Harry Potter and the Stoic Generation

leaky__cauldron (a Harry Potter news site) has an interview with Edmund Kern, author of the book The Wisdom of Harry Potter: What our favorite hero teaches us about moral choices. Kern's view of the Harry Potter books is very similar to mine: ( Read more... )

By the way, Melissa Anelli (editor of leaky__cauldron) has a thoughtful review of the Prisoner of Azkaban movie on her personal journal. It's a good analysis of what the movie got right and wrong.

An atheist's invocation

The Tampa City Council allowed an atheist to give an invocation at their meeting in place of the usual prayer by a minister:

So rather than clasping your hands, bowing your heads and closing your eyes, open your arms to that which truly makes us strong -- our diversity. Raise your heads and open your eyes to recognize and fully understand the problems before you and know that ultimately, solutions to human problems can come only from human beings.

Amen.