Channel 3 NBC news affiliate WSAV serving the Savannah, GA and Hilton Head, SC areas did what most news channels do come the Halloween season. They allow a “human interest” reporter to find a witch and do an interview for a brief filler of Halloween news. Now, granted as the years have passed there have been some good, if not shallow reporting and interviews with witches but on the general scale the people they chose to interview are local New Age shop owners who are not well informed on the history of their individual paths. When a reporter does come across a well informed and astute witch the norm is to cut the piece for tidbits on what the reporter thinks their news audience will accept in the way of actual information.
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Technorati Tags: channel 3 news, Ignorance, massimi, metzger, Wicca, witchcraft

The Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a claim last week to sue President Bush and The National Day of Prayer Task Force ran by Focus on the Family. The issue is over the First Amendment and the Federal Government.

The Foundation charges that the government “aligns and partners” with the NDP Task Force as the official organizer of the National Day of Prayer. The NDP Task Force identifies itself online as “The National Day of Prayer ‘Official Website.’ ” The task force has close ties to Focus on the Family. Its chair person, Shirley Dobson, is married to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, and the task force is located in the Focus on the Family headquarters. Read full release on their site here and you can read the actual legal claim here in pdf.

Back at the end of April and beginning of May I wrote about this same subject here and even a letter to my local paper(which can be read here). The Nevada Appeal had reprinted the National Day of Prayer Task Force false information and though they were aware of the issue, they never printed a correction. I had even pointed out that the declaration as created by the task force had been signed by Governor Gibbons months before President Bush even signed his declaration. My efforts to educate with the correct information were both attacked in some instances or ignored all together but at least I tried.

Technorati Tags: bush, focus on the family, freedom from religion, govenor gibbons, national day of prayer task force, nevada appeal

Bill Maher’s new documentary Religulous opens nation wide today and I for one am excited to see it. I’m also excited about the various religious discussions that will be taking place because of this documentary.

My favorite quote from Maher so far is this:

“I think the biggest surprise we found out making the movie was that religious people don’t know much about religion,” Maher said in an interview.

I love that quote for one main reason, Maher is right. The majority of religious followers in the mainstream are only aware of what they have been told through their local churches and that makes them a prime target for an intelligent comedian like Bill Maher.

I am hoping that here soon, I’ll be able to do a full review of the movie. In the meantime check out the trailer below.

And if you are going to check out the movie today, leave a comment at let me know what you thought of it.

Technorati Tags: bill maher, laura jean karr, religious documentary, religulous, simple abnormality

Witchcraft-Documentary Review: Mysteries of History, History Channel International

I watched the History Channel Internationals documentary this morning on Witchcraft. Being previously encouraged from watching the main History Channel’s documentary on Halloween, I thought that the international channel viewpoint would be just as open ended. And for the majority of the hour long episode there was some educational handling of the witchcraft subject, just not through the duration of the program.

Please, keep in mind that the following information is from the review and notes taken during the documentary. I am aware that not all this information is correct historically, even though that is how all of the information was present by the History International Channel. So, let us begin on the review portion of today’s post on Simple Abnormality.

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Technorati Tags: burning times, History, history channel, history international channel, laura jean karr, paganism, simple abnormality, Wicca, witch, witch hunt, witch trails, witchcraft, witchcraft documentary