Monday, January 3, 2011

Is your library 'big government liberalism' in action?

Bill Kristol chortles over cuts at a Maryland library, which includes the loss of a subscription to his own Weekly Standard:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD knows that government spending at all levels must be reduced. And TWS puts the country first! So to all our readers who are offering to write in protest, to organize petitions, and to gin up denunciations of Montgomery County officials: No. We'll do our part for the greater good. Unjust and unwise as it is to deprive Bethesdans of TWS in their public libraries, we're willing to say: As long as public sector unions, politically correct county activities, foolish and unnecessary programs, and bloated government payrolls are also cut—we'll take the hit, too.

So Bethesdans who've been reading TWS in the library will have to subscribe (it's a good deal!). And we'll have done our part to help put the nation on the path to recovery from big government liberalism.

I don't know. It's true that libraries can sometimes become ambitious and opulent on the taxpayer dime, but it had never occured to me to think of the library as "big government liberalism" in action. Even Glenn Beck uses libraries! But it does make me wonder what kind of community-based social service programming Bill Kristol finds reasonable. Meals on Wheels? A socialist plot. 

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