RIP: Sinead O'Conner, 56

Wow. 56. No cause listed, but as the pretty extensive Rolling Stone obit notes, her 17 y/o son took his own life 18 months ago, definitely a significant event.

Sinead had been recording and making songs for a very long time, and fighting to be her own person from a young age. She didn't break out until she covered the Prince song, Nothing Compares (To You). She made international headlines by tearing a photo of the Pope in half on Saturday Night Live, which seriously hurt her career for quite a number of years. Very controversial woman.

Quite sad, I feel she had a lot of good music left to give us.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sinead-oconnor-dead-obituary-200764/

Houston School District: Libraries? Libraries?! We don' need no steenkin' Libraries!

Weirdest thing.

From the article: "New Superintendent Mike Miles announced earlier this summer that librarian and media specialist positions would be eliminated at the 28 original schools being overhauled under his reform program, New Education System (NES).

HISD said the 57 additional schools that opted into NES will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

The librarians and media specialists are gone, but the books are still there. Students can borrow books on an 'honor' basis, but there's no one to recommend things or help them find books of special interest.

I'm curious if the "New Superintendent" is an appointee of Gov. Abbott. He hates Houston with a vengeance.

https://abc13.com/hisd-libraries-librarians-media-specialists-houston-isd/13548483/


In other news, the State of Illinois made it ILLEGAL to ban books!

The ban of bans is the only law of its kind in the country - I hope the first of many!

From the article: “Book bans are about censorship, marginalizing people, marginalizing ideas and facts. Regimes banned books, not democracies,” (Gov.) Pritzker, a Democrat, said at a bill signing ceremony at a Chicago library. “We refuse to let a vitriolic strain of White nationalism coursing through our country determine whose histories are told, not in Illinois.”

The measure, which takes effect January 1, says public libraries must adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights or their own statement prohibiting book banning to be eligible for state money.

The association’s Library Bill of Rights states that reading materials “should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval” or “excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/12/us/illinois-public-libraries-schools-book-bans/