To all those insisting that "reading a thick best-selling book will make people want to read more," why doesn't this happen so much with the Bible?

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Muhammed Yunus (microloan advocate)

How could anyone possibly advocate that shiat?

/May the Force be....aww fark it

Gosling:
Oh, you haven't seen anything yet. You'll be hearing about that guy for the rest of your life and possibly the rest of mine. And I'm 24 years old. Get used to it, because it ain't going away for a long, long time.

Oh, I understand he'll be regarded negatively by a good number of people, but it seems like people are out to destroy him, not trying to undo what he did that they don't agree with. Groups are still trying to find any little detail, grab any straw that can be used in a negative light. It's no longer about reversing the patriot act, or about ending the war or whatever, its about demonizing the man and blaming him for why your dog got run over and your car broke down. What's also annoying me is a good chunk of Republicans are starting to do this to Obama. Right now, they're not as successful at it, but I see the R's doing what the D's did a few years, dragging their feet at every turn, sandbagging legislation, and trying to destroy public images. Its the kind of thing that'll make you just want to go 'oh, fark it' and go live in Wyoming or something.

Maybe Bush knew Dumbledoor was gay all along. Pre-emptive strike.

Fluorescent Testicle: //Just thinks that you all need a new boogeyman.

When in doubt, blame the Jew.

Jews: The Old Faithful of boogymen.

Why would she be considered for the medal in the first place? And he didn't give kennedy a medal so that means he "politicized" it.


glenlivid: The Bush administration started a war against a helpless nation based entirely on lies. They killed thousands of Americans, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis...

...but apparently the real litmus test of insanity is thinking the Harry Potter books are the works of the devil.

I guess you missed the part where that "helpless nation" started two wars and murdered a lot of helpless people. Looks like you started watching after the ending credits started rolling.

sedthgisekrg;oiaserjg;o/sijgr;/ozxgij;zoiuvj;gx.oizsrehg;oiserhj;goaezirujgu;oiz serxdugju;oiszeur;goiseur;gto9u;o9uy;i8yZ;sdoifuvgxd;oiujg/zxdtpogSUZPOEi/,jyhgf v.dlfjkgbxfkljxgsz;ieortue48ortuseozridfgujvzkj48987358347utr

oldebayer: To all those insisting that "reading a thick best-selling book will make people want to read more," why doesn't this happen so much with the Bible?

Well, back in the old days, the Bible was a primer people used to learn to read. So I'm sure it happened a lot. I think that how Lincoln learned to read.

These days? I've been looking, but I thought I read a study once about book sales that said book sales went up even after removing Harry Potter from the counts at the height of their popularity. Though again, there are other explanations for that.

ultraholland: Fluorescent Testicle: //Just thinks that you all need a new boogeyman.

When in doubt, blame the Jew.

Jews: The Old Faithful of boogymen.

Exactly. Obama gave the medal to Mary Robinson, who is a suspected anti-semite.

brainiac-dumdum: sedthgisekrg;oiaserjg;o/sijgr;/ozxgij;zoiuvj;gx.oizsrehg;oiserhj;goaezirujgu;oi z serxdugju;oiszeur;goiseur;gto9u;o9uy;i8yZ;sdoifuvgxd;oiujg/zxdtpogSUZPOEi/,jyhgf v.dlfjkgbxfkljxgsz;ieortue48ortuseozridfgujvzkj48987358347utr

THIS

puffy999 2009-09-28 12:46:27 AM

Her nationality has nothing to do with it. Her importance to literary history? Well, she has none. She's a farking flash in the pan, akin to Bazooka Joe.

-big flash - huge pan

puffy999: numb3r5ev3n: It is sad that folks who read things because there's hype around them typically don't go on to other things, or will only look for similar works after having read the hyped work.

Hey, I admit I've done it... I'm no better than many of these children when it comes to reading novels/stories.

I enjoy reading news, and will always consider enriching my knowledge of history, science, and the like. I just don't think that kind of interest is sparked because some housewife knew what the kids would be interested in for five minutes.

I'll also admit to being a huge escapist nerd who will read the back of a shampoo bottle if nothing else is available.

I also admit to starting the Harry Potter series only after it reached megahypedom. But I think there are some people for whom reading is their primary secondary activity, and folks who just aren't as into it. It's just that I sometimes wonder if the latter folks are missing out. But I think the latter type are only going to be interested in something that has really made an impact in current culture, if their immediate peer group is reading it, and so forth. Harry Potter was pretty ubiquitous there for a while.

The war in Iraq is enough to deal with. We don't need the added worry of kids casting fireballs and summoning dragons on our home soil.

brainiac-dumdum: sedthgisekrg;oiaserjg;o/sijgr;/ozxgij;zoiuvj;gx.oizsrehg;oiserhj;goaezirujgu;oi z serxdugju;oiszeur;goiseur;gto9u;o9uy;i8yZ;sdoifuvgxd;oiujg/zxdtpogSUZPOEi/,jyhgf v.dlfjkgbxfkljxgsz;ieortue48ortuseozridfgujvzkj48987358347utr

klb23io0d99?

I see a little bit of GWB in his face ... hmmm explains it all

I'm pretty surprised this hasn't been posted yet but it's oblig:

from: http://www.bash.org/?111338

<JonJonB> Purely in the interests of science, I have replaced the word "wand" with "wang" in the first Harry Potter Book
<JonJonB> Let's see the results...

<JonJonB> "Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.
<JonJonB> "Oh, well -- I was at Hogwarts meself but I -- er -- got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wang in half an' everything

<JonJonB> A magic wang... this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.

<JonJonB> "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wang. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wang for charm work."
<JonJonB> "Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wang. Eleven inches. "

<JonJonB> Harry took the wang. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wang above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls

<JonJonB> "Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry's wang, tapped the lock, and whispered, 'Alohomora!"

<JonJonB> The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wang had still been in his hand when he'd jumped - it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

<JonJonB> He bent down and pulled his wang out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.

<JonJonB> He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wang, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wang at the dementors. Shot silver stuff at them.

<JonJonB> Ok
<JonJonB> I have found, definitive proof
<JonJonB> that J.K Rowling is a dirty DIRTY woman, making a fool of us all
<JonJonB> "Yes," Harry said, gripping his wang very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding.... Any second now, he might hear his mother again... but he shouldn't think that, or he would hear her again, and he didn't want to... or did he?
<melusine > O_______O
<JonJonB> Something silver-white, something enormous, erupted from the end of his wang

<JonJonJonB> Then, with a sigh, he raised his wang and prodded the silvery substance with its tip.

<JonJonJonB> 'Get - off - me!' Harry gasped. For a few seconds they struggled, Harry pulling at his uncles sausage-like fingers with his left hand, his right maintaining a firm grip on his raised wang.

Okay, I think I've recovered my facilities enough to verbalize. On the one hand, I'm not at all surprised, on the other hand, WTF???

It's already been said I wager: but the reason she deserves accolades is as follows.

She did not write the best books in the world. She didn't write the most original story in the world.

She got -millions- of kids reading BOOKS instead of playing video games and watching TV. Not just any books, but you had 12yo kids reading 600-800pg+ novels!

That stands for something.

zefal: I guess you missed the part where that "helpless nation" started two wars and murdered a lot of helpless people. Looks like you started watching after the ending credits started rolling.

Really? Was that the reason given for the war? Or is it the justification you use to defend the war?

Seems to me the case laid-out before the U.N. was WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION...of which there were none, and it's pretty clear the Bush administraion knew that fact.

Imagine where this country would be if we invaded every country with a despot that did bad things. We'd be 40 times more financially and morally bankrupt than we currently are.

I think the real reason for the war was to control Iraqs oil, but also to loot the treasury for Bush/Cheney's corporate buddies like Haliburtion, KBR, Blackwater, and all the other contractors that are still there, robbing us blind.

...but go ahead and keep defending the insanity!

puffy999: Somacandra: but it does not reflect well on the American body politic.

I really, really want to Godwin this thread right now... but I'll refrain.

Hitler definitely wouldn't have given her a medal. That Grindelwald plotline and the persecution of Muggles arc definitely would have hit too close to home for him.

/Ernst Röhm would have probably shipped Grindledore, though.
//And Snarry.

puffy999: Somacandra: but it does not reflect well on the American body politic.

I really, really want to Godwin this thread right now... but I'll refrain.

You know who else refrained (from destroying the allied army at Dunkirk)?

brainiac-dumdum: Okay, I think I've recovered my facilities enough to verbalize. On the one hand, I'm not at all surprised, on the other hand, WTF???

I had a hell of a time flipping thru the code book.

Even if you set the literary merit of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling is still an excellent role model. She went from the dole and made herself amazingly rich by working hard and being persistent.

Wow... as stupid as Bush's rationale was, I'm actually more nauseated by listening to chorus of "But hers not American GRRR!!!!" jingoism in here.

Man, the world would be so much better if someone could invent a cerebral virus that runs on Republican (and all their different variants around the world... yes, that includes the Taliban).

If we could just BSOD those ignorant, hateful, juvenile-minded, shiatheaded farkers tomorrow, our world be 200% better within a farking year. If nothing else, at the very least we wouldn't have any more shiat "God gave the Statue of Liberty Butterfly Kisses to Bless the Working Man (unless he's a commie union sumbiatch!)" songs climbing up the farking charts.


If you're going to rapture them... PLEASE HURRY!!!

ozzie_stu: I see a little bit of GWB in his face ... hmmm explains it all

Fun fact: Books are actually written with words. Movies are the ones with the pictures and the popcorn and talking animals.

Somacandra: The article, you'll notice, is not really suggesting that Ms. Rowling was more worthy of the award than anyone else in particular. The issue being pointed out is that at the highest level of the American executive branch, policy advisors were so completely incompetent as to fail to distinguish fiction from reality. That people who by all rights should have known better and who were charged with guiding this nation actually believed that works of pure fantasy literature were corrupting young people into various forms of occult/satanic culture. I'm sure Ms. Rowling does not care either way--but it does not reflect well on the American body politic.

That would assume that the executive branch was seriously concerned about the constituency, which we all know is never true. The principal concern is not pissing off your voters. Since there are a large number of red staters/voters who won't let their kids read Potter, one could clearly assume that there is no reason to stir the pot and cause any grief, especially for such a political award.

Vangor: Has she done anything besides write one book? T

Just three short essays, two in McCall's one in Harper's.

KhanFusion: is a trite pat-on-the-back for people who have supported the politician giving the awar

plenty of people have gotten the Medal of Freedom who have been of differing political leanings from the president who awarded it. That is if they ever showed any political leanings in the first place.

brainiac-dumdum: Even if you set the literary merit of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling is still an excellent role model. She went from the dole and made herself amazingly rich by working hard and being persistent.

This. I'm surprised more conservatives aren't praising her for her Horatio Algerlike Bootstrappiness rather than screeching fundie whargarbl about it promoting Witchcraft while holding up the Chronicles of Narnia as a bastion of literary merit.

The JK Rowling snub doesn't particularly bother me, though "promoting witchcraft" is not why I don't think she deserves the medal.

Ted Kennedy's snub, on the other hand, is insulting.

"Maybe you should give Ted Kennedy a medal?"
"NO! HE'S LIBERAL! ARE YOU STUPID?"
"I thought it might be a nice gesture since he basically just got a death sentence and has become an extremely distinguished senator who at the very least you should respect."
"NO! LIBERAL! WHAT PART OF THAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?"

And then he hand the medal out like hotcakes to the people responsible for his cluster-fark-tastrophe of an Iraq war. Way to not understand the simple concept of respect.

puffy999: brainiac-dumdum: She went from the dole and made herself amazingly rich by working hard and being persistent.

Oh, oh man... I'm REALLY fighting the Godwin now...

You know who else was really fighting the Godwin Russians?

WhyTF should she even be considered for it?

helix400: The more I hear about these inside accounts from former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer, the more it sounds like the guy is just pulling everyone's chain.

Really? I get the exact opposite impression. The more I read of Latimer's accounts, the more it confirms my suspicions of Bush.

I've always seen Bush as a kinda tragic figure; he's a good guy that got way in over his head. I've always thought of Bush as an average guy that wanted to do right by his country, but he second-guessed his own judgment and ceded too much authority to his advisers.

Don't get me wrong, I recognize that he was the ultimate authority, and the disasters that were his policies fall squarely at his feet. I've just always felt like he was more of a puppet than a mastermind. He wasn't the architect of his disastrous policies. I think he just placed too much trust in the neocons that were chattering into his ear.

Indeed, to his credit, I think Bush eventually realized that the neocons were bad news, and he rebuked them. Bush became much more moderate towards the end of his second term. I really think that he is a pathetic figure, that realized too late how much damage he had done.

oldebayer: To all those insisting that "reading a thick best-selling book will make people want to read more," why doesn't this happen so much with the Bible?

If you take away the whole 'religion' thing, the Bible is a mediocre book. I read a lot and the Bible made me want to stab out my eyes and listen to Jerry Springer all day.

technicolor-misfit:
Wow... as stupid as Bush's rationale was, I'm actually more nauseated by listening to chorus of "But hers not American GRRR!!!!" jingoism in here.

Man, the world would be so much better if someone could invent a cerebral virus that runs on Republican (and all their different variants around the world... yes, that includes the Taliban).

If we could just BSOD those ignorant, hateful, juvenile-minded, shiatheaded farkers tomorrow, our world be 200% better within a farking year. If nothing else, at the very least we wouldn't have any more shiat "God gave the Statue of Liberty Butterfly Kisses to Bless the Working Man (unless he's a commie union sumbiatch!)" songs climbing up the farking charts.


If you're going to rapture them... PLEASE HURRY!!!

Yes, how about we start to get rid of everyone we disagree with! That's a brilliant idea. We're right and they're wrong, so they deserve whatever they get!

brainiac-dumdum: Even if you set the literary merit of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling is still an excellent role model. She went from the dole and made herself amazingly rich by working hard and being persistent.

Bullshiat. she wrote hackneyed rip-off books... 7 of them... and made a billion dollars. plenty of people work harder and get screwed.

oh and she is lawsuit happy, and likes to sue her own fans.

jk rowling can diaf.

alkhemy: Gosling: Mainrodax: Please people, please try to defend this dumbass

I'm for awarding it due to her success in getting people to read that otherwise would not have.

I am, however, against her being awarded it because of a failure to get people to read anything other than her books. People would read Harry Potter and then just stop reading books again. Had she been more successful in opening people up to reading books in general, then yes, I award it. As it stands, can't do it.

[citation needed]

With pleasure.

WhyteRaven74: Vangor: Has she done anything besides write one book? T

Just three short essays, two in McCall's one in Harper's

You never got the sequel: "To Attack The Clone Mockingbirds"

In it, Scout is forced to fend off an army of Bo Radleys with nothing more than a Ham Costume named Porkins and Atiicus's pocket watch.

Riveting stuff.

Vangor: lokidecat: She got -millions- of kids reading her BOOKS

This is the contention many possess. I have worked with many students, even friends sadly enough, who read the Harry Potter series religiously. I cannot say as to what else they might have ever read.

On the other hand, I gave my friend the first set of three Drizzt books, and he has ventured through most of my Forgotten Realms books and is now borrowing my Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, and Silmarillion series (and the Hobbit). Next is 1984 and Brave New World.

This. Harry Potter is encouraging kids to read trash... sad to say. Now those millions of kids are on twilight, and the adults who read harry potter are on to dan brown.

holiday_inn_in_cambodia: brainiac-dumdum: Even if you set the literary merit of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling is still an excellent role model. She went from the dole and made herself amazingly rich by working hard and being persistent.

Bullshiat. she wrote hackneyed rip-off books... 7 of them... and made a billion dollars. plenty of people work harder and get screwed.

oh and she is lawsuit happy, and likes to sue her own fans.

jk rowling can diaf.

holiday_inn_in_cambodia: charkocu: NEWS FLASH: Bush is a moron.

ANOTHER NEWS FLASH: JK Rowling doesn't need anymore medals or awards to stimulate her bank account.

/non-issue.
//who cares?

THIS only with the "ANOTHER" part in gigantic bold letters, underlined, with three exclamation marks and a pirate flag

/hates harry potter and any billionaire that sues her own fans

Ohai, Steve Vander Ark. :D

oldebayer: To all those insisting that "reading a thick best-selling book will make people want to read more," why doesn't this happen so much with the Bible?

Come on, now.

The only people who actually read the Bible are priests and atheists.