On behalf of all magic wands

As part of my continuing love/hate relationship with my new-found home, here are two local disputes that have set my teeth on edge. Censorship and prudishness.

First, a woman in a neighboring county (basically suburban Atlanta), has taken a suit to the county school board asking that all Harry Potter books be removed from the county system's school libraries. Why? Because they encourage witchcraft, and there are now hidden pockets of spell-casting and ouiji board usage all over the county's schools. (Not making this up--I saw her on the local news. She looks completely normal!!)

What's somewhat soothing to me is that the school board laughed her out of the meeting; but, now she's taking her case to the state Board of Education, which makes me very nervous. While the Gwinnett County board can safely look her in the eye, call her a lunatic, and say firmly that banning a book like Harry Potter "would open the school system to ridicule," the state's not that trustworthy. That this woman has gotten this far with a case this insane--although she's now switching tactics and saying that the HP series is also "dark, violent and inappropriate for children"*--gives me serious qualms.

Second, turns out there's a law against selling sex toys (which are apparently called "obscene devices?!?!) in Georgia. Now, of course there are shops in the state, but they sell "massage devices" or healthy novelties and what-not like something out of a 19th-century mail order catalog. What brought it to my attention was the Supreme Court's recent refusal to consider whether a Texas law prohibiting the sale, marketing or dissemination of an "obscene device" is unconstitutional. An "obscene device" is a "a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs."

As the AJC reports this morning, the case stems from this: "A man who worked in an El Paso adult book store had sued the state after he was arrested for showing two undercover officers a penis-shaped device and telling the female officer it would give her an orgasm. The law may sound archaic, but Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama have similar bans."

Of course they do. Of course. In case you were thinking that these laws date back to the "do it in the dark on the bed with the blinds closed" laws of earlier days, South Carolina just attempted to create legislation for a similar ban. Here's the story.

*OK, the books are violent. But are they as violent as the several men during the past week who have entered classrooms in order to sexually assault and then murder little girls? I want to hurt those men. With my own hands. And then I'll read Harry Potter to cool off.