Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for December 11, 2023

People who want to ban books want to keep other people from reading them.

If only it was that simple… always weird to agree with Rat.

I’m with you, Rat—the only “Ban” should be deodorant!

Ah the PC-CC gang and their witch hunts and book burnings.

(PC : Political Correctness. ; CC : Cancel Culture)

Megaphones don’t need genius ideas.

The Megaphonists are usually the ones who want to band books. At least in my experience.

That is the solution to many things.

’Read the obituary of a lady of my acquaintance last week that ended:

" . . .In lieu of flowers, buy a banned book and donate it to a library."

’Classy way to go, gurl!

Are there any books that are banned here in the US? I’m not aware of any that I can’t buy.

Poor Goat!

This time I’m with Rat 100%

It’s not genius, just obvious!

Unless it isn’t actually being banned, just removed from places where younger readers shouldn’t be exposed to it.

Free Dr Seuss!

Rat got himself a new aggravating “fun for himself” toy.

But the Repulsivcans don’t want others to be “corrupted” by those books. They MUST BE BURNED.

Whoa! Rat has a libertarian streak, who knew. I always thought the rodent has been a black shirt who has been giddy about certain alt-factions going out of their way to remove literary classics from libraries and university literature reading lists.

Yes. This would work. They don’t want their tax money spent to buy books to be given to their children, excerpts from which are too obscene to be allowed on the air. Rat has done it again.

Book bans usually just sell more books. Steve Martin was ecstatic when Collier County Florida banned his book. You can’t buy that kind of publicity.

This is in no way a political piece. If it were a political piece, the politics politics would be shouting, “Shut up and dribble.”

I agree with Rat. If you don’t like a book, don’t buy it. Don’t spoil the fun for other people.

Fr

Please define “banning”.

I’ll wait.

And let each parent decide for their OWN child what they should or should not read. Not Moms for Facism

For once, Rat is doing a heroic deed to help mankind. People who try to ban books firmly believe in judging them by their covers and are all whiny, fun-hating jerks who have no real lives.

Book-banners, after all, insist that the entire community should see things their way, and only their way. When a book is banned, a whole set of thoughts is locked behind the assertion that there is only one valid set of beliefs, one valid perception of the world. It’s a scary idea, especially in a society which was been built on the ideas of free choice and free thought.

Rat is to logical for most people

I’m sure the people wanting to ban books have never read a book

ban calendars, sticker packs, and anything else Pastis is selling

You know, Rat has a point. If you like the books that are “banned” then go buy and read them. Then you will realize they weren’t “banned” at all. They were just put out of reach of children. This is like the rating system on movies. The Species movies aren’t banned, but you wouldn’t want 5 yr olds watching it.

Rat is right, if you don’t like the book don’t read it. Simple then just live and let live.

That’s what they said about banning holocaust denial books. Now look how many people believe it never happened.

I think it’s kindof like playing GOD

Should I ever get around to writing a book, I hope someone bans it.

Great idea, but they want to control people and don’t really care about the books.

Amen.

Thank you, Rat

good ol’ Rat

People who ban books don’t read them, that’s how they know “Wuthering Heights” is pornographic.

The left cancelling Dr Suess is about the closest thing to a book ban there is.

People who don’t read are banning books, mostly this is a right wing concept, everything upsets those people.

It’s all about power, which is what motivates a lot of people.

And don’t put those books in elementary schools.

A good idea, though somehow I doubt that Goat’s the one who needs to hear it.

Christians: Ban Heather has two mommies and Gender Queer. Liberals: Ban Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird – but the Christians are the problem!

It really doesn’t matter what the reason is, banning books is not a good idea.

two words: library, and.. LIBRARY

Gotta show p*rn to kids to keep that industry going

Banned books are totally unavailable by definition. If you can find it, it isn’t banned.

Yeah, but, see, I want to keep other people from liking those books. I also want to keep other people from doing things with their own bodies. And while we’re at it, with those of other consenting adults. You see, my sense of morality is so fragile and poorly thought out that it can withstand no challenges whatsoever, so obviously the only solution is to force, by whatever means necessary, people to behave exactly as I interpret my book as saying they should, even though I’ve never actually read the entire book.

Now banned: Megaphones…

That’s like the political comic strips. People read them just to complain about them. If you don’t like them….quit reading them.

For goodness sake, don’t show this one in the Bible Belt or California.

Has goat switched from tea to coffee, then?

A bit of a fail for messaging. Especially having in mind the phrase “idiot with a megaphone.”

The book banners included Where’s Waldo and one by Judy Blume, who wrote ordinary stories for the late elementary-age set. Harry Potter. Shel Silverstein’s poems for small children. The names of books and authors is mindboggling, and the punishment to teachers in some states for having them (looking at you, Florida and Governor DeathSentence) is horrifying.

So, apparently, do common sense ideas these days.

some books NEED to be banned based on content. Some books should never have been published in the first place.

I think it’s time to put ‘the Bible" on our list of banned books. Not only does it include writings about fratricide, patricide, genocide, illicit intercourse, misogyny, and homosexuality, it also shows examples of people rejecting god’s commandments.

BAN THE BIBLE! It’s unclean.

That’s what could be called a solution that is “inherently obvious to the most casual observer”. And therefore totally obscure to the worst perpetrators.

Exactly what books have been “banned.” Every list of “banned” books I see are books that are readily available. They’re literally selling them in stores as “banned books.” If I wanted, I could buy one, take it home, read it, and no one would stop me. No one would care, either. A mob isn’t going to form outside of my house because I have one of these books.

So how are they “banned?”

Or is this a case of parents not wanting particularly explicit tomes readily available to minor children (often without parental permission) and Pastis clutching his pearls (no pun intended) that somehow that is the same thing as a “ban”?

Our library and school system have a similar method for dealing with book bans. It’s called “Get Bent!”

Book banning is such a small problem that every celebration of banned-book week has to fluff up its list of banned books with books that someone decided not to buy.

For Rat, all he needs is an excuse to use a megaphone.

Rat’s never taken the part about speaking softly in “Speak softly and carry a big stick” to heart, has he?

Rat is a LOUDMOUTH enough without a megaphone!

Maybe megaphones should be banned….

Except nobody is banning books. That is a cheap lie spread by people of low intelligence and only believed by people of lower intelligence.

Nobody is banning books, don’t fall for the lie

The whole debate Rat’s comment led to is a complete False Flag promoted by the left. A REAL “book ban” would involve preventing them from being published, gathering and destroying the ones already in circulation, and perhaps even imposing fines on anyone caught with a copy. Kinda like Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’. That’s a long way from simply saying “this particular book has no place in the classroom”. I’m not aware of anyone on either side saying there is no right to write these books, have them printed, or offer them for sale. Just keep them on the top shelf with the Playboys and Hustlers. If the adults want to purchase them and give them to their kids, fine. There’s a reason we don’t put those magazines in school libraries with the National Geographics and Ranger Ricks, but I don’t hear anyone crying out that we are “BANNING” them. If we’re going to have a discussion, at least keep it honest.

Ya can’t make this stuff up.

Moms for Liberty founder Bridget Ziegler currently embroiled in a sex scandal involving a three-way with her husband, Florida GOP Chair Christian (smirk) Ziegler and another woman.

Ziegler (Christian) is facing assault charges; Ziegler (Bridget) is being asked to resign from the Sarasota School Board.

Ya, I have never seen a comment get this many replies before

All that you accomplish from banning books is to make them more enticing. And don’t think burning them is any better. Anything you want to read is stored somewhere on the internet, and is often free.