The Christian Coalition's stance on intellectual freedom.

Similar to their stance on academic freedom.

According to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), Howard Dean is a big fat anti-semite (PDF warning). So, according to Cathy Young, is Eric Alterman. Actually, Young says he's "self-loathing." Alterman thinks not. Young says, "Are, too! But that's not what I said!" As for Dean, Ari Berman cries, "Bullshit!" And notes:

Such smears are to be expected from a group whose board of directors includes members of the Project for a New American Century, top fundraisers for the Bush campaign and former Bush officials, including press secretary Ari Fleischer. The RJC took Bush on his first tour of Israel in 1998. Evidently, Republicans hope to peel off a few more Jewish votes by distorting Dean's record.

"Two issues stand in the way of Republicans gaining a significant percentage of the Jewish vote: abortion and the religious right," GOP pollster Frank Luntz told a RJC conference in 1998. "But we have an answer. The magic word is 'Israel.'" To that end, the RJC opposed the Clinton-inspired peace process, attacked notorious anti-Semite Joe Lieberman for reaching out to Louis Farrakhan and now advocates nuclear weapons assistance to Israel and the expansion of new settlements throughout both Gaza and the West Bank.

What gets lost in this pundit playground tussle is that "at the end of the day" (punditspeak cliche I most loathe) Alterman is a douchebag and Dean is a gasbag. Oh, and: the religious (christian) right is using the religious (jewish) right as kanada for their apocalyptic designs, wherein the existence of Israel is not so much questioned as it is "term-limited." In other words, the RJC might want to choose its allies more carefully. Just sayin'.

Erica Olsen's series of diatribes against bad web site design by well-meaning librarians is making me cry—with laughter, that is. Olsen is caustic, direct and pulls no punches. And for good reason. Badly designed interfaces distract from and often complicate the end-user's ability to find the information they seek. This is especially true of sites aimed at children and teens, the main target of Olsen's invective. For those interested in issues of design in general and for library sites in particular, start with Olsen's criticism of the International Children's Digital Library, proceed to her criticism of lousy digital library design in general and finish with her recent post recommending sites that use design well. Here is an exemplary passage:

There is a tendency in the library community to blow sunshine up each other's asses, as though our intent to do good were enough. As though our good works shouldn't be held to the same standards as commercial products because we are Nice. People don't seem to criticize each other's work in this profession. Which makes for a perfectly lovely working environment where you can find yourself producing piles of junk because all you have heard is happytalk from supportive colleagues. And that's not Nice. Nope. Not at all. That's painful and embarrassing and rather cruel.

Olsen is based in Ithaca, NY; her frankness reminds me of certain things I miss about the East Coast. She has also given me an idea for a paper I might write when the opportunity presents itself.