Free Republic

Harry Potter

Potter and friends turn 14, and 'Goblet of Fire' pours on the menace Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Emma Watson as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series' fourth film. . . . Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. With Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon. Director: Mike Newell (2:37). PG-13: Fantasy violence and frightening images. There's a delicious chill in the air at Hogwarts this semester. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is the darkest, most thrilling entry yet in the movie franchise based on novelist J.K. Rowling's magical...

The full theatrical trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is now available at The Official Harry Potter Website and other download sites.

Harry Potter popular with Guantanamo detainees: report Books about boy wizard Harry Potter have become favourite reading material among Islamic terror suspects at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Quoting a librarian working at the centre, The Washington Times newspaper says JK Rowling's tales about the boy and the school of wizardry are on top of the request list for the camp's 520 Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, followed by Agatha Christie novels. "We've got a few who are kind of hooked on it. A couple have asked if they can see the movie," the librarian identified only...

As well as being extraordinarily popular, the [Harry Potter] books have encouraged millions of children to start reading for the first time.... For those who have a problem with the idea of fantasy and alternative universes alongside ours, we need to recognize that almost all children play imaginative games in their minds starting at a very young age and have no difficulty whatsoever in distinguishing between fantasy and reality.... Additionally, the Harry Potter books send a strong message about moral order. There are beautiful and enjoyable human relationships among the characters, and there is a depth of commitment and service...

Bill Clinton's memoir joins 'Harry Potter' as a bestseller in Iranian bookshops By Agence France Presse (AFP) Friday, July 01, 2005 TEHRAN: Iranians may shout "Death to America" and burn the Stars and Stripes in demonstrations, but the memoir of former U.S. President Bill Clinton is on its way to becoming a runaway bestseller in the country. According to publisher Farhang Fattemi, who has just released the book, "many Iranians like the United States and want to hear history straight from the horse's mouth." First published in the U.S. last summer, "My Life" has hit the shelves in Iran in...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium apologised to the Dutch prime minister on Monday after its foreign minister compared him to Harry Potter, the boy wizard of children's literature. Following the outrage caused by the remark over the weekend, Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt called Dutch leader Jan Peter Balkenende to apologise. Verhofstadt later released a joint statement with Balkenende, saying they had agreed to put the matter behind them and focus on the "major challenges" facing the European Union. Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht described Balkenende as "a mix between Harry Potter and a brave rigid bourgeois" in an interview published...

LONDON (June 4) - A man who allegedly tried to sell a stolen copy of the forthcoming Harry Potter book to two tabloid newspapers fired a handgun next to the head of a reporter who came to meet him, police said Saturday. The reporter was not injured. The Sun newspaper said its journalist agreed to meet two men who contacted the paper saying they had obtained copies of the highly anticipated book. The newspaper contacted police, who were waiting outside the meeting site in Kettering, 80 miles north of London, and arrested the two suspects on Friday. The Daily Mirror...

We parents still don't get it. We still don't understand that our children live in a reality steeped in violence, sex and the occult, and that they move and breathe and have their being in a culture we would not have recognized even fifteen years ago, one that has caused them untold harm. We also don't get the fact that the series of Harry Potter books, lauded by educators and parents, and bemusedly encouraged by religious commentators (except fundamentalists), not only propagates occultism, but offers advanced indoctrination into it. That said, if we step back from the controversy and ...

The first Goblet of Fire trailer is available on-line. I found it here at the Official Harry Potter website. A quick google search reveals it is available from multiple sites.

How quickly they neglect. That's our reaction to the news that Portland, Oregon, has decided to withdraw from the FBI's counterterrorism task force over fears that the civil or constitutional rights of its citizens might be violated. Mayor Tom Potter made that call last week, in one more sign that memories are fraying as September 11 grows more distant. Mr. Potter tried to put a happy face on his decision in a press conference Friday, saying the city is "changing" its ties with the FBI, not "severing" them, and that Oregonians will still be "safe." But what about the rest...

Harry Potter and the Paganization of Children's Culture The realm of human imagination is a God-given gift, a faculty of the mind that is intended to expand our understanding by enabling us to visualize invisible truths. In the modern era this zone of man's interior life has moved to the forefront of his experience. With the advent of film, television, and now the near-virtual reality of special-effects videos and other electronic entertainment, the screen of the imagination is stimulated to a degree (both in quantity and in kind) more than at any other period in history. This has prompted a...

Mr. Potter is WinningAll hail Pottersville! Above are two different articles that use the Jimmy Stewart/Donna Reed Holiday classic Its a Wonderful Life as a basis for attacking Republicans. This is a widespread meme, I've seen it in other places but couldn't find them online. Basically these articles suggest that mean old Mr. Potter was obviously a Republican because he worked to keep the people of Beford Falls poor and without the things they wanted. He was always out for himself and profits and paid no mind to the concerns of the little people. Personally I think it's disgusting that...

This is probally an old movie but it is funny as heck. The guy that runs the video website calls it Harry Potter Hillary but the guy that made the movie on his website calls it Harry Potter vs the New York b*tch so I got a feeling he doesn't like Hillary very much. Click me to see Movie

HARRY Potter star Fiona Shaw and Troy beauty Saffron Burrows have set up home together, The Sun can reveal. The lesbian pair are said to be deeply in love and are planning to cement their relationship by going public with it.Fiona — Harry’s aunt Petunia in the boy wizard films — is 45. And Saffron, Trojan warrior Hector’s wife Andromache in Troy, is 14 years younger at 31. But the age gap has not affected their romance — and Fiona has now moved into Saffron’s £500,000 penthouse in Clerkenwell, North London. A close pal of the pair said yesterday: “They...

The new Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie trailer is now available on the internet.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - An appeals court Thursday blocked the publication of the Dutch translation of a Russian children's book in the Netherlands, saying the story was stolen from the popular "Harry Potter" books. The decision by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal reaffirms a lower court ruling that the stories by Russian author Dmitry Yemets about a magical girl named Tanja Grotter too closely resemble J.K. Rowling's best-selling character. The judges rejected the argument from Byblos publishers in Amsterdam that the Russian work is a parody of the Potter series. It said the story violated copyright law and ordered Byblos...

There is a pure joy in seeing libertarian principles expressed by unexpected sources in a world teeming with those who love power. This is especially true when the expression is focused on the next generation. Thus, I am almost rapturous about book five in the Harry Potter series, The Order of the Phoenix. The first blessing of the Harry Potter series is that it is an example of a gifted writer making an obscene fortune by creating a product people love. It has recently been confirmed that J. K. Rowling is now wealthier than the World's Greatest Welfare Mother, the...

Forum: Harry Potter, culture warrior Conservative Christians should not fulminate over J.K. Rowling's creation, says Jerry Bowyer, but embrace her books' core messages Sunday, June 22, 2003 It's a pity that so many conservative Christians have identified Harry Potter as their enemy, because he is probably the most effective proponent of the classical Christian view of the world to have appeared in decades.     Jerry Bowyer hosts a daily radio program on 1360 WPTT-AM and a TV program on Cornerstone TeleVision, "Focus on the Issues" (jerry@bowyermedia.com).       Of course, with the release yesterday of "Harry Potter and...

Rome's Chief Exorcist Warns Parents Against Harry Potter NEW YORK, Jan 2, 02 (LSN.ca) - In early December, Rome's official exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth, warned parents against the Harry Potter book series. The priest, who is also the president of the International Association of Exorcists, said Satan is behind the works. In an interview with the Italian ANSA news agency, Father Amorth said, "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil." The exorcist, with his decades of experience in directly combating evil, explained that J.K. Rowling's books contain innumerable positive references to magic, "the...