Weep for America’s children… and their parents too while we’re at it. Cringe at the fallout that may cross the border… Hey, maybe they can ship their extras to our used/antiquarian bookstores. It’s better than burning them, no?

What am I gibbering about? Continuing the overreaction to lead-laced toys, that is set to crush many small/cottage/home businesses, the US government has “advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or distribute”. Used booksellers and similar stores unwilling to chance prison or insane fines are destroying their pre-1985 inventory. Libraries who have been warning unheeded of this impending disaster are suffering too. Maybe they can store things away until the tide of insanity has passed.

I’m in the middle of reading the paranoia-fest that is “Little Brother” and this is pretty close to as horrific as anything I’ve read in the book so far. 8(

http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0212wo.html (via)