We’re having this controversy because (1) they don’t do their jobs properly and (2) they’ve persuaded themselves that there judgment is not to be questioned because they are ‘professionals’ and (3) a certain number of them have issues. They’re librarians because it’s a great funkhole for people with issues who have certain other properties. For some of them, the ‘issues’ are manifest in buying porn for nine year old children. If school administrators were serious people operating in a regime with serious work rules, a librarian who did that would be out on her tuchus by the end of the week. Serious people no longer enter the school administrator trade, so the state legislature has to intervene.

AFAICT, there are some decent Round Tables in the ALA, but the organization in general is quite silly. Which is a function of misconceiving library administration as a profession rather than as a collection of skill sets. It’s also a function of the self-understanding of the sort of people attracted to that type of work and willing to remain in it.

As you posted “Unfortunately, “hit back twice as hard with whatever stick is close at hand” is a terrible MO for governing and a terrible MO for building a majority coalition. Also, unfortunately, it is Trump’s whole schtick. He only has one forward gear” – well said! All polls and surveys are in agreement with that. He has become the proverbial ‘one trick pony’.

Miguel cervantes – maybe next time we run a better candidate than Herschel Walker?

Who does the allowing in public libraries? I’m not sure there’s a law someplace. The ALA is pretty left wing.

Although one experienced librarian said, of the books in a school library, if these were movies, we couldn’t show them to anybody under eighteen.

As the old adage goes, “You know how they separated the men from the boys in Sparta? With a crowbar.”

Again, this is messy stuff, and age matters, but so does consent. And, again, to be clear, I believe in age of consent laws. It’s an inaccurate mallet, but societies need something to protect youths and their innocence.

Some (all?) states have different rules when parental consent is involved. If a child’s parents deem them mature enough to wed, they can wed at an age below the local limit. I imagine all states allow marriage at an age younger than 21 and 18, even without parental consent.

Two 17 year olds marrying? OK. An 18 and a 17 year old marrying? OK-ish. A 35 year old and a 17 year old marrying? Creepy. A 35 year old and an 18 year old marrying? OK? Is it different for homosexuals?

Tricky stuff.

I believe the out-of-fashion term for that is pederasty, which is as old as time. And there’s not shrtage of historical examples from the classical era to modern times (NAMBLA).

It hasnt escaped that re j6 desantis has been basenji