A Forum for Vigorous Debate, Cornerstone of Democracy

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A FORUM FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND VIGOROUS DEBATE, CORNERSTONES OF DEMOCRACY
[For the journal--guidelines, focus, etc.--go to www.theamericandissident.org. If you have questions, please contact me at todslone@hotmail.com. Comments are NOT moderated (i.e., CENSORED)!]
Encouraged censorship and self-censorship seem to have become popular in America today. Those who censor others, not just self, tend to favor the term "moderate," as opposed to "censor" and "moderation" to "censorship." But that doesn't change what they do. They still act as Little Caesars or Big Brother protectors of the thin-skinned. Democracy, however, demands a tough populace, not so easily offended. On this blog, and to buck the trend of censorship, banning, and ostracizing, comments are NEVER "moderated." Rarely (almost NEVER) do the targets of these blog entries respond in an effort to defend themselves with cogent counter-argumentation. This blog is testimony to how little academics, poets, critics, newspaper editors, cartoonists, political hacks, cultural council apparatchiks, librarians et al appreciate VIGOROUS DEBATE, cornerstone of democracy. Clearly, far too many of them could likely prosper just fine in places like communist China and Cuba or Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia, not to mention Sweden, England, and Austria.
ISSUE #45 PUBLISHED MAY 2023. NOW SEEKING SUBMISSIONS FOR ISSUE #46.

More P. Maudit cartoons (and essays) at Global Free Press: http://www.globalfreepress.org

Monday, August 31, 2020

Wendy Kaminer


The cartoon below was sketched in 2009.
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From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: wendykaminer@aol.com
Subject:
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 20:10:44 -0400

To Wendy Kaminer,
Your book, Worst Instincts, was truly a great read. I do quote you now and then. In fact, I even recently sketched a cartoon on you and the CEO of the ACLU. It is posted on my blog. Thank you for that inspiration.

On another note, perhaps you ought to be aware of what goes on under your very nose on Cape Cod. For one thing, Truro Library and the rest of the libraries in the Clams Library System of Cape Cod have essentially banned The American Dissident from the system. In fact, in a last ditch effort to get just one of the libraries to subscribe ($20/year), I sent a letter to about 25 library directors of the system, including Truro's. Only one director responded a week later, though not in writing. Lucy Loomis, director of Sturgis Library, had no less than three cops enter the library to escort me out of the library. I was quietly working on my laptop per usual. I have never caused a ruckus or threatened anyone at the library. Loomis announced that she was PERMANENTLY trespassing me from the library because I'd been critical of it and made her "feel uncomfortable". She refused to hand me a written document, arguing her decree was verbal. Ellie Claus, president of the Barnstable County libraries, refused to accord me due process, despite my request. A year and half earlier, Loomis had prohibited me from leaving my critical flyers on library premises and from talking about that with staff. I obeyed. In fact, she even refused a free subscription offer. The ACLUM will not take my case, though it did say it spoke with the library. It would not tell me what was said. So now I am forced to pay taxes to help support a library that has permanently banned me. That really makes me feel quite uncomfortable. Yes, Loomis had told the cops that I'd made her "feel uncomfortable."

This whole incident was really surprising to me, even though several years ago Watertown Free Public Library had trespassed me for three months w/o due process. I had asked a rather surly reference librarian if she'd consider subscribing. In fact, I've only been to that library once in my entire life. Yet the cops told me the ref librarian had said I'd been a problem on other days too.

I do hope you might respond.

Sincerely,

G. Tod Slone, PhD and Founding Editor (1998)


The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence


www.theamericandissident.org


wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com


todslone@hotmail.com


217 Commerce Rd.


Barnstable, MA 02630 


From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: wendykaminer@aol.com
Subject: RE: No response from you at all
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 09:28:59 -0400

No response at all from you! Should I be surprised that you don't give a damn about what happens on Cape Cod vis-a-vis free speech? Probably not.
Sincerely,
G. Tod Slone

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very funny. I'm glad to see you back in action.

G. Tod Slone said...

Thanks much, Charlotte.

mather said...

I laughed at this one. You could have put "racist" there too.

G. Tod Slone said...

Well, I figured since the words were a woman's and I was sort of critical of them, I'd put sexist. Hey, that was a great battle we had over at Rattle. Glad you're still alive. You still not working?

mather said...

No, I'm still not working and my girlfriend is starting to look at me funny...I'll probably go back to cabbing in a month or two, but it has been one wonderful summer. I haven't had a more productive summer (or time period, period) in my life. I have been doing three things: writing, cycling and drinking beer. Yesterday I went for a fifty mile bicycle ride!

Yes, that was a good battle over there, though coming to nothing as usual. I'm still battling with the Thieves Jargon crowd every once in a while. I think it was Friday that two "We Hate Mather" blogs came out! Two! Father Luke put one up on his web site and Matt DiGangi on his! Ha ha, my google hits continue to climb...

G. Tod Slone said...

Mather, we agree 100% on debate. And contrary to your assertion, I did suggest you send some writing my way. No matter. Sounds like a great bike ride. I screwed up my heels a month ago from running. Never had that happen before. It's called plantar fascitis or something like that. I'm still recovering. Spent the last month hobbling. Hope I'll be able to run again bec. it's something I deeply enjoy. Now I swim at Walden Pond almost everyday. I like Walden. I like Thoreau's presence their.

mather said...

Running can be a great road to inner peace, I ran for years, since I was 12 years old I was a long distance runner, but it just finally beats your body up. I stick to cycling now and though it took me a while, I have finally found that "high" from it that I used to get from running. I may go back to running one day...but the difference the next morning is incredible...I can actually walk after a fifty mile bike ride, whereas after even a ten mile run I am hobbling around like Quasimodo. I know what you mean about your heels. I've had that, or something like it...

I recommend cycling but then I live in a climate that is perfect for it. I remember running on those cold days, snow on the ground, steam coming out of your mouth...running with a stocking cap and gloves! I loved that...Not around here...

Swimming is great exercise but it's just not the same...

mather said...

I guess I should say something at least remotely relevant to literature and dissidence...it seems our friend at rattle has turned off his comments all together. The last three blogs have no comments, which I find unlikely. You would think when someone gets 70 comments on a blog that they would be happy, feel relevant and excited. But, no, he just turns them off...I really don't understand...

G. Tod Slone said...

I think I'm going to end up doing a combo now: swim one day, then maybe bike, then a run. Still my heels haven't recovered fully. I've never done a 10, only a 5. My body could not take a 10... and now I doubt it could take a 5, but still I won't give it up.

Yeah, I'm not sure what to think regarding Tim. On the one hand, he says he'd still publish me, then on the other he calls me an asshole. Why publish an asshole? Who knows how a person like that thinks. What's really a tough one, though, is how amazingly indoctrinated he and Shaulis are in the PC mindset. You said some highly logical things on that blog, yet they simply bounced off his shell as if he'd been shot by the rubber bullets of an insane man. I know you don't like my spiel on vigorous debate, but obviously you're 100% behind it. I think since he's being paid a salary, there's like someone behind him watching him and he knows that. Perhaps that explains his killing debate. Fear he might displease his boss or bosses. How much do you think he's getting paid? I had a "conversation" with the editor of Agni, which I'm turning into one of those unauthorized conversations I like to publish in AD. He too is a full-time paid literary editor. I don't know what he's getting. He wouldn't tell me. He has a degree from Harvard. This time around I haven't been able to break even on The AD. It's the color cover. Costs me $100 extra. Did I tell you that New England Review, for example, has a $250,000 annual budget?

mather said...

I wonder how much he's getting paid, also, but more than that I wonder why the secrecy? It's either embarassingly low or embarassingly high. I really have no idea.

G. Tod Slone said...

Other questions need to be asked besides simply: how much is the editor being paid?
For example, who is doing the paying? I believe a nonprofit foundation is paying. Now, I don’t see the foundation mentioned on the Rattle website. At one point, I believe it was mentioned. It would be of interest to determine what the politics of the nonprofit (theoretically apolitical) foundation are. Every 501c3 nonprofit foundation is political, though every such foundation is supposed to be nonpolitical. What taboos might be implicit in the payment arrangement? I notice the new issue features an Asian face or rather back of the head. Rattle seems to be obsessed with multiculturalism in the same way as the nation’s colleges and universities. Multiculturalism, of course, enables people to dismiss uncomfortable truths. It enables them to disimiss logical argumentation. Also, what are Tim’s contract obligations? Why was he chosen for the position? Were others considered? Etc., etc.

The idea of getting paid by someone or something to run a literary journal rings false to me.

mather said...

Well, I was wrong, Tim's got the comments on...he wrote a new blog comparing rattle to a baseball team. He claims they spend much less than other big market mags, but the only one he mentions is Poetry, and from what you've said those guys are richer than the pope's harem.

Good time for you to ask him again for some NUMBERS!

He's got a lot of theories, this twenty eight year old marshmallow, funny how they seem to change week to week...honestly it seems like he is truly lost right now, has no idea what rattle is about or where it's going...a magazine devoted to "friendliness" is now his latest idea...

G. Tod Slone said...

At last count, Poetry had $175 million in the bank! Wish ole Madoff had had its account. That would have made my day!
David Ochs, who I trust, says his comments were deleted from Rattle's blog and also said he couldn't post with regards my last comment. Rather than claiming Rattle spends less, why not tell us outright HOW MUCH?
I had to laugh out loud at that one: a magazine devoted to "friendliness." I guess that definitely excludes my ass. BTW, I did tell Tim he's invited to comment here. BUT he's the opposite of you, prefers private email. Maybe the "28 year old marshmallow" should get together with me, a 61 year old flaming asshole, so that you could have a nice toasted roastie. BTW, today I noticed a job ad that asked on its application, the first obligatory question: Are you Hispanic or are you a Non-Hispanic. So, in America I am a Non-Hispanic. It didn't even ask if I were a citizen.

G. Tod Slone said...

All of the big money funneling into the literary magazines serves the single purpose of rendering literature high-brow diversionary (entertaining) in nature. In that sense, literature becomes good friend of the ruling oligarchs (the wealthy). The money serves to deem any literature critical of the latter as not literature at all, thus not publishable. Yes, let's only publish "friendly" literature... while corruption festers in the heart of the nation!

mather said...

I believe it about Ochs. Tim called him a "coward" and said he was "sick of him"...I didn't read anything by Ochs that was offensive at all, only some good common sense...

mather said...

I still can't wrap my mind around 175 million...what does someone with 175 million want to do with poetry? What could poetry possible have to do with 175 MILLION DOLLARS? With every zero they are that much more solidly behind the current system/structure, and against change...unless it could somehow make them more money...my mind is spinning with that figure still...

Who is Madoff?

mather said...

I guess Madoff must have been somebody who would have lost all that money...I get it...

Wondering if David Ochs (are you reading?) knows who "cafais" is?

sdave1 said...

hey G. Tod-you don't have to take my word that i my comments were deleted from tim's blog, there's my name and the word deleted.

I don't know who Cafais is but he seems more intellegent than Sandee and Megan and the sock puppets.

G. Tod Slone said...

VQR has a 1 million$ annual budget. Madoff has been in the headlines for the past year as running the biggest ponzy scheme in history. Wealthy people who invested with him lost millions. His scheme was a 50 billion dollar scheme.
Dave, yes, I did notice your comments were clearly censored. And Tim admitted to me that he did censor you. So, that's not even a doubt.
Cafais = cafe = coffee. Must be a broad. (Hahaha. Sexist comment!)
Dave calls them the sock puppets. Perfect description!

mather said...

I don't understand what a literary journal could possibly do with that much money. They must have some great issue-release parties!

Yes, "Cafais" seems more intelligent than the others but just as pretentious. I believe it is a male specimen, that's the feeling I got from the comments. Doesn't matter, I guess.

"Sock puppets" yes...I was particularly shocked at how foolish Sandee sounded. She's the editor of a literary journal, too! I think it's Oak Tree Review or Oak River Review or something like that...

It's no secret that Tim edited the comments. He admitted it like Slone says. He cut it off when Coffee and I were getting into it...I never even got to read the last comments...I don't know if anybody read it but I wrote a version of the ending on these comments a couple blogs below...

G. Tod Slone said...

Well, take the Kenyon Review which has parties at a 5 star restaurant in NYC. Recall my tuxedo literature blog. Is that Sandee Lyles, Oak Bend Review? She does come off rather imbecilic. And so does the other sock puppet, Megan. What's her last name?

Unknown said...

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Susana
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