Via Pensacola Beach Blogger I found Jon Swift’s take on the phenomenon, Harry Potter Is a Brat, explaining how the series is destroying life as it should be [if you are a supporter of the Shrubbery].

Of course, like all of the DFH bloggers, Swift eschewed breaking the embargo or revealing spoilers. Those sorts of things require professional journalists for newspapers like The New York Times and Baltimore Sun to prove they are more privileged than the children for whom the books were written. I have no idea why they thought it was important to “scoop” the Harry Potter fan sites, but these are important decisions made by professional journalists with editors. These are the people who get all of the important news, like the existence of all those WMDs in Iraq.

[If in doubt, see number 7.]

Margaret Talev of McClatchy Newspapers has a nice background piece on the current Senate: Senate tied in knots by filibusters

WASHINGTON — This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that’s rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress.

The trend has been evolving for 30 years. The reasons behind it are too complex to pin on one party. But it has been especially pronounced since the Democrats’ razor-thin win in last year’s election, giving them effectively a 51-49 Senate majority, and the Republicans’ exile to the minority.

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The day the world [well, some of the world] has anticipated for a decade is finally here: the final Harry Potter book is available to buy and people will figure out what they have been told in the last six books.

I won’t buy the book immediately, because I never have, and don’t worry about “spoilers” because Ms Rowling has set things on a pretty straight forward path if you have been paying attention. The clues were all there. At this point the title, The Deathly Hallows, should simply confirm what you suspected.

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