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

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Mireille Miller-Young

 
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[Update:  Interestingly, the professor pleaded no contest, in essence, admitting her guilt of theft, censorship, and violating the First Amendment.  Also, of interest, is the fact that UCSB admitted NO wrong and UCSB Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael D. Young even seemed to place blame on those who came to the university with ideas it did not like.]

The following is the email I'd sent to student editor Wenzke, who decided NOT to respond, for evidently she must be a proponent of censorship and clone of UCSB administrators.  Bravo!

From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: eic@dailynexus.com; managing@dailynexus.com; news@dailynexus.com; opinion@dailynexus.com; artsweek@dailynexus.com
CC: fire@thefire.org; greg@thefire.org; adam@thefire.org; samantha@thefire.org
Subject: A new P. Maudit cartoon on Prof. Miller-Young
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 10:23:08 -0400
To Marissa Wenzke, Student Editor, and Colleagues, The Daily Nexus, University of California at Santa Barbara:
This missive is addressed to you, in lieu of the director of Feminist Studies, Eileen Boris, because my experience indicates she likely would not bother to respond.  Will you?  Are you an open, independent-minded editor… or are you a PC-indoctrinated one?  Have you the courage of a staunch individual or are you simply part of the PC-herd?  If you have courage, then why not publish the new P. Maudit cartoon, which features the latest PC-fiasco at UCAL (See wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com).  Will you have the curiosity to at least check it out?  P. Maudit notes, “curiosity didn’t kill the cat, the party-line did that.”  The cartoon ought to provoke a little debate, which should be a positive thing and is, after all, one of the prime cornerstones of a thriving democracy.  Thank you for your attention. 

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Joe Gouveia


On the Self-Serving Apathy of Poets and Artists

Inspired by the seated Joe Gouveia, poetry curator, and John Bonanni, poetry editor

When poets, artists, and others will not stand up
in overt, visceral support
for the fundamental human right

to freedom
of speech
and expression,

especially regarding those rare individuals,
who would choose truth over groveling for fame,
recognition, position, and financial remuneration…

When poets, artists, and others refuse to stand
because they disagree with those rare individuals,
dislike, hate, scorn, or simply do not know them,

and instead make excuses for inaction or silence,
turning to ridicule, denigration, or purposeful snubbing,
as if somehow that would erase the egregious hypocrisy
of their hot-air reality,

then that most fundamental of human rights,
for all intensive purposes, no longer truly exists,
for what can such freedom come to mean
when those rare individuals, who choose truth
over that which serves to bind poets, artists, and others 
into a state of permanent denial and general fraudulence,

when those rare individuals, the ones who truly need it,
end up being ostracized into oblivion?

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Robert Polito

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From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: ackea040@newschool.edu
CC: nsfreepress@gmail.com; mail@poetryfoundation.org; editors@poetrymagazine.org; hmpi@poetryfoundation.org
Subject: New School prof/dirlo satirized
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 09:41:20 -0400

To Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Ackerman, the New School Free Press,
One of your professors or directors, Robert Polito, is satirized in a new P. Maudit cartoon as a gatekeeping censor of poetry.  I attach it here.  But you can also examine it on my blog site:  http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2014/03/robert-polito_19.html.  Please publish it in your newspaper.  Or is your newspaper, as I suspect, simply another ideologically-kept press parading around as “free”?  Please, at least, inform me of your decision.   Although, the cartoon is not “news from a student perspective,” it certainly ought to be an issue “important to young people and students everywhere.”  After all, censorship is becoming rampant in America.  If the issue is NOT important to students, then democracy in America is already lost. 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Barbara Stripling

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In America, far too many librarians seem to share a common, if not willful, ignorance of the principles of democracy.  Far too many of them lack an appreciation for FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, and VIGOROUS DEBATE.  Why? 
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From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: bstripli@syr.edu
CC: kmahoney@clamsnet.org; sturgislibrary@comcast.net; fblowrie@gmail.com; ppronovost@capecodonline.com; emaroney@barnstablepatriot.com
Subject: More Librarian Hypocrisy
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 11:08:16 -0400

To ALA President Barbara Stripling,

When challenged and questioned, librarians either do not respond or behave as little-caeser gatekeeper fascists.  But I like to cover my bases.  I'm now working on a cartoon regarding you and the Declaration Stuff you’re now promoting.  I thought perhaps you’d like to explain ALA apathy regarding librarians who behave more as gatekeeping censors, than responsible citizens of a democracy.  Why does the ALA not care that many librarians flaunt the ALA Library Bill of Rights in their own policies, while hypocritically ignoring it, especially the one that stipulates:  “Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view”.   Why does your Office for Intellectual Freedom not give a damn about that? Sure, you have no jurisdiction over libraries, but you could certainly write a letter in an effort to educate irresponsible librarians who behave more like fascists, than responsible citizens of a democracy. 
                “Libraries Empower the Individual” states your Declaration.  What of course that really means is the individual librarian to behave as a little-casear fascist.  Lucy Loomis, for example, director of Sturgis Library (Barnstable, MA), permanently banned me without due process or warning because I questioned her banning of my flyers and nonprofit literary journal from the library.  Do you care?  No, you do not, and that’s why your Declaration is nothing but more ALA hot air.  Kathleen Mahoney, director of Mashpee Public Library, was actually going to allow The American Dissident to enter into the Clams Library System of Cape Cod by being the only librarian willing to subscribe.  She then changed her mind after examining a copy, and who knows what else provoked her to change it.  She simply won’t say.  It has been next to impossible to get librarians to open up to the hard criticism appearing in each issue of The American Dissident.  Over the course of 15 years, I’ve been able to obtain only 12 libraries as subscribers.  Poetry Magazine and Agni, on the other hand, have over 3000 each.  That means nearly 3000 library directors do not wish to abide by your Library Bill of Rights and provide alternative points of view.
                In any case, I will let you know when the cartoon is posted on my blog site.  It will also be published in the next issue of The American Dissident.  Unfortunately, the many patrons of the Clams Library System of Cape Cod will not be able to access the issue because it is essentially banned from that system.  Yes, celebrate Banned Books Week… and librarian hypocrisy while you’re at it.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Ian Singer

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From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: isinger@mediasourceinc.com; rmiller@mediasourceinc.com; jberry@mediasourceinc.com; mschwartz@mediasourceinc.com
CC: kmahoney@clamsnet.org
Subject: Library Journal satirized by P. Maudit
Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2014 19:24:00 -0500

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To Publisher Ian Singer, Editorial Director Rebecca Miller, Editor-at-Large John N. Berry III, Senior Editor Meredith Schwartz and all the many other editors, Library Journal: 

A new P. Maudit cartoon, satirizing Library Journal, has just been published on The American Dissident blog site:    http://wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2014/03/ian-singer.html.  You should be ashamed of your role as censoring gatekeepers of bourgeois propriety.  But of course you’re not.  You’re just smug PC-clones.  If you had any notion of what democracy truly entails, you’d publish the cartoon in Library Journal.  BUT you operate not FOR democracy: you work AGAINST democracy.  In every issue, I publish the harshest critique vis-à-vis The American Dissident.  What’s the big deal?  Well, you’d have to ask your own frail egos!