Cthulhu's Mirages #875239 - AOC hated says poll

Cthulhu's mirages keep coming, strangely this one emanates from Axios. It seems Progressives may not poll well among people without a college education, also known as Trump's base at least if we do not look deeper.  Luckily someone has.

The poll has been used to claim AOC is not well supported or "hated" in her own district. The poll has problems of its own, it violated the usual standards for polling, with biased questions and cherry-picking of data.
Ryan Grim took a look into the questons surrounding  this poll as reported in this SplinterNews article. https://splinternews.com/axios-peddles-shady-poll-pushing-attack-on-progressive-1836375126

The voter demographic polled were noncollege educated swing voters, many of whom may be seeing some amount of Republican media mischaracterizing AOC and socialism. AOC never advocated banning cows, or burgers or planes, but still found 22% support among the polled demographic.  It appears the establishment remains adverse to challengers - Cthulhu is nothing but consistent.

Republicans do make a habit of using outrageous, salacious and very often false claims to attack democrats both establishment and progressive.


Never the less, praise the FSM, for she is noodly. Play nice, Ramen!

On banning offensive racist publications

Many calls have been made in in recent times to ban publications for racist or offensive content. The highest profile target among  these is Charlie Hebdo. Such calls have been wrong for reasons not the least of which because Charlie Hebdo is has a pro-immigrant political position.

If we are to ban publications for racist or offensive content, then to be consistent, we must also ban The Bible and the Quran.  Woah! That's a big claim there!  And if you're offended, you're welcome, let us be united in our offence, because there is plenty to go around. Let's take a look at some of the worst ideas in human history.

Bible: Foreigners are chattel

The following passage shows that slaves are clearly property to be bought and sold like livestock, furniture or equipment.

    However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land.  You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.  You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.  (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)
- Source

Bible: human trafficking and sex slavery.

The following passage describes the sickening practice of sex slavery.  How can anyone think it is moral to sell your own daughter as a sex slave? Additionally, it is not really improved much by the restraint against slave trading with foreigners.

    When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.  (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
- Source

    Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp.  But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle.  "Why have you let all the women live?" he demanded.  "These are the very ones who followed Balaam's advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor.  They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD's people.  Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man.  Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.- Source

Bible: Stone Women for extra marital sex

Sex is a natural and human act, fulfilling psycho-social needs and supporting healthy states of mind. yet this backwards text offers one of the most barbaric practices available to the human species in order to put an end to it.

    If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her ... and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: And the damsel's father shall say ... these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. ... But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die.(Deuteronomy 22:13-21)

Bible: The mark of Cain

This meme referring to Genesis 4:16 points to black/brown people being excessively violent, or at least that annoying them could have severe consequences. A meme that today for some, associates ethnic minorities with a propensity to violence. It is basically nonsense, but if one powerful ethnic group puts enough energy into disempowering another ethnic group, there will be blow back in the midst of the genocide. This is a human response it has little to do with ethnicity, or religion, except for what the oppressor group chooses to make of it. Just as American Christian settlers liabled indigenous "red skins" and "savages" for "manifest destiny", or as the Nazis liabled the Jews for the "The Creator" and "father land", and now as the far right wing liable Muslims for "racial purity", "Sovereignty" or "cultural preservation".

Koran: Jews are pigs, Christians are monkeys:

In Chapter five the Koran discusses the relationship Muslims should have with Christians and Jews, and goes on to use pejoratively compare them to other species. Demonstrating a version of the arrogant "chosen people" meme which earlier appeared in Judaic texts.

    O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.  (5:51)

    Shall I tell thee of a worse (case) than theirs for retribution with Allah ? (Worse is the case of him) whom Allah hath cursed, him on whom His wrath hath fallen and of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes and swine, and who serveth idols. Such are in worse plight and further astray from the plain road.  (5:60)
- Source

Koran: Beat your wives

It does not matter that the associated haddiths say to beat her lightly, and to not leave a mark, the fact is, at the very least, this is psychological abuse, if we ignore the physical behaviour. This comes from the ideas like "Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will"(2:223) (ploughable land), chattel and to be managed and cajoled like children.

    "Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great." 

- Source

Conclusion

These much venerated texts certainly contain content that is racially and religiously charged as well as misogynistic and the above is just a miniscule sample of the horrors available to the easily offended. So these texts must also be excised from the public square if we are to avoid hypocrisy as we seek to ban cartoons dealing with issues of race religion or even their relationship to women.  It is likely critics will moan "Oh, you're cherry picking verses" or "you are taking it out of context". Even if this is so, presenting certain Charlie Hebdo Cartoons like the four Boko Haram sex slaves chanting "hands off our allowances" without the context of Marine Le Pen's comments that immigrants were having babies to get welfare benefits is also "taking it out of context". If you want to live in a society where ideas can be censored simply by having them misrepresented, you can, if you will stride into a functionally illiterate society ruled by near total ignorance, resembling  the 7th Century.

The plain fact of the matter is that in the centuries since these texts were written, many have learned to protect people and not ideas, but not everyone has caught up. Even the Pope has talked about giving his good friend a beat down for talking smack about his mother. It may be hard for anyone to hear "your mother is a whore", but if she is getting paid to entertain customers in a bordello, it is a fair call, and it doesn't necessarily mean there is anything wrong with her chosen profession, and if the person hearing these words is a borderline geriatric virgin in a frock, it about time they grew up and their mother is an impressive woman.  The debate over "offensive" cartoons is a distraction, one that extremist groups would perhaps like to paint as a clash of civilizations, whether this is wholly true is debatable, yes there is a clash of values, and of ideas, but censorship is no way to address these, such calls for censorship are like the calls of the child who says "shut up, stop saying Darth Vader is Luke father, it can't be true." (I knew that child a long time ago, he grew up and wrote this blog). I was recently asked about the anti-Semitic cartoons of the Nazi era. The answer I gave at the was not the best answer to be offered, I spoke out of my preference, which is to not have lies, liable, fabrications publish for the generation of hysteria, however my considered position is essentially "publish and be damned", and damned the Nazis would have been by an incredulous, more sceptical populace such that we see in France today. The Nazi regime was seeking to control it population by emotional manipulation. This is something a sceptic culture would be more immune to, when we examine issues of free expression, we cannot ignore freethought they go hand in hand. Credulity, as we say, is not a virtue and this is where the Nazis "lost it" so enthusiastic were they in anti-Semitic dogma of the church and their "Aryan" pseudo-science that failed to understand the real enemy was fascism and bigotry - left over from WW I and codified in the war reparations.

Let us entertain the notion of perspective. No one is saying satirical cartoons represent truth, meanwhile billions claims these holy books represent truth on a daily basis, with some willing to kill and die for that "truthiness"(sic). Satire is merely a tool to expose truth behind comments and opinions of the day, with many such comment frequently lies in service to ignominious agendas, such exposure serves a vital function. This function is of course despised by authoritarians. Regardless of the historicity of the Bible and the Quran, about which there are some serious questions to be asked, or even of their relative truth value, there are things of greater concern to humanity as a whole. How do we learn to live side by side in a globally connected world? How do we stop neoliberal fascism from extracting the wealth of the many only to be concentrated in the hands of the few(as Oxfam tells us this week, by next year, to world's wealthiest 1% own over half of all wealth). How do we stop poverty acting a recruiting tool for violent extremist ideologies? Not just that followed by Al Qaeda or ISIS, but also Stormfront, US patriot militias, KKK.

Oh Pat, is Ken Ham so much worse than you?

This week Bill Nye and Ken Ham debated "Is creationism a viable model in an age of science?"

The consensus seems to be that Bill Nye won that debate, though one critic, surprise many with what seemed to some an uncharacteristic moment of clarity.

Pat Robertson publicly implored Ken Ham to stop making Christianity a laughing stock by publicly pushing creationism.

He said in the same week that he also said that hypnosis leads to demonic possession...


It seems like every week Pat Robertson says something remarkably "out-there". Even without creationism Pat is doing more damage to Christianity than an anti-theist like myself could hope to achieve.

So thanks Pat, your a real gem.

P.S. How are those slave worked diamond mines going?

See also,
   Pat Robertson: "Let's not make a joke of ourselves."
   $8m investment in Liberian Slave mining.

Does John Campbell's coverage of Noble Bob Douglas's "some success" mean an about face?

Still green Mr Campbell?

Tonight a story presented by John Campbell has caught the ire of some hardworking folks fighting to keep our local environment a fit place for New Zealander's to prosper, calling into question the direction John Campbell may be taking his coverage of the issues.

This story is introduced as a quick update, and at about 3 minutes 4 seconds, it is likely a story that was squeezed in last minute, these things happen in news cycles. Early in this story on tonight's programme John Campbell's item points to the impressive piece of technology that is the exploration ship (Ig)Nobel Bob Douglas , so impressive it costs $1m/day to run. Impressive, yes, it is. Virtuous, hardly, but that was not mentioned in the clip.

The piece mainly focuses on opinions in Raglan while the introduction does mention that Raglan gets the bulk of the risks, and few of the benefits. Lines like "And not always sitting the newly lawful distance away." allude to the dodgy Mining and Resources Act clause introduced last year. "In short Raglan gets the environmental risk, although it would have to be a catastrophic spill to reach here, without the direct economic benefit Taranaki would enjoy."

One person interviewed, talked about how as consumers people like himself are part of the "problem". He seemed ambivalent about the value of Anadarko's exploration in New Zealand. Odd logic really, even an addict committed to recovery can understand and say rehab is good and understand that their supplier should be kept at some distance. And their are viable alternatives, it is just a matter of developing the scale. Ethanol+vegetable oil -> esters (aka bio diesel), runs nicely in a diesel motor with a little tuning. To be fair, it is easy to find people who haven't quite thought things through, or are not fully acquainted with the available options. Jo Averge with a mic shoved in his face rarely the thoughtful creature they are in more pensive moments.

Another person, was enthusiastically in favour  of exploration. Which is still a position held by more than one third of the public, though that number is falling. Clearly the position of the unrepentant addict, like the boozer that says "It's only few. I'm just being social. I'm not hurting anyone."

And the last person, essentially noted that the oil company staff wont have anything to do with Raglan and that "it would do Raglan no good at all." This makes a very good point that Raglan and much of the country will see little benefit from exploration. Our royalties are among the cheapest in the OECD, the government's role in this deal is like a dip-sh*t dad that opens to two men who "We're burglars, we've come to do your house." To this, the dad says "Sure fellas, will it take long? The wife will be home in thirty minutes."

One person noted how the jobs were highly specialized and that he did not know anyone in the industry.  Which does bring forth the issue, that while the industry will create jobs, they will not be filled from our local work force, but from imported expertise.

The (ig)Noble Bob douglas is reported to have had "some success". Which suggests oil or gas were found. While a full report is expected on Wednesday, the signal can for now represent at least three possibilities.

Worst case: They found oil or gas at commercially viable pressure,  which means the carbon addicts will be back to get their fix, putting our local environment at risk and putting the global climate deeper into chaos, destabilization and extreme weather.

Best case: They found oil or or gas at very low pressure making extraction non viable. In which case, Anadarko so nice to see you leave.

In the middle - but still very bad, the pressure is low, but high enough that pumping water into to the reserve will mean that they still make a profit from extraction even though  it will cost them. Extraction may even involve fracking.

This analysis was not offered during the coverage of the story. Perhaps as a breaking story there wasn't enough time to prepare an analysis or time in the show to present it.

I note that John Campbell is a journalist, an item like this is news. And so he reported it. While he seemed a little too excited in reporting the story, the question remains is that because he's reporting a big news item on a big issue(a journo's wet dream) or because he now thinks the find is a good thing, is faking it under instruction, or is just rushing to get through it in 3 minutes. He also pointed to some risks of the exploration. To some extent it could be considered he said/she said fake balance coverage, if you miss his somewhat non specific pointing to the risks that Raglan faces. Risks that John Campbell's audience should by now be quite familiar with.

If there is an about turn in Campbell Live's coverage of the issue, I don't see it. It would be an important shift, that I would hope not to see. But if someone can show me evidence of such a shift I'd like to see it. Such things are not unheard of and now that they've found what they are looking for, it is possible that they just dropped a big advertising contract on MediaWork's sales desk. But I need more evidence in order to accept that a U-turn has taken place.

Can we  see Simon Bridges loosing his cool on the show again - now that is what I call full disclosure.

See also
    Campbell Live reports Anadarko's  "some success" drilling off Taranaki.

ADDENDUM 4-FEB-2014
It appears that while a possible imbargo may have been in place last last as Campbell Live reported "some success" in a story titled "Has Anadarko found oil of the coast of Taranki?" Any gleeful body language might be attributable to knowing that Anadarko came up empty-handed. Apparently "some success" means "We drilled and it didn't blow up in our faces." And that is oil industry success I can live with.

But they are still exploring, and heading to a site off the Otago coast. I''m hoping for similar results. After that there is the Pegasus Basin site off the Kaikoura coast where MV Duke is engaged in seismic testing, deafening whales dolphin etc. But surely who would question a large multinational trying to make a buck  while #$%@ing the wildlife that drives existing local industry. Anyone with a thought in their head I would say, but I'm crazy like that.

Dear Oprah

We atheists get awe, we always got awe, our experience is as diverse and rich as any other people. It is full of the simultaneous beauty, hideousness, complexity, simplicity, horror, the vast macro scale, the intricate and counter intuitive nanoscale, and everyday midi scale with human nurturing, care, and cruelty, insanity, humour and consideration of our experience is the human experience.

It needs no gods, no ancient writings of savage civilizations, no poetically twisted language of science offered to sell books.

Humans are by nature emotional creatures, it was true yesterday, it is true today and it will be true tomorrow. We are also capable of reason and through reason we find no evidence of god in the traditional sense. Powerful and profound emotional experiences are just that. They can be beautiful uplifting or devastating. If they happen to be the former there is no reason to call them God, it simply demonstrates that the word does not mean what you think it means. The word god has  meaning referring to an all knowing superpower so what ever you call awe, be it yugen or amazement or joie de vivre, the one thing it is not is god. If you are going to torture the English language, have the decency to do it out of public view, like the CIA.

And while your at it knock off the "The Secret" stuff. because when things don't work out like people hope it just leaves them frustrated and depressed and being led to believe that there lives suck because they haven't a strong enough imagination to overcome their reality which is that trickle down economics is a scam designed to extract money from the working poor an middle class and give it to the rich.

Traditionally the word soul referred to living person there was no supernatural element to this word until the Catholics started chewing on their own dictionaries and the lead in the ink affect their brains. It was all good though it filled the coffers nicely. All the priests had to say was "Nice soul you have their, wouldn't want anything to happen to it." And the gullible and poorly educated peasants would respond to this empty threat, and fill the golden platter with contribution for the godfather tithe to the church. Like the traditional concept of God, the concept of the eternal or extra-corporeal soul has no evidential support.

Props to Diana Nyad for being straight up and showing that people don't need god to be extraordinary.



In case you were still wondering what Atheism is, Take 5 minutes to let Bill Maher explain it to you...

Simon Bridges spazzes out on Campbell Live

Minister for Energy and Resources, and Associate Minister for Climate change issues, (seems like a conflict of interest to me) appeared on Campbell Live and proceeded to have a tantrum worthy of  guano psychotic Michelle Bachman. the only thing he didn't say was  "'Maranatha Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand, '"

See the interview here

Simon Bridges seemed out of his depth, like many in the Tea Party, spouting talking points that barely if at all address any questions or issues raised. He also seem to be trying to win the conversation by simply talking louder and oer John Campbell. John did call Bridges out, clearly a little exasperated, in the most professional way for this nonsense, but Bridges continued. Continuing to demonstrate a disregard for facts not seen in New Zealand politics outside of case resulting in fraud trials. Bridges tactics were a brilliant demonstration of handwaving, that should be study by boy scouts aiming for the semaphore badges. Brilliant also how John pressed to admit that drilling would be in waters twice as deep any other drilled in NZ waters to date. They effort Bridges put into avoiding making this strongly evident.

Strangely it seemed, it was like he was working from a Tea Party media handbook. But then with all these US based Oil companies, If we export crude to the US, Koch Industries will more than likely refine some of that oil. With the Koch Brothers funding Tea Party's start up and spending $200m to defeat the Affordable Care Act and shutting down the US government to make it happen, it does not seem so strange. It seems quite reasonable in fact. All it needs is proof.

It has been noted that once the TPPA is signed there will be no backing out at least not without getting sued by multinational companies with reserves big enough to buy the entire country.

Simon Bridges also made illegal to protest within 500 metres (546 yards) of an oil industry vessel. The law contravenes international law and the principle of the right to non violent protest, of the sort the Arctic 30 have been charged with piracy by the Russian authorities. Note 1,300,000 people have written to Russian ambassadors in a effort to #freethearctic30.

See also
    Full article John Campbell holds Bridges to the fire
    Koch planned shutdown
    itsourfuture.org.nz

The Onion to buy Fox News

CEO of The Onion, Steve Hannah, today announced that the Onion is engaged in a hostile take over of Fox News. Hannah stated in a press conference held at 2:30 9 ET in the Caucus Room restaurant Washington DC.

"We think they offer comedic credentials that complement our business model."

He also commented on the recent scandal where Fox reportedly stole Material from competitor satirical media site National Report.

"It is worrying behaviour, if the charges are true, but for now they have created an opportunity from which comedy will be the ultimate winner at the end of the day."

When asked if such a take over would create an unacceptable monopoly under the Sherman Act he responded with

"M*A*S*H is classic comedy, Harry Morgan has nothing to worry about, his portrayal of Colonel Sherman Potter will stand up for generations."

Hannah also noted that "We would not be here today but for a meeting that took place in this very room in January 2009."

Fox News CEO, Roger Ailes, could not be reached for comment but his office released a statement saying only "We believe we are working in fundamentally different markets, we don't do satire, we steal it, or we invent news, this is not a market for creativity."

Hannah responded to the Fox statement by email saying "Ailes is brilliant, he has a classic straight-man schtick going on, that's why we love him and his company."

Fox stocks fell 5 points, while The Onion stock was over 200F degrees at time of writing.


See also
   Fox fakes it - Yahoo
   Obama's Muslim Museum - National Report
   Caucus Room 2009 meeting sets agenda - Huffpost 

Are we stuffed on inequality?

Fairfax media might seem to think so. So much so concerned staff are leaking they they have been told ignore visiting UK Professor Robert Wade.  Stuff.co.nz and Dominion Post publishers are said to have barred staff from contacting Professor  Wade.

Let's why they might like to not give Professor Wade column inches, well he did say Capital Gains taxes should get more attention. Calling the fact that we don't have capital gains "outrageous". It is like he criticizing a plumber in a flooded bathroom for not turning off the spigot. At in regard to the over inflated property market. Now they could not possibly want people hearing about a tax that would stabilize property values because there is a slim chance it might hurt the margins of property speculators and investors. And you can almost be certain the top brass at Fairfax have property investments and any talk of capital gains would knock wind out of the property market as investors shy away from uncertain returns. Never mind upsetting realstate advertisers.

Professor Wade commented “And, I mean, it is I think quite outrageous that in New Zealand there's no capital gains tax… But of course if you have a situation where economic policy is being made by the top 1% for the top 1%, then the last thing you're going to get is political movement towards a capital gains tax,”

See also
   NBR
   FearFactsExposed

Fascination with Voldemort leads to suspicion Harry Potter cast out Dementors.

Stratford upon Thames -- Harry Potter while talking to a visiting mud-blood is suspected of casting a petronis spell to provide protection and may have cast out four dementors responsible for stammering, indecisiveness, anxiety over daisy chains and a moderate case of hay-fever.

New twists Tuesday with a well known defence against the dark arts instructor insisting Harry helped "liberate" a 35 welch man struggling with four dementors Despite the Ministry of Magic's insistence that no such off campus vanquishing took place.

The case concerns a 35-year old husband and father who travelled to Stratford from Wales to attend a memorial service for Dumbledor in the city square. At the end of the service Harry chatted with the mullet wearing comrade as he always does, including a man possessed by Voldemort, according to the wizard brought him, the Enchanted Eric Izenbard.

Harry shook hands with the man and wished him well waving good-bye with a smile. The man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, then slumped with is mullet covering his face.

The images, broadcast world wide, prompted the television of the UK Elder Wizards' conference to declare that according to several wizards, there was "no doubt" that Harry either cast a petronis spell or a simple protection spell to free the man of Voldemort's influence.

The Ministry of Magic was more cautious. In a statement Tuesday, it said Harry "didn't intend to perform any petronis spell. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intend to well-wish for someone who was suffering who was presented to him."

The Wizard Gabby Aromth, a leading Defence against the Dark Arts Lecturer for Hogwart's said he performed a lengthy Banishment of dementors on the man on the Tuesday morning and ascertained he was possess by four seperate dementors. The case was related to a vote to legalize Marriage equality in London's House of Commons.

Aroth told BBC4, that even a short health points incantation, without the full petronis spell or wand waving being performed, is in itself a type of Vanquishing.

"That was a true vanquishing," he said of Harry's wish. "Vanquishing aren't just done according to the rules of the ritual."

Izenbard, took the Ministry's line, saying it was no petronis but that Harry merely said an encantation to free the man from Voldemort.

"Since no one heard what he said, including the man who was right there, you can say he did and enchantment for freedom and nothing more, " Izenbard wrote on his facebook page, which was confirmed by the his order, The Order of the Phoenix.

Fueling the speculation that Harry did indeed perform a petronis spell is his frequent reference to Voldemort in his conversations with friends - as well as an apparent surge in calls for vanquishings and banishments among mudblood and wizard  families despite the irreverent treatment the rite often receives from JesusCamp.

Who can forget the accusations of Satanism, open hatred and words like "Harry Potter is of the devil".

In his very first address to the House of Commons on March 14, Harry warned executives of the Ministry of Magic, the day after he was elected "he who doesn't respect Dumbledor is working for Voldemort."

He has since mention Voldemort on a handful of occasions, most recently in a May 4 speech when in his morning meeting with the Acton Wizards Conference he spoke of the need for discussion - except with Voldemort.

"With "he who must not be named" you can't have dialog: Let this be clear!" he warned.

Experts said Harry's frequent invocation of Voldemort is a reflection of both his personal history with Voldemort and his association with the Order of The Phoenix, as well as a Ministry of Magic weakened by science and secularization.

"Voldemort's influence and presence in the world seems to fluctuate in quantity and inversely proportionate to the presence of wizard schools" said Wizard Thomas Roome, an ethical magician at Leeds University School of Wizardry. "So one would expect an upwelling in his malicious activity in the wake of de-magicalization and secularization" in the world and a surge in things like Religious fundamentalism, racism and class warfare.

In recent years, London's Magical Universities have hosted several courses for would-be defenders against the Dark Arts. Updated 1998 and contained in a little black/brown leather bound notebook. The incantation is relatively brief, consisting of charms with magic elixirs, spells and an interrogation of Voldemort which the wizard demands to know Voldemort's name, how many are present and when they leave the victim.

Only a wizard authorized by an executive of the Ministry of Magic can perform a vanquishing, and magical law specifies that the vanquisher must be "endowed with kindness, knowledge, prudence and integrity of life."

While belief in Voldemort is consistent with the history of Hogwart's, the Ministry's Executive urge prudence, particularly to ensure that the victim isn't merely psychologically ill.

The Wizard Gus Pasmero, a London based systemic scholar of Magic who has witnessed or participated in more than a dozen banishments, says he's fairly certain Harry's echantment on Sunday was either a full-fledged petronis spell or a more simple charm to free the young man from dark magical possession.

He noted that the placement of Harry's hands in the hands of the man was the "typical position" for a vanquisher to use.

"When you witness something like that -- for me it was shocking -- I could feel the power of magic," he said in a phone interview, speaking of his own previous experiences.

The Ministry of Magic spokesman, the Wizardly Fred Lamborgini, sought to temper speculation that what occured was a full-fledged petronis spell. While he didn't deny it outright -- he said Harry hadn't "intended" to perform one - he stressed that the intention of the person asking is quite important.

Late Tuesday, the director of BBC 2000, the television of the UK Elder Wizards' conference, went on air to apologize for the earlier report.

"I don't want to attribute to him a gesture that he didn't intend to perform." Said Witch Dina Buffulo.

That said, Harry's actions and attitude toward Voldemort are not new: As a final year student at Hogwart's, Harry frequently spoke of Voldemort's presence in our midst.

In the book "Spirit realm and Earthly realm", Potter devoted the second chapter to "He who shall not be named" and in no uncertain terms that he knows Voldemort and that his goals are "destruction, division, hatred and calamity."

"Perhaps its greatest success in these times has been to make us think that it doesn't exist, that everything can be traced to a purely magical plan," he wrote.

London News papers noted that the Late Dumbledor had performed a vanquishing in 1982 -- near the same spot where Harry charmed over the mullet wearing man on Sunday.


See also Pontiff pats Mexican on head.