Indiana censors bookstores

It's stories like this that make me wonder if it really is 2008 and not 1008 (or 8).

Under a new law that takes effect in July, retailers in Indiana will be required to pay a $250 fee and register with the secretary of state if they sell "dirty" books or other such material. This applies even if the "explicit" material constitutes only a small part of a store that mostly sells G-rated titles. In fact, it applies even if the only "offensive" volume is a sex education tome.

The act was signed into law by incompetent asswipe Gov. Mitch Daniels (a Republican, naturally). Disaster Daniels (as we call him) has been so wrong about almost everything that he makes Ernie "Hey Bert" Fletcher look like competent government in comparison. The hugely unpopular Daniels is the guy who thinks schools ought to beat kids, placed the state in a time zone where it doesn't fit just to appease Big Business, helped influence a federal law blocking lawsuits against Eli Lilly for its mercury-tainted vaccine preservative, and made a TV ad blaming the people of Indiana for the state's bad economy.

I can tell you right now the new law against adult bookstores is unconstitutional government censorship. And it's going to be thrown out by the courts, or my name isn't Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane!

Booksellers of all sorts are furious at the new law. In addition to making stores register, the secretary of state would have to pass the information on to local officials so they can keep tabs on the store. It's believed to be the only bookstore registry law anywhere in America.

Then again, the law is one of these things that falls under the category of "try and make me." (Kind of like uniforms in public schools.) If I ran a bookstore, do you really have any illusions that I'd bother to register? Sometimes it's easier and cheaper to ignore something and let authorities do their worst to enforce it than to fight it from the get-go - at least when it's so clearly unconstitutional.

Since I know a court battle will erupt eventually, hopefully the book burners like Mitch Daniels will get the smackdown from the courts they so richly deserve.

(Source: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080326/LOCAL18/803260446)