How can you have the Iron Bowl when that big honking iron statue is still lying in pieces all over some ironyard?
Take the goddam football money and PUT THAT STATUE BACK UP.
– Uke, lover of scary giant statues
First, please permit me an aside…the Straight Dope servers are slower than dried snot. Sorry. Thanks for me letting me vent.
Ok, now, back to the thread…there’s a very simple reason there’s very little hue and cry over the Harry Potter movie…the same reason the Gary Condit scandal faded so quickly…i.e., the WTC bombings…
So many things are much more important, now.
Well, there is not much of a stink here, but I think that is mainly because of two other issues currently occupying most of us here in Bloomington:
#1. The Vagina Monologues is coming to town. Heavens! Billboards with that…that…WORD! Right there in black and white! For all to see!!! Run for your lives!!!
#2. (Embarassingly close to Bloomington) Nearby assistant police chief writes a letter to the editor, pointing out that he is (paraphrasing here, as I just cannot get my diction quite right) “sick of his kids not being able to pray in school for fear of offending (insert unkind Simpson-esque words for various religions here), and he is sick of ‘queers’ being portrayed on tv.” THEN the police chief AND THE MAYOR support him. THEN a public meeting is held, in which his daughter proclaims that we deserved the WTC attacks because of “Abortions! Queers!”, and various other folk stand up and agree and say things about how we might rid the world of such sinners. :eek:
So, Harry Potter is small potatoes at the moment here.
~karol, slinking away in embarassment
Pardon my ignorance, but, not having read the books, I’m a little confused about something. Isn’t Harry, along with the other students, a wizard, not a witch? Is there any witchcraft in the books, or is it all wizardry?
Witchcraft/wizardry are the same in the Harry Potter books. All the magical people are collectively referred to as wizards, but technically, “wizard” is a term for the guys and “witch” is a term for the girls.
jessica
I just bought the first two Harry Potter books for my stepson. I’d never read them, but from everything I’d heard about them, they sounded pretty decent, and didn’t contain any truly objectionable material. A Good v. Evil thing, with Good winning out, you know?
One night after my stepson went to bed, I picked up the first one & started reading it myself, just to see what all the hubbub was about.
Well, I finally put the damn thing down at around 2 am–after I’d finished it. I couldn’t stop reading it. It was outstanding. Well-written, with a very positive message about friendship, right and wrong, discovering what lies within yourself and using your talents and gifts for good, not bad. The sorcery and magic are there because it’s entertaining, but the overall message is there, in your face, on nearly every page. Some folks might not like the sorcery, but fercryinoutloud, you just can’t object to the message.
My stepson graciously loaned me the second book. Read the entire thing last night. I think I liked the first one better, but the second certainly didn’t suck, and the message was still the same.
The third and fourth, well…those will be in the house as soon as I can get them. And I’m sure we’ll be seeing the movie, too, for two reasons–one, because my stepson really wants to, and two, because Alan Rickman is in it and, well, I can’t deny the boy the chance to see Alan Rickman now, can I? 
Is this in America? Where’s Bloomington?
You’re not joshing us, are you?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Jeremytt *
**
Bloomington, Indiana. Actually, the whole Hindu/Buddha/queer remarks took place in a nearby town, Martinsville, which has a reputation as being a racist town. Bloomington itself, aside from being the former home to Bob Knight, is actually a pretty nice place–fairly open-minded, lots of diversity, etc.
I can’t post a good link because the local paper demands moola for past articles…if I can find a free one, I’ll put it up here. The level of ignorance shown by some of the people is appalling.
FWIW, Mr. Nail, the assitant police chief, did make an apology of sorts, for his ill-advised remarks about “ethnic groups”. He failed to address his references to “queers”, and has not yet commented further on it.
The Hoosier Times www.HoosierTimes.com may have future articles about it. My guess is that this guy will just keep digging himself in deeper and deeper.
~karol
I just realized what a huge hijack my last post was.
Apologies all around.
Back to Harry Potter now…
~karol
What christian parallels in LotR? I never noticed any (ok, so I didn;t notice the ones in Narnia till someone mentioned that there were ones, then it was bloody obvious, but I can’t think of any for LotR).
Nitpick:
It didn’t give him his great magic abilities (which are about average to good, school grade-wise), but it did protect him from Voldemort’s curse, causing the backlash that “destroyed” Voldemort & gave him a residual resistance to LordV [sub](SPOILER - at least until a later book, but that really is getting way ahead)[/sub].
/Nitpick
Urk! The second quote should be by bodypoet - sorry katisha.
Miracles, magic, I hardly see the difference. Magic in childrens’ stories has been around forever. Heck, it pervades adult literature too.
It’s a shame that some self-serving religious sects have to resort to riding on the tails of a childrens’ movie to promote their visibility and agendas. It’s stinks, as did the ones that tried to use the Sept. 11 tragedy as a platform to spout more of their rhetoric against those parts of American culture that they seek to crush.
I’ve never seen the movie nor read the books, but I’m sure that it does nothing more than teach children that the misuse of power in any form, especially to try to oppress, will cause good people to come together and fight. It’s sad that organizations that purport to do what is right are so blind to the evil of their own ways.
Don’t worry about it.
Well, I found a couple of articles via Yahoo! News.
Letter Brings Controversy in Ind. Town
Officer apologizes to residents for uproar - City’s assistant police chief doesn’t say that he’s sorry for letter using derogatory terms for groups.
One of the theaters here (NO.VA/D.C.) had a sneak pre-view this past weekend. Ii made the news cause the hugh lines and the fact that all tickets for the opening weekend had been sold out already. The newscaster was talking about all the excitement and as the camera panned around you could see some protesters. The desk anchor asked the reporter what the protest was for, and the reporter basically laughed at the protesters and went back to the excitement of the story.