Before I read the last line I knew whether or not she had read the books:


Woman loses case to get Potter off shelves
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (UPI) -- The chronicles of Harry Potter will remain in county school libraries in Georgia after a judge Tuesday rejected a woman's plea to have the books removed.

In seeking their removal from school book shelves, Laura Mallory of Loganville argued that the Harry Potter series is harmful to children and promoted the occult and witchcraft, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday.

"I've done the best I can with all of this," Mallory said after the hearing before Gwinnett Superior Judge Ronnie Batchelor.

She said she may take her case to a federal court.

Since she launched her anti-Potter crusade in 2005, Mallory has taken her case -- and lost -- to the school where her children attend, the Gwinnett County Board of Education and the Georgia Board of Education.

Mallory -- who said she hasn't read any books in the series -- based her arguments partly on testimonials and Internet articles by conservative Christian authors she's posted on her Web site.


Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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She's campaigning against books she hasn't read???!!!

:blink:

Okay, I can actually understand some of the arguments that some people put up against the HP books (though in my opinion almost any book that gets kids to like reading is good), but campaigning against one you HAVEN'T READ!?!?!?!?!

That's rediculous.

I don't understand people, I really don't. :duh: :doh:

:ditto:

What the F is wrong with people?!? :swear: This kind of stuff REALLY ticks me off. What the hell is her problem.. if you don't want your kids reading... DON"T LET THEM. Why burn and ban books because its something you don't believe in... if we went that way, I would be banning and burning the bible.. don't think home chick would like that very much would she. (Not that I would do that.. but you get the idea.) Sometimes I really wanna smack people!

I have to add something to this! :swear:

I just went downstairs to grab a coke.. and they have CNN on in the cafeteria. Well, I came in and heard "..by a high priestess" then the cnn chick says something about being close to a fairy princess. Then the person got upset and said, "a fairy princess is not even close to being a witch" then they started yelling over each other and the cnn person was being a "witch" herself with a B. That's all I caught, I did hear something about the book being written by a HP, and that it also involved Harry Potter... did anyone happen to catch that? I really shouldn't care, it just pissed me off.. but what else can you expect from CNN.

:rolleyes: Makes you wonder, doesn't it? I read a different article about this yesterday, with a few more details... I'll go see if I can find it... ah, here it is! Bold text is mine...

Harry Potter wins in Ga. court

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A suburban Atlanta mother who believes the best-selling Harry Potter books promote witchcraft said Tuesday she may take her quest to ban the writings from her county schools to federal court after a state judge rejected her latest effort.

Laura Mallory, who said two of her four children attend public schools in Gwinnett County, told reporters it may be time to rethink her arguments with the help of an attorney.

“I maybe need a whole new case from the ground up,” said Mallory, who was not represented by an attorney at the hearing.

Her comments came after Superior Court Judge Ronnie Batchelor said evidence previously presented by Gwinnett County school officials supported their decision not to remove the books from school libraries.

Batchelor rejected Mallory’s appeal of the local school district’s decision, which was upheld earlier by the state Board of Education.

Mallory has tried to ban the books from county school library shelves since August 2005, arguing that the popular fiction series is an attempt to indoctrinate children in witchcraft.

School board members have said the books are good tools to encourage children to read and to spark creativity and imagination. In May 2006, the county denied Mallory’s request. In December, the state Board of Education upheld the county’s decision.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, published by London-based Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, tell stories of children with magic powers. They have been challenged numerous times since 2000, making them the most challenged texts of the 21st century, according to the American Library Association.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Mallory argued in part that witchcraft is a religion practiced by some people and, therefore, the books should be banned because reading them in school violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

“I have a dream that God will be welcomed back in our schools again,” Mallory said. “I think we need him.”

Mallory said she has testimony from children who have read the Harry Potter books and have thought about acting out spells described in the books.

“They don’t want the Easter Bunny’s power,” Mallory said. “The children in our generation want Harry’s power, and they’re getting it.”

But Victoria Sweeny, an attorney representing county school officials, said the officials were well within their right not to remove the books from library shelves. She said the court is bound by that decision.

“I’m not here to defend Harry Potter,” Sweeny said. “I’m here to defend the Gwinnett County Board of Education’s right to make lawful decisions.”

So she's arguing that HP "violates the constitutional separation of church and state" and then in the next quote says "I have a dream that God will be welcomed back in our schools again”... ummm... :wacko:

And of course there's the point that the Wiccan religion is exactly the same as the magic that's portrayed in HP... :P

Well, is she for *god* or not? It's kinda hypocritical to me. I haven't read HP, but from seeing the movie, I wouldn't classify Wicca and what the characters do in HP is necessarily the same thing. (But I could be wrong, I don't know the exact details of HP)

I went toe to toe with someone last fall who thought Harry Potter terrible ... but had never read any, of course. She said she would NEVER let her children read a book or watch a movie with wizards and witchcraft. ("I wouldn't even hold that book in my hand." Where do people come up with this sh*t?!?)

I asked her if her kids had ever seen "The Wizard of Oz."

She said, "Of course, it's a children's classic."

I countered with, "But that movie is full of witches, a wizard who worshiped ... and it's darn scary to boot!" (I love that movie and watch it with my son all the time, but those flying monkeys used to freak me out!!)

The woman just couldn't see how they could possibly be the same.

I told her the difference is that she'd actually SEEN the "Wizard of Oz."

She still didn't get it.

Idiot.

Francijo... That's good! I'll have to remember the Wizzard of Oz!!!!

People are so stupid. They hear witchcraft and want to start burning people at the stake.

There is a bumper sticker I would LOVE to have and put on my car.. but the area I live in... I would actually worry about my safety if I did it.

"the last time we mixed politics and religon, people got burned at the stake"

Jazmin.. I've read all the books, seen all the movies.. lets just say JK knows her stuff. Its not the same as wicca, but she's done her homework.. and I mean big time. I lot of small things here and there fit perfectly with wicca.. the symbols, etc. Another example of how well she did her homework is in the first movie... Nicholas Flamel is a REAL PERSON. See here He REALLY did work on the Philosopher's Stone! That was REAL. I learned that from the history channel... and the whole time I thought she had made that crap up.. Home chick really does her homework, that what makes it so real, she has put so much into her books and done a lot of research. JK is not wiccan, she's said so in many interviews.. she just does research.


Now people like this woman are crazy as hell. Can you say Hile Hitler? IF she REALLY wanted books off the shelf that have religion in them... she's gonna have to take a hell of a lot off the shelf... any book where any character prays to anyone.. "Dear God are you There Its Me Margret" comes to mind.. that's a classic, but hey.. it mentions God... that one has to go. "The Mermaid Chair" has to go.. has monks in it. "The Wizzard of Oz" (thanks Francijo :giggle:) has to go. Some easy FAST examples... Snow White (step mother was a witch), The LIttle Mermaid (father was King Trident, think mythology, Ursla the sea witch, etc.), The Lion King (Rafikie uses magic), Aladain (genie, flying carpet, wizzard), Cinderella (fairy Godmother, magic), Beauty and the Beast (magic once again)... hell its easier to think of movies without magic or whatever that wouldn't have to be taken off the shelf... Babi I don't think has it... but on wait it has violence in it, so it would have to go. If that woman got her way, there wouldn't be many books in that library.

Yeah I was thinking if there was Wicca any where at all it it, it would be a lot of small things, and not out-and-out Wiccanism, etc, you know?

By the way, since you guys are talking about Oz, did you know that the Wizard's real initals are:O.Z.H.U.M.B.U.G.; but shortened it to just Oz when he went into Show business. :rolleyes: Also, the Patchwork Girl of Oz, has been banned/abridged for quite some time. From what I can remember it was never to be released unabridged. (Short summary: the record player had gotten the Powder of Life spilled on it, and hence became alive. After Scraps ran away, he ran after her, but for a while you could only hear the record it was playing; it was a negro spiritual, from what I understand and was considered racist--which wouldn't have been Baum, coz a Tottenhot (opposed to the movie's Hottentot), which looked like an African Native was a jury member in Oz, when most of the country's jury was white men in the 1920s)

ETA: Did you know that in Oz (I forget when it happens chronologically in the books), the only people in Oz that are allowed to practice magic is Glinda, Princess Ozma, and The Wizard, and Princess Dorothy to some extent. I forgot if they told Mombi that she couldn't use the powder of life and magic or not, because of her head collection. (Mombi's mad scary!!)

ETA2:If you ever want to see Toto speak (as in he has a conversation) Read Glinda of Oz.

People in the HP world celebrate Christmas. My God why aren't the Jewish protesting???? :rofl:

You know I didn't think of that, but that's soo true!! :lol:

:blush: I didn't know the Wizzard of Oz were books. :blush: I just saw the movie, I didn't know much more about it.. as a kid, ok and sorta an adult to.. I hated the black-n-white part and didn't think it got good till the damn thing was in color. I know why they did it that way, but part of me just screams.. make it all color people... color!!!!

way off topic.. but my mom and I watch Miracle on 34th street alot around Christmas, and I put in the new one and mom said is this the new one or the old one.. I told her new, she asked how I could tell , "It's in color mom, its in color" :lol:

Reminds me of an episode of Will & Grace where Will puts up a Christmas tree, and every year Grace puts up the star (its always a jewish star), and its a HUGE ass star of david, like half the size of the tree. :giggle:

:o how can you not know that was a book first? It's a whole series! I need to rest the rest, I've only read the first.

I won't even comment cuz this kind of shit pisses me off to no end. :rant2: I have to strongly agree with the hypocritical thing which is what really blew my stack though! I really, really, really, really, really, really HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE hypocrites!! Talk about people who should be burned at the stake dammit!!

I take it that this woman has children in the school system?

That's a darn good thing. :whistle: I'd hate to think someone with that kind of terrible logic deficiency was homeschooling some poor kid. Can you imagine having someone with those warped deduction skills being the sole mind behind another person's education?!! Egad!

It always amazes me how far folks will go to look stupid in public. :duh:

I'm endlessly amused by this since his name was TriTON, not Trident. lol I keep picturing him with a huge wad of gum in his mouth. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

But Triton is carrying a trident...