world knows that Republicans are incompetent bumblebutts. Please update your records accordingly. —God
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By the Numbers:
4 days!!!
Days 'til Canadian Thanksgiving: 7
Days 'til Delaware's Bridgeville Apple-Scrapple Festival: 4
Number of subscribers Disney lost when they suspended Jimmy Kimmel: 1.7 million
Year-over-year drop in hotel occupancy rates as of September: 4.6%
Number of women who have served as the Archbishop of Canterbury, including Sarah Mullally who was announced as the new head of the Church of England Friday: 1
Membership size of the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church in the U.S.: 85 million
Date on which the U.S., under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will lose its status of having eliminated measles 25 years ago if outbreaks continue at their current rate: 1/31/26
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Good morning…
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CHEERS to jobs, jobs, JOBS! Jobs for you and jobs for me, jobs for them and jobs for thee! Employment is faaaaaantastic! Unfortunately, the Trump shutdown has idled the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so September’s report has been postponed. While we wait, please enjoy this flashback to one year ago, when America was taking to the streets with torches and pitchforks over what a doddering incompetent old man President Biden was acting like:
Boy, we sure dodged a pink slip by ditching him, huh.
CHEERS to the nerds who walk among us. Big big big—some might even say yooj and beautiful and classy—week ahead for the brightest bulbs in humanity's marquee. The Nobel Prizes will be awarded this week. Here's the schedule:
Today: Physiology or Medicine
Tomorrow: Physics
Wednesday: Chemistry
Thursday: Outstanding blogger with candy corn addiction
Friday: The one Trump doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning
Next Monday: Economics
I'm really excited about my prospects on Thursday. I totally aced the swimsuit portion.
JEERS to today’s edition of Shocking, Shocking, Who Could’ve Predicted This? Courtesy of JoeMyGod:
More than two years into a conservative takeover of New College of Florida, spending has soared and rankings have plummeted, raising questions about the efficacy of the overhaul. [...] Both graduation and retention rates have fallen since the takeover in 2023.
New College has dropped 60 places in the latest US News ranking of liberal arts colleges.
This has been today’s edition of Shocking, Shocking, Who Could’ve Predicted This?
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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JEERS to C&J getting an F. We had one school assignment yesterday: remember to commemorate UNESCO's annual World Teachers Day. As usual, we forgot. Also as usual, we blamed it on the dog. Also as usual, we'll be spending the day outside clapping erasers.
CHEERS to brewing a cauldron of hilarity. Can't let today go by without noting that 15 spoooky years ago this week Republican tea party know-nothing Christine O'Donnell released an ad for her U.S. Senate run in Delaware with the most bizarre opening line of the 2010 election (or maybe any other, for that matter): "I'm not a witch. I'm nothing you've heard. I'm YOU!"
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The question I asked back then remains unanswered 13 years later: Yeah, but if you are me, and I’m a practicing witch, then by definition you’re a witch, too. I mean, right?
How awful was her message of "I promise not to turn you into a newt"? In an election year that saw a tidal wave of tea partiers swept into power, she managed to lose to a liberal Democrat—Chris Coons, doing a fine job after winning re-election in 2014 and 2020. She may not have been a witch, but that flame-out was still quite a trick.
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Ten years ago in C&J: October 6, 2015
CHEERS to "a very big deal." Now that the Iran accord is a done deal, the Obama administration is training all its sights on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Yesterday it was announced that the pieces have fallen into place, much to the consternation of almost everyone who doesn’t have an "Inc." in their name. But as far as the claim that TPP's environmental provisions are "phony," maybe not this time:
Environmentalists praised wildlife protections included in the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal announced Monday, calling them groundbreaking. […]
“The provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership go beyond what we have seen in other trade agreements,” said David McCauley, senior vice president for policy and government affairs at the World Wildlife Fund, which was among several advocacy groups that had worked closely with the administration on the final language. “We see this as a very big deal.”
Sounds encouraging. But I'll believe it when I see the elephants high-fiving each other.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to cool science. When all the death, doom and destruction get to be too much, there's always one place I can count on to restore my faith in humanity. I'm speaking of course about Hiram’s Chowder House and Lobster Pound in Harpswell. But when they're closed, the next-best place is NASA, a jewel in the federal government's crown. If you happen to live under a sky where you are, here's a preview of what you'll be seeing this month—including tonight’s spooky supermoon—courtesy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory:
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We now return you to your regularly-scheduled shit show in space known as life on Earth, where everyone can hear you scream because we have social media now.
Have a tolerable Monday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
"Bill in Portland Maine is unhinged. He is unwell."
—Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA)
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