I think McCain's daughter is hot.  Which is odd, since I usually don't care for blondes...

Added hotness factor?  Early in the campaign, she was hinting that she was an Obama fan.

But yeah, as much as I admire McCain, and think his daughter is hot, my vote is still firmly in Obama's camp. 

A link not for the faint of heart... plus?  NSFW headline...

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/feature-articles/levi-johnst on-hockey.php

It's a follow up to a McCain one they ran yesterday...

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/john-mccain-vietnam.php

I'm torn on the book banning issue in that I believe banning thoughts and ideas in whatever form is inherently evil but I also believe there is a much more pernicious form of censorship and book banning that exists in the mainstream of Canada and the United States.

I disagree completely with Christians who want to ban books of a certain type but I know that as soon as they try they will bring more attention to that book. I know a lot of authors who dream of the day Christians try to ban their books, so Christians are extremely ineffective and in fact counter-productive when they try to ban books. Bunglers, to put it in one word. They are dangerous and we must be vigilant against them but they're not a real danger.

Yet you look at a standard bookstore in Canada or the United States and you read through most books and you can come to a pretty fair conclusion; either Conservatives don't exist, or they are all evil, or they simply are incapable of reading. I'm not talking about the political books necessarily (though the Conservative ones are usually heavily outnumbered by the Liberal books), but the fiction books in any genre. I'm a conservative who reads heavily and actively searches for those kinds of books and have been unable to find many examples.

Baen books is an example of a company that used to be run by a conservative person (Jim Baen) and was quite successful at reaching an audience. And yet that successful example was not followed by any of the larger publishers, true some tried to release more of that sub-genre (military science-fiction) but they left out the conservative philosophy that informed many of the books and instead replaced it with liberal thought and those releases never quite caught on with Baen's audience. I know a lot of people who were tired of having their philosophy insulted in every book they read and looked on Baen as a respite from the onslaught. Though I would say, personally, that I found Baen's books to be more balanced but not precisely conservative. Perhaps it would be best to say not actively insulting to me, my thoughts, and my philosophy.

Christians had been complaining to publishers for years that no books were being made for them and publishers responded condescendingly by informing Christians that there wasn't a large enough market for them to put that energy into publishing those books. So Christians finally accepted that they were never going to be accepted by the publishing houses and took to self publishing and have done very well with it, showing that either the publishers were woefully uninformed as to the size of the market and possibilities therein or the publishers simply did not want to be associated with 'those kinds of people' and 'that kind of book'. Probably a combination of the two.

Who is more dangerous? The one who ineffectively tries to ban books and thoughts they disagree with out in the open? Or the one who effectively bans books and thoughts while no one seems to realize it is happening?

You know Steve - if you want more Conservative books, publish more conservative books.

Now, wait - I know that sounded snarky and condescending, but it wasn't meant to be - what my point is is - there is no ban on Conservative books - point of fact - the political ones, at least in America, especailly when I was a book store manager - the Conservative books WAY outsell the liberal ones.  For every Michael Moore or Al Franken there's like 10 Conservatives - every conservative media host has multiple books and for every liberal book, there's a conservative reply to it, etc.

Because (and I'm getting to my point here) - book publishers are in business to make money.  They will publish what will sell.  If you have a conservative book that will sell, they will publish it.  And they do sell - like hot cakes.

I grant you - considering my liberal views, I probably don't "see" the liberal influence everywhere.  I see it in the political books, but fiction is fiction to me - I suppose you could argue that Steinbeck was a Democrat, Hemmingway was a Republican (was he?), comics and music books are liberal and Westerns and Romance novels are Republican or something, but... I never saw that ... maybe because I wasn't looking...?

But no one is stopping these books from being published, and in fact, if they'll turn a profit for a publisher, they will have it out in a heartbeat.

I mean - Mein Kampf is, to this day, in print. Likewise, the Protocals of the Elders of Zion.  Surely, a publisher might be morally opposed to that stuff, but as long as it's selling...

That's the difference between the lack of books and someone in a position of power and authority trying to remove books from a library based on their personal tastes, morays, beliefs, etc.  And before anyone feels sorry for me again - I will clarify - I get that the un-nammed person in question was unsuccessful in their attempt, if such an attempt happened.