3 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(02/03/06 4:17am)
President Bush urged members of Congress in his State of the Union address Tuesday to renew expiring portions of the USA Patriot Act, the controversial anti-terrorism legislation passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. \nThe House answered his call Wednesday, extending the law for five weeks. The Senate is expected to agree on a similar extension soon, according to The Associated Press. Last December, Congress renewed 16 divisive sections of the law, which will expire Friday unless the Senate comes to an agreement.\n"I think people should be debating whether it should be renewed," said IU political science professor Bill Scheuerman. "If you sit back and ask, 'Has this helped us?' I think that's up in the air."\nMost of the Patriot Act is permanent law. But when Congress initially authorized the legislation in 2001, it agreed to allow the most contentious provisions to expire after four years. Now the debate is raging in Washington over whether to renew these sections again, make them permanent or negotiate new legislation.\nIU professor of linguistics and First Amendment expert Paul Newman said members of Congress have had plenty of time to think about the effects of the legislation. \n"It's very clear that there are a number of positions in the Patriot Act that stink," he said. "Why do they need another few months to decide this thing stinks?"\nIU College Republicans Political Director David White said his organization supports the move by the House to extend the Patriot Act. He said the law allows anti-terrorism operations to function efficiently. \n"As far as we're concerned, it's vital to national security," White said.\nBut opponents say it violates civil liberties and would like to see the law reformed. The revelation last month that the president authorized the National Security Agency to monitor international phone conversations and e-mail messages originating in America without a warrant has only intensified the dispute.\n"What you have here is a president who's above the law," Newman said.\nHe said the NSA spying controversy demonstrates the result of a government operating with few checks on its power. But he said he believes it will be some time before the American public realizes the "negative impact" of the Patriot Act. \nNewman said it is a challenge for groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union to convince average Americans that the Patriot Act legislation, like the NSA spying case, is harmful to their way of life. \n"The reality of life is that all of us only react to things that affect us personally," he said.\nThe most controversial sections of the law allow the government to delay notification to individuals whose private property has been searched and require businesses or organizations to hand over personal records of individuals suspected of terrorism.\nFran Quigley, executive director of the Indiana ACLU said these provisions give too much power to the executive branch. \n"There are a half-dozen areas that violate the separation of powers," he said. "The principle this country has operated on is that this type of power needs to be checked by another branch of government."\nWhite said the concerns of groups such as the ACLU are overblown. \n"There's a lot of oversight," he said.\nThat has not eased the minds of critics such as Scheuerman, however. \n"It's a recipe book for any government official to do whatever they want," he said.
(09/29/05 4:35am)
John Steinbeck. Maya Angelou. J.K. Rowling.\nAll three authors are on the list of the most frequently banned and challenged authors of the last 15 years, according to the American Library Association.\nSteinbeck's "Of Mice and Men," Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" are all classic titles that have been met with some of the strongest resistance. From 1990 to 2000, all were among the top 15 challenged works, according to the ALA. \nThe number of challenged books increased by 20 percent from 2003 to 2004, according to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. \nBanned Books Week, which has been observed nationally every year since 1982, focuses on texts that have received considerable complaints in communities to be taken off public shelves.\nA challenged book, according to the ALA, is not a banned book, but an attempt by a citizen or group to ban the work.\nBeverley Becker, deputy director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, said Banned Books Week started not because of a specific incident. It stemmed from a feeling among librarians that books had become an increasingly targeted medium. \n"We encourage everyone to pay attention to challenges and other threats to intellectual freedom in their local communities," Becker said.\nThe 2005 Banned Books Week, sponsored by the ALA and other literary freedom and publishing organizations, will focus on opposition to books containing gay and lesbian references. Three of the 10 most challenged books on the ALA's list for 2004 deal with homosexuality: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Stephen Chbosky; "King & King," by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland; and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," by Maya Angelou. These books have spurred the ALA to focus on opposition to gay and lesbian themes for the 2005 Banned Books Week, which runs through Saturday.\nGay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Student Support Services Director Doug Bauder said this year's theme reflects the status of gay rights in society.\n"(Issues of sexuality) have become more of a prominent issue and standpoint," Bauder said. "It's important for the issue to be out there, because gay issues are becoming bigger issues, and hopefully more accepted."\nBauder said he is aware of students who sought out materials at the GLBTSSS offices because they could not find them elsewhere in the community. One man, Bauder remembers, would come to their building to read a book about spirituality and sexuality, one chapter at a time. He would not leave with the text because he feared repercussions. The man, whom Bauder did not name, eventually became an outspoken activist for gay rights, and Bauder attributes his courage to the book he found at the GLBT offices. \n"That book was his anchor in the storm," Bauder said.\nPushing for widespread acceptance is an important mission for the week, according to the ALA.\n"The voices and stories of gays and lesbians cannot be silenced in our culture or on our bookshelves," ALA President Michael Gorman said in a press release. "Banning books is an extreme disservice to our readers. Not only does it hinder tolerance and acceptance, it also limits the information exchange Americans hold dear."
(10/16/02 4:58am)
When most buildings are empty on a Friday night, Ballantine Hall is the host of classic world cinema, shown in 16mm format for a price every student loves: free. City Lights, a program funded by the Department of Communication and Culture, does not utilize the latest in sound and image technology. Instead the Hollywood, foreign and independent films are shown in their original format, which is the main attraction for many audience members.\n"You get both the experience of seeing a film as close to the original format as you're ever going to see it, in terms of the film structure itself, and you also get the chance to see it as it was intended to be seen, in a theater," graduate student Pete Rowley said.\nThe City Lights board consists of ten graduate students in the department. They volunteer their time to provide the free service to students and residents of Bloomington. Every semester they show one film each week at 7 p.m. on Friday, including a surprise short, except for three Fridays when there is a double-feature.\nThe audience includes students and community members, and in recent years community members have become loyal fans, board member and graduate student Sherra Schick said. The hope is that a loyal student fan-base will also develop, she said.\nA variety of films are being shown throughout the semester, from Humphrey Bogart classics like "To Have and Have Not" to lesser known foreign films such as "Cleo From 5 to 7." There are not many places in town where it is possible to see such films in their original form, board member and graduate student Mary O'Shea said.\n"It's a great way to take advantage of being able to see these films you can't see anywhere else," O'Shea said. "You don't have to pay anything, and it's a wonderful way to spend a Friday evening and get some good entertainment and look into some film history."\nCity Lights is showing "The Battle of Algiers" Oct. 18. The film follows members of the Front de Libération Nationale in their struggle for Algerian independence from France. Shot like a documentary, "The Battle of Algiers" captures the hardships of the native Arab Algerians as they are segregated from the European section of Algiers, Algeria's capital city. The FLN employs techniques such as bombings of cafés and dance clubs, making the film "very pertinent to what's happening in our world today," Schick said.\nSchick also recommended "Duel," Steven Spielberg's directorial debut, scheduled for Nov. 1. The film chases a salesman, played by Dennis Weaver, through California as a big-rig truck tries to kill him. "'Duel' was a harbinger of the sophisticated white-knuckle tension on which Spielberg would found his career," the write-up in City Light's Movie Schedule said.\nThe program was founded five years ago by two graduate students as a way to bring rare films in a rare format to the Bloomington campus and give graduate students studying media a chance to give back to the community. Board members run each showing, including the projector, volunteering their time. Their reward is the chance to view and study movie history.\nEach show starts with an announcement by a board member on duty and can include conversations between crowd and staff about favorite and upcoming films. Then the surprise short starts with the familiar clicking sound of the movie projector and the image that Schick said she loves. \n"There's something so sensual about that liquid quality of film," she said.\nThe features are audience oriented. O'Shea said there have been times audience members have requested certain movies, and the City Lights board has looked up those films, reviewed them and on occasion included them in the next season's schedule. She encourages anyone to come check out a film sometime during the year and those that already have to keep coming back.\n"The people who come are generally really happy," O'Shea said. "We wish always that more people would come and take advantage of what we're doing here because the people that do come ultimately seem to get something out of it."\nFor more information, visit the City Lights Web site at www.indiana.edu/~clights or call 856-3549. The Fall Movie Schedule is available on the City Lights Web site. For other questions e-mail clights@indiana.edu. Parking is free at Ballantine Hall with a City Lights brochure displayed on the dashboard.