Issue 73
News: Harry Potter is not satanic.
This year will mark the end of the Harry Potter books franchise with the seventh book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. One incredible rumour that has been going around about the series is that it was written for the express purpose of converting innocent kids to Satanism. Views like this can be found in the film Jesus Camp, where Becky Fisher rants about Harry Potter, claiming that "In Old Testament times He'd have been Put to DEATH!!" and in the Chick tract "The Nervous Witch", two young women are lured into Wicca (read: Jack's version of the same kind of witchcraft that the 1692 residents of Salem were killing themselves over.) Of course, upon looking at the evidence, it should be obvious that such rumours are totally false. According to Snopes.com, the rumours started with an article from The Onion (which is one of the most obviously satirical news sources on the planet) which stated that Satanism among children was on the rise due to the books, even claiming that High Priest Egan of the First Church of Satan in Salem, MS (the High priest of the FCOS is really named Allee and it is not centered in Massachussets) called Harry a "Godsend for their cause". Of course, the irony of a Satanist calling anything a "godsend" should have clued fundamentalists in even if The Onion's reputation was unknown to them. Instead, they not only believed that the story was true, but also cited it as proof that their claims are true, even adding several fake statistics, including that since 1995, the membership of the church of Satan. Of course, they often include several other statistics, like that 40 thousand children get killed yearly as part of Halloween celebrations every year, and that number is equivalent to how many people in general are murdered in this country in three years. Indeed, I'm not really sure that they know there is a difference between devil worship and Satanism. There is, and I intend to explain it later on. If anything, people should be worried about whether adults can distinguish the fantasy of Rowling's work from reality, because the kids clearly can.
Band Name of the Day: Lady Godiva's Operation: From A severely underrated song by the Velvet Underground.
Film Reviews of the Day: The Two Lolitas. I recently saw the two film versions of Lolita, Kubrick's version from 1962 and Adrian Lyne's 1997 version. I found both enjoyable as films, even though Lyne was more faithful to Nabokov's original story. Of course, this can be blamed on the Production Code, which, while on its last legs, was still in effect and would not let a truly faithful adaptation appear onscreen, consequently the entire incest plotline of the film is muted very much. Naturally, since the 1997 version wasn't tied down by the Code, it could afford to be faithful to the book, but it may have been too faithful for its own good, because it deleted many of the subtleties of the book. However, one can view Kubrick's version as the one Humbert would have casted (as Lolita was saddled with a very attractive [albeit older than specified in the book] actress, and her mother was saddled with Shelly Winters, who is decidedly less so.)
Quote of the Day: "I'm Carl Sagan. Just how old is our planet? Scientists believe that it's four HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF YEARS OLD!! Scientists have determined that the universe was created by a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODbig bang. If you look at the bones of a JAY-ZUZnosaurus rex, it's clear by the use of carbon dating that MOUNTAIN DEW IS THE BEST SODA EVAR (sic) MADE!"
____________Carl Sagan in "Cosmos: Edited for Rednecks" from Family Guy: Airport '07.
Link of the Day: The collected Coast to Coast AM calls of an insane fundamentalist named J.C. Webster.
And here are their transcripts.
This year will mark the end of the Harry Potter books franchise with the seventh book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. One incredible rumour that has been going around about the series is that it was written for the express purpose of converting innocent kids to Satanism. Views like this can be found in the film Jesus Camp, where Becky Fisher rants about Harry Potter, claiming that "In Old Testament times He'd have been Put to DEATH!!" and in the Chick tract "The Nervous Witch", two young women are lured into Wicca (read: Jack's version of the same kind of witchcraft that the 1692 residents of Salem were killing themselves over.) Of course, upon looking at the evidence, it should be obvious that such rumours are totally false. According to Snopes.com, the rumours started with an article from The Onion (which is one of the most obviously satirical news sources on the planet) which stated that Satanism among children was on the rise due to the books, even claiming that High Priest Egan of the First Church of Satan in Salem, MS (the High priest of the FCOS is really named Allee and it is not centered in Massachussets) called Harry a "Godsend for their cause". Of course, the irony of a Satanist calling anything a "godsend" should have clued fundamentalists in even if The Onion's reputation was unknown to them. Instead, they not only believed that the story was true, but also cited it as proof that their claims are true, even adding several fake statistics, including that since 1995, the membership of the church of Satan. Of course, they often include several other statistics, like that 40 thousand children get killed yearly as part of Halloween celebrations every year, and that number is equivalent to how many people in general are murdered in this country in three years. Indeed, I'm not really sure that they know there is a difference between devil worship and Satanism. There is, and I intend to explain it later on. If anything, people should be worried about whether adults can distinguish the fantasy of Rowling's work from reality, because the kids clearly can.
Band Name of the Day: Lady Godiva's Operation: From A severely underrated song by the Velvet Underground.
Film Reviews of the Day: The Two Lolitas. I recently saw the two film versions of Lolita, Kubrick's version from 1962 and Adrian Lyne's 1997 version. I found both enjoyable as films, even though Lyne was more faithful to Nabokov's original story. Of course, this can be blamed on the Production Code, which, while on its last legs, was still in effect and would not let a truly faithful adaptation appear onscreen, consequently the entire incest plotline of the film is muted very much. Naturally, since the 1997 version wasn't tied down by the Code, it could afford to be faithful to the book, but it may have been too faithful for its own good, because it deleted many of the subtleties of the book. However, one can view Kubrick's version as the one Humbert would have casted (as Lolita was saddled with a very attractive [albeit older than specified in the book] actress, and her mother was saddled with Shelly Winters, who is decidedly less so.)
Quote of the Day: "I'm Carl Sagan. Just how old is our planet? Scientists believe that it's four HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF YEARS OLD!! Scientists have determined that the universe was created by a GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODbig bang. If you look at the bones of a JAY-ZUZnosaurus rex, it's clear by the use of carbon dating that MOUNTAIN DEW IS THE BEST SODA EVAR (sic) MADE!"
____________Carl Sagan in "Cosmos: Edited for Rednecks" from Family Guy: Airport '07.
Link of the Day: The collected Coast to Coast AM calls of an insane fundamentalist named J.C. Webster.
And here are their transcripts.
Labels: Jack is Whack, Religious Right, Wicca
posted by DerekAxe at 1:57 PM
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