The entire episode is 90 minutes definitely worth the time and can be watched at PBS.com.

Menifee School District in southern California has decided to yank Merriam Webster’s 10th edition from all library shelves after a fifth grader’s mom complained that it contained the term “oral sex.” From the Press Enterprise:

School officials will review the dictionary to decide if it should be permanently banned because of the “sexually graphic” entry, said district spokeswoman Betti Cadmus. The dictionaries were initially purchased a few years ago for fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms districtwide, according to a memo to the superintendent.

“It’s just not age appropriate,” said Cadmus, adding that this is the first time a book has been removed from classrooms throughout the district.

“It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature,” Cadmus said. She explained that other dictionary entries defining human anatomy would probably not be cause for alarm.

Wow. Who knew the dictionary was such a treasure trove of filth? I’ll have to remember that the next time I play Scrabble (NSFW).

I am writing to let you know that Professor Li-ann Thio informed me today that she is canceling her Fall visit to NYU Law School as a Global Visiting Professor as a result of the controversy surrounding her views regarding homosexuality and gay rights. She explained that she was disappointed by what she called the atmosphere of hostility by some members of our community towards her views and by the low enrollments in her classes. The Law School will therefore cancel the course on Human Rights in Asia and the seminar on Constitutionalism in Asia, which she had been scheduled to teach.

…

In the last few weeks, a number of members of our community wrote to Professor Thio indicating their objection to her appointment as a visiting professor. She considers some of these messages to be offensive. In turn, she replied to them in a manner that many member of our community—myself included—consider offensive and hurtful. These exchanges have been circulated on various blogs. Members of our community have questioned whether Professor Thio’s statements create an unwelcoming atmosphere, one in which students in her classes would have been unable to participate effectively in the learning experience. Determination of where that point is on the continuum of free speech is a difficult, case-by-case judgment based upon context, history of the relationship, and many other factors. But it would be an extraordinary measure, almost never taken by universities in the United States, to cancel a course on the basis of e-mail exchanges between a faculty member and members of the student body. To do so would eviscerate the concept of academic freedom and chill student-faculty debate.

The letter in full attempts to absolve the NYU of any responsibility, citing the invitation was extended under  standard academic practices, while at the same time remaining  sympathetic to those who were offended by her views. It’s a difficult to line to straddle, and it’s unclear how the faculty, student body and community will receive it.

Warning… veering off topic…

On a humid July morning 40 years ago today, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin climbed aboard the most dangerous vehicle man had ever built, on a voyage to the moon.

I was two and half years old. I remember that day, or at least have convinced myself that I remember it, sitting in front of an old black and white television watching a streak of light hurtle towards the stars.

Like most boys growing up, I was fascinated by all things space and dinosaurs. While interest in the Jurassic and Cretaceous eventually faded, the love of space and space travel, did not. Astronomy books, science-fiction novels, movies, I couldn’t get enough. I was a certified space geek.

When I went off to college I decided to study aerospace engineering, with the dream of working one day for NASA or JPL, but soon realized I had little of the prerequisite discipline necessary for that field of study, ie the math. And there was a lot of it. So I switched to Journalism, which had only slightly more math than English. But my interest in all things space never waned.

Barely a year into my studies I watched in horror as the shuttle Challenger exploded into a million pieces across the Atlantic. I attended no class that day, not even the Astronomy elective I was taking. I remember President Reagan’s moving tribute later that same evening: “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God…”

There have certainly been other triumphs and disasters since, but for me, none quite so much like the day humankind took their first steps on the moon.

In honor of 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch, the JFK Library and Museum explores the mission in extraordinary detail at WeChooseTheMoon.com. The site tracks the mission in realtime as it happened, creating a thoroughly immersive and cool experience. Be sure to check it out.

There are also some beautiful, and some rarely seen photographs from before, during and after the mission at The Big Picture: Remembering Apollo 11.

Looking back over these past 4 decades as a man in his early 40s, I had hoped by now we would have at least planted a flag, any flag, in the red sands of Mars. But unfortunately, no. In fact it’s been 37 years since we last walked the on the face of the moon. And now, as I approach middle age, it seems unlikely that either will happen, or happen again, in my lifetime.

But I am a space geek. And I am hopeful.

Video of that memorable launch and landing below.

Since NYU extended Dr. Li-ann the invitation, many students and faculty members have expressed outrage that she will be on campus teaching in the fall. In a comprehensive 18 point diatribe Dr. Li-ann responded to her critics, complaining of the abuse she has received since accepting the invitation. In the lengthy letter, Dr. Li-ann objects that her moral opposition to homosexuality has been characterized as “bigoted, ignorance or hatred,” and finds it “ironical” that those who claim to be oppressed are in fact the oppressors. Li-ann also said that most homosexuals in Singapore “lead quiet lives which is what most of us want.”

Let’s hope that when Dr. Li-ann arrives in New York, she gets the “proper” welcome she deserves. And no, I’m not being ironical.

In the anonymous e-mail that prompted the issue, the writer claimed Nehring disrupted instruction at Castro Valley High to give step-by-step instructions on how to become gay and transsexual. Nehring has denied the assertion.

Nehring was one of many guests invited to the high school’s annual Days of Diversity program, which is intended to expose students to different backgrounds, including Japanese culture, life as a cowboy and children in foster care.

Nehring who serves as pastor at Eden United Church of Christ in Hayward, is suspicious of the motives of Pacific Justice Institute, the legal firm handling the case on behalf of the parents. The Pacific Justice Institute is endorsed by media personalities Bill O’Reilly and Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and is the same organization that invoked Hitler during the Proposition 8 campaign, comparing those opposing Prop 8 to Nazis.

A court hearing has been tentatively scheduled for June 16.

Watch a video report from the local NBC affiliate:

“The principal and superintendent grossly misinterpreted school policy. They illegally censored student speech protected by the First Amendment and the California Education Code,” said David Blair-Loy, Legal Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “Writing or talking about a gay historical figure who advocated for equal rights for LGBT Californians is in no way the same thing as talking about sex, and school officials should not pretend otherwise.”

The student’s mother Bonnie Jones:

“This whole thing is unbelievable – first my daughter got called into the principal’s office as if she were in some kind of trouble, and then they treated her presentation like it was something icky. Harvey Milk was an elected official in this state and an important person in history. To say my daughter’s presentation is ‘sex education’ because Harvey Milk happened to be gay is completely wrong.”

Below is the part of the school’s sex education policy which is in question:

“(P)arents/guardians shall be notified in writing about any instruction in which human reproductive organs and their functions, processes, or sexually transmitted diseases are described, illustrated, or discussed. In addition, before any instruction on family life, human sexuality, AIDS or sexually transmitted diseases is given, the parent/guardian shall be provided with written notice explaining that the instruction will be given…”

The ACLU is seeking an apology for Natalie, an opportunity for her to give the presentation in front of her class, and a clarification of parental notification issues with regards to the sex education policy.

SaveCalifornia.com is urging concerned parents to send an email to Governor Schwarzenegger which describes all the horrible things that will happen to their children if SB 572 is passed, including:

SB 572 pressures public schools — from kindergarten on up — to perform “suitable commemorative exercises” promoting what homosexual activist Harvey Milk believed in: the entire homosexual, bisexual, and transsexual agenda and anti-religious values.

If SB 572 becomes law, schoolchildren would have positively portrayed to them homosexual experimentation, homosexual “marriages,” sex-change operations, and anything else that’s “in the closet.”

All doors of sexual experimentation MUST be opened: “If a bullet should go through my head let that bullet go through every closet door.”

SaveCalifornia.com is led by anti-gay bigot Randy Thomasson. There’s plenty of dirt on him over at goodasyou.com so I won’t repeat it here.

Milk screenwriter Lance Black testified in Sacramento today supporting SB 572. To counter SaveCalifornia.com, please sign this petition at Equality California urging the governor to support Harvey Milk Day.

To get an unpleasant taste of what SaveCalifornia.com is all about, watch the video below:

The email sent by Asst. Principal Karen Buzard was in response to an incident where two female students were caught kissing in the school restroom.

From Kentucky Equality Federation (KEF):

“I have been in contact with one of the parents of the children involved in the protest, and we support and encourage their constitutional right to assemble peacefully,” stated Kentucky Equality Federation President Jordan Palmer. “We call on the media to investigate this issue further and shed light on the discrimination gays and lesbians face throughout the Commonwealth. Kentucky Equality Federation will also be contacting the other parents of the children involved in today’s protest.”

Laura Reed, Managing Director of KEF is concerned because they have also received complaints from other counties.

“I’d like to know what level this mentality, that gay and lesbian students should not be treated equally is coming from. An incident in one county could be called an isolated incident, but we now have similar reports in three other Kentucky Counties. I’d certainly like to know what Education Secretary Helen W. Mountjoy has to say about these incidents.”

How odd. According to the school’s website, April is the month for tolerance. Doesn’t sound like a very tolerant school if you ask me.

More at Kentucky Equality Federation.

Watching the clip might make you long for simpler times. Like Dana Carvey’s Grumpy Old Man character from SNL…

I’m oooooold! And I’m not happy! And I don’t like things now compared to the way they used to be. All this progress — phooey! In my day, we didn’t have these cash machines that would give you money when you needed it. There was only one bank in each state — it was open only one hour a year. And you’d get in line, seventeen miles long, and the line became an angry mob of people — fornicators and thieves, mutant children and circus freaks — and you waited for years and by the time you got to the teller, you were senile and arthritic and you couldn’t remember your own name. You were born, got in line, and ya died! And that’s the way it was and we liked it!

Then again… perhaps not.