I’ve got a meeting tonight, so I’m in haste, but here’s a couple links worth reading.

An editorial in the Houston Chronicle examines how the Texas Education Agency could deem thousands of students to have passed a test on which they got not a single answer right. Strange times we live in. Tip: Grim’s Hall.

The unspeakable Hunter Baker (don’t buy his book) shares a puerile review of a biography of Time Magazine founder Henry Luce.

Have a good weekend! I’ll be in Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis, on Sunday, doing the Viking thing at Norway Day.

Judicial nominee Elena Kagan, presently before the Senate in confirmation hearings, apparently has no problem banning books and other media when the right people want to. You can listen to the audio on the linked post.

The opposition clarifies the issue for us. “Right-wing media are distorting comments Elena Kagan made during arguments before the Supreme Court to falsely claim she said ‘it’s fine if the law bans books.’ In fact, in the video the right is citing, Kagan never said ‘it’s fine if the law bans books’; she specifically argued that federal law had never banned books and likely could not do so.”

That’s so true. I did not hear her say, “It’s fine if the law bans books.” I heard her say that the statute has never been applied to books and no one ever wanted to apply it to books. The Supreme Court Justices make it clear that the law does apply to books, but Kagan argues no one will ever enforce that application.

In other news, Hon. Kagan claims to be an originalist in one sense.

Zero. They can’t.

The Federal Trade Commission is talking about using the iron boot of government to “to support the reinvention of journalism,” whatever the fruit that means. Jeff Jarvis writes, “Most dangerous of all, the FTC considers a doctrine of “proprietary facts,” as if anyone should gain the right to restrict the flow of information just as the information is opening it up. Copyright law protects the presentation of news but no one owns facts — and if anyone did, you could be forbidden from sharing them. How does that serve free speech?”

But don’t worry much. They barely recommend anything, and I don’t think they can write any laws. (via Books, Inq.)

Cover of Conan the Phenomenon, by Sammon and Frazetta.

He was an artist, not an author, but I suspect he was responsible for more fantasy book sales than any single person except J.R.R. Tolkien.

Frank Frazetta died today, after an extended illness. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1928, he attended the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts and went on to work in comics and commercial art. He was an assistant to Al Capp on the classic Li’l Abner comic strip for several years, specializing in voluptuous female figures. In the late ’60s, he began doing the classic book covers for collections of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, which is where guys like me first became wonderingly aware of him. He did lots of book covers, some for good books, some for garbage, but in my opinion there was a synergy between Howard’s lean, evocative prose and Frazetta’s original combination of textures and a limited palette that worked reading magic. Especially for adolescent boys, which was what I was at the time. Still am, for all practical purposes. Continue reading Frank Frazetta, 1928-2010 →