From Sploid, although it’s been sourced in any number of other places over the past year as well.

Being homeless comes with any number of inconveniences, not the least of which is the boredom that comes with having nowhere to go and nothing to do.

Until recently, hobos in Massachusetts used to be able to check out library books.

Robert Bombard has loved books even longer than he’s been homeless. He worked at the library as a teen, volunteered there as an adult and even worked in the prison library during his last stretch.

He got a rude awakening three years ago when he went to check out a few books from the Worcester Public Library.

“They said ‘Oh, no — you live at a shelter,’ right in front of everybody,” he told Adam Gorlick of the Associated Press. “It made me feel like a second-class citizen.”

It seems a new policy said that people without a permanent address were forbidden to take out more than two books at a time.

The city’s head librarian, Penelope Johnson, says the lawsuit over this change in policy prevents her from discussing the number of books lost to the homeless, she would only say that it had become a problem.

She adds that the policy — which allows folks with homes to take up to 50 books — wasn’t meant to discriminate against the homeless, just treat them differently.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Thanks for the clarification.

One is reminded, one is, of a long argument one had with one’s coworker about whether or not the coworker had the right to sunbathe nude. One took the position, one did, that if the coworker had the inherent right to sunbathe nude then so did people who didn’t own private courtyards. It was at this point the negotiations broke down. I call it for the homeless… but the cops don’t always see it the same way. In fairness to them, they wouldn’t call it for the property owners if they had the chance, either.

But I’m still pale as a banana slug.

Librarians have historically been among the most patriotic and freedom-loving members of this great nation. Time and again they have thwarted efforts by government storm troopers to stomp on the civil rights of others. This is indeed a sad turn of events.