They are at it again

Ugh, Xtians trying to convert Wiccans:

"Whether spellwork is effective or not," writes Dodd, according to The Telegraph, "has no bearing on the psychological damage that can be done to a young person who is convinced that they have summoned the dead, or have performed a spell that has hurt or injured another."

Oh yeah, all us Wiccans are summoning the dead and casting evil spells! As the author claims to be an Ex-Wiccan, I'd like to know what tradition she is from, as it seems they did not practice Wicca. But what's really strange is the comment "Whether spellwork is effective or not...". That seems to harken back to the early days of Xtianity, where the Apologists did not discount--out of hand--the efficacy of spellwork or influence of the Gods.

Darwin and the Pythoness

No U.S. distributor for Charles Darwin movie because of fear of fundamentalists

Many of you will remember the Xtian angst that ensued when the Monty Python movie "The Life of Brian" was released in the USA. At that time, I was friendly with a married couple who ran the a 'mom & pop' size theater in my college town. They were fans of Python, and dearly wanted to show the film. But they had received a very pointed threat against them on their answering machine, if they decided to show the film. They agonized whether they should show the film. In this case, this threat of terrorism had the desired effect. One of the owners told me that although someone defacing one of their movie screens would be covered by insurance, the loss of revenue would ruin them. (This was before studio owned megaplexes dominated the market). They decided not to show the film.

Well, it looks like the factually challenged have won the day again. The 'good' news is that theater owners will not have to sweat the decision to show the film or not, as the film now has about zero chance of finding a distributor in the US. From Crooks&Liars:

...Good God, what is this country coming to?

It seems the film Creation, a major-production biopic about Charles Darwin starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, won't be seen in the United States because no distributor with the guts to stand up to the religious right in this country can be found...

The producer said:

"...The film has no distributor in America. It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the US, and it's because of what the film is about. People have been saying this is the best film they've seen all year, yet nobody in the US has picked it up.