These days, anyone can publish anything. Before e-publishing, books had to pass through the filter of a publishing house. It wasn’t a perfect system. A lot of good books didn’t get published, but at least a lot of bad ones didn’t get published either. Not so today. Anyone can put anything out on the Internet. And if you want something a little more prestigious than a passing blog, hundreds of outfits will help you produce something that has a cover, an ISBN, and a price tag. Every copy shop can be a publisher And Amazon will probably sell the book they produce, whether it deserves exposure or not. That’s roughly what happened with Robert Picton’s book. To fill in some background, Robert “Willie” Pickton was convicted in 2007 of murdering six women, mainly sex workers in Vancouver’s squalid downtown eastside. He was originally charged with murdering 26 women, but the prosecution saw no benefit in pursuing convictions for the additional 20. Any number seems like an under-estimate. Forensic researchers found the remains or DNA of 33 women on Pickton’s pig farm. Pickton himself bragged to an undercover police officer that he had killed 49 women.
Getting it published Apparently Pickton wrote a book while imprisoned. The prison monitors incoming and outgoing mail, but Pickton managed to smuggle the handwritten manuscript out through a cellmate, who in turn sent it to an acquaintance in California. The California contact, Michael Chilldres, had Pickton’s handwritten scrawl typed, and sent it to a publishing house. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of companies in North America who will, for a fee, take your manuscript and turn it into a paper book, or an e-book, or both. They’ll also promise to promote it. Wikipedia, for example, lists 37 companies that claim to provide assistance in self-publishing books, offer print on demand services as publishers, or operate as vanity presses. Chilldres sent Pickton’s manuscript to Outskirts Press in Colorado. For $2500, Outskirts published it. And got the book onto Amazon. The tempest swirled; the teapot boiled over. Victims’ families objected to having to suffer through their losses all over again. Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale promised to investigate. B.C. Premier Christie Clark demanded that Amazon withdraw the book. B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Morris fulminated, "It is not right that a person who has caused so much harm and hurt so many people could profit from his behaviour."
Profiting from crime As if it had never happened before. Paul Bernardo did it just last year. Colin Thatcher published his version of the killing of his ex-wife, JoAnn Wilson. An article in Britain’s Guardian listed more than a dozen instances of criminals writing about, and profiting from, their exploits. Perhaps the most famous example would be Mafia kingpin Joseph Bonano’s memoir, A Man of Honor. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia all have laws that prevent criminals from collecting income from writing about their crimes; B.C. does not. Not that it matters. Chilldres says that profits from sales of Pickton’s book will go to an unspecified charity, not to Pickton. If there are any sales, that is. Amazon yielded to pressure, and pulled the book off its webpages.
Meddling with my mind I haven’t read Picton’s book. I didn’t want to read it; now I won’t be able to. One account described it as rambling, incoherent, replete with spelling and grammar errors, self-justifying quotations from the Bible, and transcripts from the trial. Traditional publishing processes would have -- if I may use this analogy -- aborted it. I wouldn’t expect to learn anything from it. But I object to someone else telling me what I should be allowed to read. It’s easy to criticize the Roman Catholic Church’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of prohibited books that goes back to 1559, not abolished until 1966. That list included such crucial works as Kepler’s treatise on astronomy and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, even some translations of the Bible. It never excluded, however, the works of Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, or Adolf Hitler. But focussing on the Index ignores the censorship imposed by fundamentalist Christians on the evangelical side, who burn the Koran and ban the teaching of evolution, lest heretical notions affect impressionable minds. The desire to ban books recognizes a truth, that what I read will influence what I think. I cannot learn from -- let alone oppose or challenge -- concepts to which I have not been exposed. And I deeply resent anyone’s attempt to meddle with my right to think. ******************************************************** Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups encouraged; links from other blogs welcomed; all other rights reserved. To send comments, to subscribe, or to unsubscribe, write jimt@quixotic.ca ********************************************************
YOUR TURN
Gill Jackson picked up the toxic chemical reference in last week’s column about the Zika virus: “Jim, research Monsanto…. nothing to do with a mosquito….. Monsanto has done this!”
So did Cliff Boldt: “And now we find that there is [may be] a link between the birth defects and the chemical used to kill the mosquito. To quote Albert Einstein: ‘We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.’”
Laurna Tallman: “The suggestion of Pope Francis that the Zika virus horror might be preventable through contraception is another lamp lighted by this remarkable man. “I had not realized that a pesticide might be a suspect. Why do I find that chemical culprit theory more believable than the Zika virus explanation? Does anyone know which came first, the malformed babies and the mosquito theory or the pesticide theory? That should be easy to answer. 
“From one article I read, the Zika virus was identified a long time ago in Africa. Surely the microcephaly would have been noticed or recorded at that point? Where's an investigative reporter when we need one? Ah, yes; replaced by the hearsay and word-of-keyboard of the Internet.”
Vic Sedo added to Laurna’s point about timing: “An expert in control of epidemics in Brazil who used to work in Calgary stated that it took off after the World Soccer Cup.” 
Chandra Schraefel objected to my comments about the Roman Catholic Church: “How wonderful, and somewhat patronizing, that you can ‘sympathize, to some extent, with Catholic opposition to abortion.’  But once again, you muddy the waters and thus spread misinformation by relating only part of the facts. What I got from your opinion piece is that the big bad Vatican won't let those infected with Zika virus kill their unborn children just in case they are born with microcephaly, and that same big bad Vatican won't let people use contraception, even though those simple men in Brazil can't control themselves. What a backward, evil institution. Luckily, the popular Pope Francis swoops in to save the day. Did I get the gist of it? “Don't get me wrong -- I like Pope Francis. But you seem to be separating him from ‘the Vatican’. On Feb. 18, Pope Francis himself strongly rejected abortion as a response to the fears surrounding the Zika virus outbreak. “Abortion is not the lesser of two evils. It is a crime. It is to throw someone out in order to save another. That’s what the Mafia does. It is a crime, an absolute evil...It’s against the Hippocratic oaths doctors must take. It is an evil in and of itself, but it is not a religious evil in the beginning, no, it’s a human evil. Then obviously, as with every human evil, each killing is condemned.” “He is not referring to ‘death before birth’, as you put it, but to killing before birth. “Secondly, regarding contraceptive use, the Pope referenced a case in the early 1960s, when the Vatican granted a dispensation to religious sisters living in the Belgian Congo, who were in grave danger of rape, to use oral contraceptives. “Paul VI, a great man, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape,” He added that avoiding pregnancy is “not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one, such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear.” The logic behind the decision was that while birth control is normally immoral because it attempts to separate the unitive and procreative aspects of the sexual act, the nuns were trying to resist the act altogether. Because rape is an act of violent aggression rather than a freely chosen act, the contraception was part of a legitimate attempt at self-defense. “Pope Francis did not give Brazilians the go-ahead to start using contraception. Nor did he say anything that the Vatican has not already stated. He also called for stronger measures in fighting the mosquitoes and the virus they carry.  “I could not let your poor understanding of the Catholic church go unaddressed. Perhaps you would do better to avoid such topics and thus avoid making statements when you don't know the factual background.”
Tom Watson went back to the previous week’s column about randomness: “A couple of years ago I read ‘Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities.’ It was written by University of Toronto professor of statistics Jeffrey Rosenthal and examines both the relevant and irrelevant role of randomness in our everyday lives.”
A general comment from Gerhard Neufeld: “I wish your blog would have LESS truth in it!”
Earlier, Beth Robey Hyde had asked how U.S. residents could get CBC programs. Judyth Mermelstein responded, “CBC Radio is available in the US via the Sirius XM http://www.siriusxm.com/ satellite radio network, and some programs are also involved in a system called PRI http://www.pri.org/ (Public Radio International) that brings selected programs from around the world to US stations (and Canadian insomniacs like me) “Much depends on what rights are available but there is a way people can access programming not technically available in their countries: that is, using a VPN (virtual private network) that routes the signal through a 
server in an authorized country. People in countries with media censorship do that, as well as the Canadians who want only-in-the-US Netflix programs...”
Sheila Carey also offered a suggestion: “We have regularly listened to the CBC when vacationing in the U.S.. It is great to keep in touch while away and catch up on local news the day before heading home. “Please send Beth to http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ There she can find live radio – and chose the right one for her time zone – also Radio 2 or 3 and links to many podcasts. If she has Sirius Radio she’ll find the CBC at channel 169.”
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TECHNICAL STUFF
This column comes to you using the electronic facilities of Woodlakebooks.com.        If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, at jimt@quixotic.ca. Or just hit the “Reply” button.        To subscribe or unsubscribe, send me an e-mail message at the address above. Or subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message) to sharpedges-subscribe@quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at sharpedgesunsubscribe@quixotic.ca.        You can access several years of archived columns at http://edges.Canadahomepage.net.        I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly, at the address above, or send a blank e-mail to softedgessubscribe@quixotic.ca
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PROMOTION STUFF…
 Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah – the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.com Ralph’s HymnSight webpage is still up,  http://www.hymnsight.ca, with a vast gallery of photos you can use to enhance the appearance of the visual images you project for liturgical use (prayers, responses, hymn verses, etc.)  Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>  Alan Reynold’s weekly musings, punningly titled “Reynolds Rap” -- reynoldsrap@shaw.ca  Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com  Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town – not particularly religious, but fun; alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.  Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatso@gmail.com or twatson@sentex.net
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