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Library, Murder, and Science

By Theresa Camoriano

Library -  Voters defeated the proposed library tax in Louisville by a two-to-one margin -- the worst defeat of the last three times it has been on the ballot.  Why were the voters so adamant this time?  Did they resent the sneakiness and arrogance of the folks who tried to railroad the tax through without giving the city council time to consider it?  Did they disagree with the idea that the library should not have to compete with other services for their tax money?  Or did they prefer Hal Heiner’s proposal to fund the libraries through the current budget process?  I suspect it was all of the above, and I have a question for those who voted for the tax.

          If you thought the library was worth supporting with an additional 0.2% of your income on the day you went into the voting booth, do you still think so?  Then you should be willing to donate 0.2% of your income to the library every December, and I hope you will sit down and write your check now for this year.  If you are not willing to write that check on a voluntary basis, why not?  Did your vote mean that you would only contribute to the library if you were forced to do so and if you could force your neighbors to contribute too?  If that’s the case, then you are not much of a library supporter!

          If every person who voted for the library tax would send in a check for $100 each year, then the library would have an additional $7 million to work with each year.  I certainly hope to learn that Bob Hill, David Jones, and others who promoted the library tax are paying at least the amount they wanted to force others to pay. 

I didn’t vote for the library tax, but I will be making voluntary donations of books to the library and bought some books this past weekend solely for the purpose of donating them.  One is the memoir of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, which I recently read and highly recommend.  Another is the biography of Tony Dungy, the coach of the Indianapolis Colts, which is also very inspiring.  I also will donate Henry Hazlett’s Economics in One Lesson, which I have bought in bulk and give away on a regular basis.  I hope those books will be put to good use by the Louisville Library and will not just be sold for ten cents at their annual book sale, but all I can do is try.  And I’d like to encourage you to do the same, donating good books that might educate or inspire others. 

          Because the information industry is changing so quickly, with digital books becoming the norm, libraries will not need to be warehousing so many books in the future.  For that reason, I would prefer to see the library lease smaller space in several strip shopping centers around the city, where people can do research and have access to books and to library services, rather than building large libraries that may soon prove to be dinosaurs.  If a bit of a financial squeeze forces the library to focus more on providing its services in an efficient manner and less on building monuments to itself, then that would be a very good thing.

Murder – According to news reports, a Bellarmine student recently gave birth to a baby on the toilet in her dorm room, allowed the baby to die, and then tried to dispose of the body.  She was caught and now may be charged with murder.  What a terrible tragedy!  What a waste of two young lives!  Why didn’t she just give the baby up for adoption and give it a chance at life?  And doesn’t it seem strange that she could have killed it the day before it was born without violating any law at all?  One day’s difference changes the criminality of the mother, but it wouldn’t have mattered to the baby, who would be just as dead either way.

Science – In the “global warming” discussion, there are a couple of issues that are rarely discussed. 

First, if man-made global warming is supposed to be a scientific hypothesis, how could it possibly be tested to see whether it is correct?  If one follows the usual scientific process, the hypothesis must be proven through rigorous testing.  However, in this case, the theory simply has been stated to be a fact, and there appears to be no evidence that could possibly disprove that “scientific fact”.  If the weather is colder, that is attributed to our increased carbon dioxide emissions and global warming; if the weather is warmer, same cause.  If there are more hurricanes, that is attributed to increased carbon dioxide emissions; if there are fewer, same cause.  Instead of inviting scientific inquiry and challenges to the hypothesis, anyone who dares to question the party line is ridiculed, threatened, and attacked.  Surely, people do not believe this is really science!

Second, do people realize how much financial pressure is being put on scientists to toe the Al Gore line on “global warming”?  If you want to get your government grants, avoid being attacked by U.S. Senators, and generally be able to support your family and live in peace, you’d better not rock the boat.  Also, do you realize how many people like James Hansen, the so-called "NASA whistleblower", were really funded by George Soros or others with a similar agenda?  Unbiased, indeed!

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