So efficient they hired private companies like Blackwater.

Who are even more efficient as they operate with no oversight whatsoever. Plus they can cut costs by sending out their employees into hostile areas without all that fancy "protection" that real soldiers have to have.

I'm not a librarian (I plan to be one) but I use the library all the time. Due to property tax issues the library system here had to make a bunch of cuts and are short staffers because of hiring freezes, but the library has all kinds of programs for all ages. There's a knitting group, they have (or at least had) free computer classes, there are all kinds of programs for teenagers -- including an anime club. There are book clubs for teens and adults. They have something called the "Traveling Book Club" where if there's a group of you who want to do a book club you can sign up and check out the books for a certain amount of time with some materials to help your book club.

They have book readings, poetry slams, after school tutoring, all kinds of groups and use the meeting rooms there. You can get help on your taxes, with genealogy.

The branch libraries are so that people who live in various areas don't have to drive very far to get to the main library. Some don't have meeting rooms, but they are gathering places for people. Kids hang out at the library, get access to computers they might not have otherwise.

If you want to complain about the library after you've been there, that's fine, but don't start putting down something you don't know anyhting about.

That as a conservative/libertarian you might think the military is one thing the government should be involved in--that I get. It the actually thinking they are currently efficient at it that cracks me up!

but don't start putting down something you don't know anyhting about.

Hey, this is a fine and longstanding American tradition!

One of the comments that Laura heard a lot was that volunteers could take her job.

I also never heard of annotating books as a taught skill. I even remember feeling vaguely naughty when I first got to college and owned my textbooks, therefore having the power to highlight them. And I still can't bring myself to write in the margins--I'll occasionally star a key detail, but that's it.

Every once in awhile I run across a library book a previous patron has felt the need to annotate and/or copyedit, and it's extremely annoying. It's like having an unwanted interloper on my conversation with the book.

Seattle has a pretty good library system, though they set up their funding structure in such a way that they've spent tons of money on buildings while IMHO neglecting their collection and having to cut back on hours of operation compared to when I first moved here. They're not the route to go if you want to read a new book right away, and sometimes it's a scramble to get there before closing. Still, I'd be bereft if I didn't have them. Thanks to interlibrary loan I can get pretty much any obscure text on my chosen historical era within a month, and I'd go broke buying books if I didn't have the library to supply 50-75% of my reading material. Of course, I'm hardly a typical citizen, or even a typical library patron, and I suppose I'm using more of my share of the tax dollar kitty on getting all those obscure military histories shuttled across the country for my researching pleasure. I don't really feel the tiniest bit of guilt about that, though.

Lately I've been taking Annabel with me on my weekly library runs, so I'm actually spending time in my branch instead of just dropping off my returns and picking up the next batch of holds, so I'm getting to rediscover the joy of a whole roomfull of BOOKS through her eyes.

Check out the hours that are left. It's such horseshit.

Good lord. Never again will I whine about SPL branches closing at 8:00 instead of 9:00 on weekdays.

SPL has a huge range of activities, speakers, book clubs--all the things I guess you'd expect from a major urban library, mostly at the central library but quite a bit at the branches as well. And the mobile services division is partnering with some local preschools, including Annabel's, as a sort of get-ready-to-read outreach. Friday we went to a dinner where the librarians talked to the parents about how to encourage early literacy skills (not reading as such, but understanding books, learning letters, etc.). I found it helpful and informative even as a parent who already reads to my child and generally provides a bookish environment.

One of the comments that Laura heard a lot was that volunteers could take her job.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa.

This time it was national health care and how we shouldn't trust the government to do anything efficiently.

I think the problem with health care is there is a desire for it work both as a free market system and a government service. Everybody should be able to get it, but the government shouldn't be involved.

It's sort of like going to the road store to buy the street your house is on and going to the road repair place to get it serviced. I'm sure there are people who think that's great, but I imagine most people don't want roads to work that way.

The current system isn't even a good free market system. The insurance model for something everybody will need is kinda weird. You have employers having to deal with health care which is a big headache especially for small businesses. You're screwed if you're not able to get in a large pool. To me it feels like a bunch of band-aids.

To me it feels like a bunch of band-aids.

Yeah. Plus with socialized medial insurance you'd have one big bureaucracy. With the current system you've got thousands of smaller bureaucracies, duplicating effort and what-not (which is, oddly enough, far less efficient than one big bureaucracy would be). A major reason for all the increases in insurance premiums in the last few decades has been the sharp increase in paperwork and associated bureaucracy. The % of people's health care $ that goes to bureaucracy/paperwork is far higher than it used to be.