BONFIRE & BURNING BOOKS by Wm Dorich Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 11:45 PM
Lead, children's books, and the heavy hand of our government During the Holocaust, book burning was a common practice and tens of millions went up in smoke. But such disgusting proclivities do not die an easy death. In 1978 Communist dictator Tito gave 850,000 Albanians in Kosovo "autonomy," without a single vote of the other 7 million citizens of former Yugoslavia—this was the first time in a communist country that one group of citizens was shown special treatment, including a form of welfare. Muslim Albanian authorities in Kosovo took full advantage of Tito's generosity and fired every Christian Serb from their jobs as doctors, lawyers, teachers, judges and policemen. The burning of several Serbian churches and monasteries and the systematic rape of Serbian nuns and young Serbian girls was the chosen form of humiliation to "ethnic cleanse" 150,000 Christian Serbs who fled to Belgrade during a 5 year period of obnoxious abuse. One Serbian nun was raped twice and beaten numerous times… she was 68 years old. The 87 year-old Serbian bishop of Kosovo was beaten on the streets by a gang of Muslim Albanian teenagers—he spent three months in intensive care nearly dying of his wounds. The banning of the Serbian language and the Cyrillic alphabet, used by the Serbs since 860 when Sts. Cyril and Methodius developed their language was only the beginning of this brutal regime that has continued to this day and has succeeded in reducing the Christian Serb population from 21% in 1990 to a mere 3% today. Muslim Albanian authorities destroyed 4 major Serbian libraries, removed Serbian books on religion, history and music from all the schools in Kosovo and burned over 2 million copies. Some were priceless manuscripts from the 13th and 14th centuries. In Muslim Albanian Riots in March, 2004 over 3 dozen Serbian churches went up in smoke and 19 Serbs were murdered. Nato troops looked on as though helpless and incapable of stopping the violence that lasted for 4 days. The work of Ivo Andric, the only Yugoslav Nobel Prize winner was removed from the curriculum of Pristina University because Andric, author of his award-winning book, Bridge On the Drina, admitted he was a Serbian. The world pretended not to notice and the media managed to look the other way in the past 7 years as Muslim Albanian terrorists, under the noses of 17,000 NATO troops, razed 157 ancient Serbian Orthodox churches. These Serbian churches contained some of the finest frescoes in the world and UNESCO listed many as 'World Treasures.' The Christian Serbs have been so successfully demonized that most in the media as well as our government think Christian Serbs have it coming. Not a single major American newspaper has reported on the destruction of these religious and cultural landmarks. George Santayana reminds us that "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Goethe so loved the Serbian people that he learned to speak their language. It was Goethe who convinced Brahms to write his famous lullaby that was based on a Serbian folk poem. Goethe also reminds us: "Patriotism ruins history." These examples are clearly illustrated in the behavior of the Muslim Albanians in Kosovo where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with Albanian leaders this week who were all Nazi in 1945 when they razed dozens of Serbian churches including the Serbian Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. On July 24, 1999, under Bill Clinton's administration and his secret CIA assistance to the KLA terrorists, the Serbian Cathedral, rebuild during Tito's communist regime, was once again raised and Muslim Albanians like the current Prime Minister and former KLA leader Hashim Tachi danced in the streets through the night in celebration of destroying this Serbian Cathedral twice in 55 years. Just like these American politicians will no doubt dance around the intellectual bonfires of burning children's books! What does this have to do with lead and books for children you ask? It's hard to believe, but true: under a law passed by our stupid Congress last year is yet another example of their rush to pass irresponsible laws to regulate products for children, the federal government has now advised that books for children published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be unlawful to sell or even give away. Bookstores, thrift stores may be at legal risk if they sell older volumes without first subjecting them to testing—at prohibitive expense. I just had This Bible Talks one of our newest titles tested and it cost me $150.00. Many used-book sellers have begun to refuse new donations of pre-1985 books, and are removing what they have from their shelves in this draconian new law in fear of potential lawsuits. So, what is the alternative? It has been arrogantly suggested that books printed before 1985 be burned. How compelling that our elected officials resort to Nazi style solutions instead of a realistic approach to solving the problem. Perhaps companies like mine should seek a bailout from Barney Frank and his ilk for the costs of our inventory of children's books? Like the current "stimulus" bill that has been shoved down our throats without a single lawmaker reading the 900 page bill before voting on it, this same Congress, after the panic over lead painted toys from China passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Among its other draconian provisions, CPSIA imposed tough new limits on lead in any products intended for use by children under the age of 12 and made the limits retroactive: in other words, goods manufactured before the law passed cannot be sold on the used market (even in garage sales or on eBay) What this says to small business owners is, eat it, regardless of your investment. Many products for children have included lead—components such as snaps and zippers on garments and backpacks and countless other products containing metal alloy like rhinestones and beads. This law will destroy more companies or financially ruin many at a time when unemployment is headed for 500,000 jobs per month… Have our elected representatives lost their minds? The insanity of this measure with a new retroactive aspect on playthings and articles that contain plastic-softening chemicals known as 'phthalates' you suddenly have tens of thousands of common items that have become unlawful to resell. Penalties under the law are strict and can include $100,000 fines and prison time, regardless of whether any child is harmed. Sound like something Nancy Pelosi would add to a piece of legislation. Common sense has been thrown out of the window along with the baby and the bath water. For decades lead pigments in inks, dyes and paints were used in books for children, particularly in the great age of illustrated books at the turn of the 20th century. While lead poisoning from paint in old houses remains a serious public health issue, no one seems able to produce any evidence in which an American child has been made ill by the lead in old book illustrations—and for good reason, book pigments do not flake off in chips for children to put into their mouths. The New York Times, whose editorial pages vigorously supported the passage of CPSIA is a major newspaper that also covered the book and apparel business but has remained strangely silent on the law in recent weeks… not too surprising to American Serbs as this is the very same newspaper that for the entire decade of the 1990's did not publish one single article written by a Serbian journalist, author, scholar or political leader during the dismemberment of Yugoslavia. The Times led the charge in muzzling of opposing views. The New York Times company slogan, "All the news that's fit to print" is hypocrisy at its finest… about as absurd as this new law that will destroy small companies like mine and thrown hundreds of thousands of our citizens out of work in a goal to have a non-functioning economy as the result of political correctness run amok.
