Issue 83, Fall 2001
- For applying chaotic thinking to terrorist chaos, Jerry Falwell takes the cake. On Pat Robertsons’ show, The 700 Club, he said, “What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be minuscule if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve…God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say ‘You helped this happen.'” Despite his apology, his comments will go down in the annals of zealotry.
- Thanks to generous contributions honoring Lora Hays, NCAC is about to launch The File Room, a cultural project documenting censorship. Conceived by Antonio Muntadas, the File Room began at the Randolph Street Gallery in Chicago in 1994 with 400 cases illustrating the global and historical ubiquity of censorship. With the help of a Lora Hays intern, NCAC is currently updating this as a web-based archive to include censorship incidents from the last decade. The newly-launched File Room will permit participants from around the world to document censorship incidents. (For more info, click here.) Lora Hays is an award-winning independent filmmaker, film teacher, and co-editor of NCAC’s film about censorship of children’s literature, Tell It Like It Is!
- Support free expression with original Holiday Cards created for NCAC by New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. NCAC T-shirts, and sweat shirts are also available as are recent books by Judy Blume and Marjorie Heins. Click here for illustrations, prices and gift ideas.
- New and Noteworthy:From the Free Expression Policy Project, Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report, a complete rundown on more than 70 tests, studies, and reports documenting the massive over- and under-blocking tendencies of Internet filtering software. It is available free while supply lasts from NCAC or click here for the online version.
The Government vs. Erotica: the Seige of Adam and Eve by Philip D. Harvey, Prometheus Books. The true story of a small mail-order company legally selling contraceptives, films and sex toys, invaded and shut down by 37 armed law enforcement agents. Harvey’s account of his eight-year battle with the Justice Department has been nominated for the Eli M. Oboler Award by the American Library Association as the best recent book devoted to intellectual freedom. For more information, click here.