taxpayer money (Score 1)

First, I resent the implication in the first post that Thomas Jefferson would be in favor of censorware. When I was getting my Master of Library Science, I wrote a paper on the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (which was later overturned by the Supreme Court as being unconstitutional), in which I proposed that were Thomas Jefferson alive today, he would most certainly be against the CDA. As the founder of the Library of Congress, and as the author of the Bill of Rights, I hardly think he would be pro-censorship.

No I'm wondering why people get all in arms about people complaining about taxpayer money going to subsidize someone's porn surfing habit at a library.

Second, you've are wondering why taxpayers should support "someone's porn surfing habit at a library." Should taxpayers support research at the public library? I am a children's librarian at a public library. No, we do not use filtering software. Yes, we have an Acceptable Use Policy for patrons wishing to use our Internet terminals. Yes, on occasion someone brings up some porn. However, the majority of our Internet users use the Internet to research homework, to find a job, to check their email, to buy airline tickets, etc. Often, we have middle school students doing health projects for school, in which they are required to learn about various sexually transmitted diseases. While we have books on this topic, kids would rather find the same information on the computer. It's cool. Would they be able to fully research gonorrhea if we used filtering software? I don't think so.

So, what exactly are we using taxpayer money for? To educate. I teach Internet classes to children, teens, and parents to instruct them on how to surf intelligently and safely. You'd be surprised how many people think you can simply type in "www.(your subject).com" and find what you're looking for. It doesn't work like that. You'd be surprise how many people think the address for the Whitehouse website is http://www.whitehouse.com. Most people think that ALL websites end in .com. If you click on the above link, you'll find it has absolutely nothing to do with the US government. Why? Because it's not the Whitehouse website. The Whitehouse website is http://www.whitehouse.gov. Dot gov for government, get it?.

Indeed, when patrons get into porn sites at the library, it's usually by accident because they don't know what they're doing. They take my class, then they know. Hopefully, they also figure out that they make better parents than a computer. Personally, I don't want to put the safety of my child in the hands of a computer. You would let a computer raise your child instead of yourself?

So, what's a better use of taxpayer money? Spending money on filtering software that doesn't work and gives parents a false sense of security? Or educating parents on the dangers of the Internet, educating children and teens how to search intelligently, and encouraging parents to come into the library TOGETHER to surf the web? Personally, I like the idea of parents taking an interest in their child's life and education, don't you? Incidently, while the religious right is in praise of filters, most of the laws dictating that filters must be used in schools and libraries have been written by Democrats (left-wing) who seek to "protect" the masses. The Republicans (right-wing nuts?), who want less government, are generally opposed to them. Me, I'm a Libertarian Librarian, and I damn sure want less government, and I want to be able to make decisions myself, not have them made for me by Bill Clinton, or anyone else. IMHO. One more thing before I go: Yes, there are patrons who purposely look up porn at the library. If I see someone viewing porn, I immediately explain our Acceptable Use Policy, which addresses the issue from a sexual harrassment standpoint. A traditional problem in public libraries has been flashers. Yep, the ones in the trenchcoats that hide in the stacks waiting for some unsuspecting person to come down the aisle looking for a book. If you're viewing porn in a public setting, it's really no different. Often, I don't even have to explain the policy, because the person is usually so embarrassed to be caught by a 29 year-old female, they leave. Oh yeah! The phone companies pay for a good deal of the Internet connections in most public libraries, which means your taxpayer money is NOT being used to support the "bad element."