THE ALA AND FIDEL CASTRO: Randy at Beautiful Horizons, which is over on the blogroll as Yet More Beautiful Horizons; the Beautiful Horizons on top is Randy's old blog, and yes, I know, I should get off my lazy ass and change it; has a number of posts on the American Library Association's scandalous kowtowing to Fidel Castro, all of which are guaranteed to raise my blood pressure and should raise yours as well. There are links to Nat Hentoff's columns on this same subject in the Village Voice (just a short digression: Nat Hentoff is the only reason I even look at the Village Voice) and you should read them all. For an organization dedicated to intellectual freedom to defend Fidel Castro while bashing John Ashcroft is, as I wrote here back in July, absolute rank hypocrisy.