Ha, Bill. ;-) I guess I'm Public Enemy No. 1 because I dared to point out the frustrating process we went through. That's OK. I've gotten calls and apologies from other library folks since I posted it. Others took my constructive criticism in the spirit it was offered.

Reports that President Obama has rejected the $1 million tax-cuts plan. The math clearly wouldn't add up to pay down the debt and pay for wars without cutting too much from needed programs.

I'm not "throwing a fit," onlooker. I'm talking about dated procedures that might keep people from using the library. I like it, so I'll go back whenever I can get there.

Erica was told that you can't renew books over the phone. They did allow us to pay the whole fine when she went although they didn't want to at first, had to call me at the JFP (even though she had a JFP check), etc. It was an ordeal, in other words, over the attempt to pay fines on four books. That's the whole point, and I offered it to encourage the library to update its policies and be sure they give out good information. Trust me, I don't feel like a victim. I'm not that type of person. ;-)

And as I said, I was down with the flu for two weeks and couldn't talk for a number of days. The books came due then; when I returned to work still sick, Erica called to renew them for me over the phone. They said we had to come down there. Down there, they made it more difficult than it needed to be. See the drill?

Library books. I don't think it was about the clerks; it sounds like it was about unclear and perhaps antiquated policies. That's the point; let's make sure libraries stay as user-friendly as possible in an age when fewer people use them.

I mean Richard Wright here, not Welty, by the way.

I agree in principle. But in practice, and the reality of the Internet, it would help to have more user-friendly systems to encourage those of us to love libraries to keep using them. As I said, it was amazing in Colorado Springs, and we were surprised to see how difficult this was. Perhaps some new best practices are in order in the current climate to keep people coming?

No, Book_lover, I'm not wrong. ;-) We called, and they would not allow us to renew them over the phone. Period.

I'm told today that it was probably because we had more than two books (had four) that were overdue (only a few days), so we had to take them in. I'd argue that that is an absurd rule (10 books at two months or such, I could see), and it doesn't encourage busy people to use the library.

It's a little ways from me, but I helped name that library in an informal way! ;-)

The Nation has a [new story on Walmart selling assault weapons.][1]

[1]: http://www.thenation.com/article/171808…

Well, look at that: It looks like [Walmart has pulled the AR-15 from its online store.][1] Now, how about pulling it from their physical stores???

And no one should be able to buy guns or ammo on the damn Internet. That's absurd.

[1]: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national…