{"id":851,"date":"2001-11-09T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2001-11-09T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=851"},"modified":"2014-06-13T16:36:41","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T22:36:41","slug":"the_horse_laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/09\/the_horse_laugh.html","title":{"rendered":"The Horse Laugh Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

USS Clueless<\/a> is not new in observing that one of the benefits of a free society is that the “horse laugh test” (can you listen to something without bursting into one?) is a usable mechanism for determining whether someone or their their ideas are, ah, worth listening to. But he points out some good examples today from the Left (see the previous entry) and the Right (folks getting up in arms over Harry Potter and the Threat of Satanism Taking Over Our Tots<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Potter books top the banned book listing for 2000, compiled by the American Library Association. Some have called for the books to be banned from public school libraries, claiming stories about witches and wizards violate church-state separation. Others have staged book burnings or circulated phony reports that claim the novels inspired thousands of children to join satanic cults.
\nA Kansas library recently canceled a reading of the books due to complaints about magical content. Some children in Jacksonville, Fla., must now present parental permission slips to read the books at school libraries.
\n“Satan is up to his old tricks again and the main focus is the children of the world,” wrote Jon Watkins, a Baptist activist. “The whole purpose of these (Potter) books is to desensitize readers and introduce them to the occult.”<\/p>\n

Next up, “Activist Groups Claim Winnie the Pooh<\/i> Causing Obsesity in Children.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

USS Clueless is not new in observing that one of the benefits of a free society is that the “horse laugh test” (can you listen to something without bursting into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[527,15,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harry-potter","category-media","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2143,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/03\/proof_positive.html","url_meta":{"origin":851,"position":0},"title":"Proof positive","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Mar-02 3:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"After years of folks claiming quite explicitly that D&D and Harry Potter books can teach impressionable youngsters how to perform evil, Satanic sorcery, this gent decided to actually test the...","rel":"","context":"In "Gaming"","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9711,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/05\/05\/oh_harry.html","url_meta":{"origin":851,"position":1},"title":"Oh, Harry …","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 5-May-06 9:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"Titles of Harry Potter fanfic we'd rather not see: Harry Potter and the Uneventful Year When No One Tried to Kill Him Harry Potter and the New Love Interest Who...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25376,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/13\/the-theme-of-the-harry-potter-books.html","url_meta":{"origin":851,"position":2},"title":"The theme of the Harry Potter books","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Jan-12 11:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"And, no, it's not that \"witchcraft is cool and you should sell your soul to Satan,\" no matter what people think. Though I suspect many of those same people would be just as aghast at what Rowling says she's trying to convey. #ddtbReshared post from +Dan EastwoodJUST A THOUGHTThe Potter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10378,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/02\/01\/pottermania_countdown.html","url_meta":{"origin":851,"position":3},"title":"Pottermania countdown","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Feb-07 7:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"The last Harry Potter book will be published on 21 July (a week after the next flick, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Let the bookstore-line-standing begin! She...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1460,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/01\/if_we_writers_h.html","url_meta":{"origin":851,"position":4},"title":"If we writers have offended …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Jan-02 10:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"More news on the media event Book Burning the other day in New Mexico. Though Harry Potter was the main course on the BBQ, there were others: Harry Potter books,...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5920,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/06\/29\/potter.html","url_meta":{"origin":851,"position":5},"title":"Potter","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-Jun-04 2:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The title of the next HP book (Number 6) has been announced by JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. And, no, I haven't finished Book 4 yet...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42687,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/42687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}