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Harry Potter and "the Death of God" - by Michael D. O'Brien Special to LifeSiteNews.com Editor's Note: LifeSiteNews.com, the news service which first put online the letter signed by Cardinal Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - against the Harry Potter books, is proud to present Michael O'Brien's latest essay on the Potter series.  The author, North America's foremost Potter critic, has written many articles that analyze in detail the Harry Potter novels. Here he reflects on the significance of the series as a whole. Well, July 21st has come and gone and the world is muggling onward. The date,...

Family members provided an image as an example of the sketch drawn by the boy. PROVIDEDAn East Valley eighth-grader was suspended this week after he turned in homework with a sketch that school officials said resembled a gun and posed a threat to his classmates. But parents of the 13-year-old, who attends Payne Junior High School in the Chandler Unified School District, said the drawing was a harmless doodle of a fake laser, and school officials overreacted. “I just can’t believe that there wasn’t another way to resolve this,” said Paula Mosteller, the boy’s mother. “He’s so upset. The...

Muslim women booking into hospital for operations can now respect their religion by wearing this unique burka-style gown. The 'Inter-Faith Gown' is the brainchild of Karen Jacob, the linen services manager at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. It is the first such gown to be introduced in the country and patients at Preston and Chorley hospitals will now have the opportunity to wear it if they wish. Ms Jacob said: "I noticed a gap in the market and thought that it would be great if there was a gown that helped to preserve a patient's modesty." The gown provides...

LONDON: She may be having partner Brad Pitt’s baby, but Angelina Jolie’s first lesbian lover has revealed that the sexy ‘Lara Croft’ star loves women too much to give them up. Calvin Klein beauty Jenny Shimizu said that for Jolie, lesbian sex was as addictive as any potent drug. “Angelina is an unbelievable lesbian lover. She loves women too much. It’s like a drug and she was hooked,” the Newsoftheworld quoted her, as saying. Shimizu added that Jolie’s love for danger meant that she would never be able to be the perfect housewife. “Angelina loves danger and dabbling in the...

Democrats are demanding that White House adviser Karl Rove immediately retract and apologize for comments that liberals responded to the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes by wanting to ``prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.'' ``The one thing New York has had since Sept. 11 is unity,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. ``To inject politics into this and to defame a large number of people'' is outrageous, he said. ``It's not what New York and America is all about.'' Rove, Bush's chief political adviser, said in a speech Wednesday that ``liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks...

June 17, 2005 -- A Queens couple claims their daughter's memories of elementary school have been marred by a "horrible" yearbook pho- to, and are demanding the school recall all 200 books and replace the picture. Michelle Maihepat, of South Ozone Park, said her 11-year-old daughter, Asheana, is so embarrassed by the "bad picture" that she has been crying and hiding her face in shame from her sixth-grade classmates at PS 121 since the yearbooks were distributed Monday. "For the rest of her life, she's going to have to be ashamed of that horrible picture," Maihepat said. "Twenty years down...

A Phoenix dentist and his staff say that an X-ray taken this week seems to contain an image resembling Jesus. The patient came in for a routine exam on Tuesday. The image was revealed when the X-ray was developed. The patient described himself as a devout Christian, but said he has never before seen Jesus in an X-ray. The patient's dental exam was perfect.

No one would argue that earthworms are cute. But to most people, they are benign and helpful creatures — fertilizers of the garden, aerators of the soil, indispensable fishing companions. "Earthworms are truly nature's little farmers," goes one common view, this one on the Web site of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, "plowing the soil and fertilizing at the same time!" But for a growing body of researchers, the traditional view of earthworms is giving way to a much more ominous one. Most earthworms common in the United States are exotic intruders from Europe, Asia or South America, these scientists point...

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole! The Road Goes Ever On… First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit holeSecond thread: The New Hobbit HoleThird thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!) The Road goes ever on and on Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, And I must follow, if I can, Pursuing it with eager feet, Until it joins some larger way Where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.