I cling to my gun and my Camus

This hate crime bill has me thinking. How much of a leap will it be for them to start banning books as hate propaganda? It shouldn't take too long. In 1998 Canadian Border Guards seized books, claiming that they were hate material, one of those books was on Irish Fairy Tales.

We talk a lot about our freedoms, our guns, our speech, but what about our literature? We all have different thoughts, and loves, passions and loathings, and there are many of us that express ourselves with the written word. What we read should be up to us, and what a writer talks about should be up to them. Not an over zealous organization or Government entities. This link will take you to who is doing the banning.

I went to the Project Gutenberg website last night and looked up the banned and Challenged books. Project Gutenberg is a wonderful resource for readers. They have free no strings attached, no returns, no fees, un-copyrighted literature for all to see. You can read online, you can download and print and you can even share it with friends without breaking a single law.

Here is a list of the banned or challenged books I found there:

Oliver Twist

Uncle Tom's Cabin

King Lear

Leaves of Grass

The Tailsman

Wildfire

Woman in Love

Richard II

Ulysses

Frankenstein

Don Quixote

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Native Son

Song of Solomon

Lysistrata

For a full list of Banned and Contested books you can find lists here at Pelham Library (pdf)
or at Banned and Controversial Books were you can download Thomas Paine's Common Sense free.

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

-- Harry S. Truman, message to Congress, August 8, 1950

Homemade paints

Homemade paints are easy to make. And when you are trapped inside through the long winters, with or without children, making your own paints can keep you are pleasantly busy.

#1
1 Quart skim milk (room temperature)
1 Once of hydrated lime by weight ( Do not use quick lime)
1 to 2 1/2 pounds of chalk may also be added as a filler.

Stir together milk and lime to form a smooth paste. Add color pigment of your choice and apply with bristle brush. Allow first coat to dry before applying another.

#2
One Gallon Skim Milk
Two Cups Builders Lime (Do NOT use Quick Lime)
One Quart Linseed Oil (the boiled type)
1/2 Cup of Salt
Dye (Color) add in as needed

Mix all ingredients together and strain through a cheesecloth. Use within a day or two.

#3
Powdered Skim Milk
Water
Food Coloring

Mix just enough powder and water to create the consistency of paint. Add food coloring of your choice or make it various herbs and vegetables. Strain through a cheesecloth.