Dumbledore, goats, and government vouchers to go to Hogwarts? :)

[Vivienne O'Regan]

No: HPFGUIDX 1353

On: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 16:05:18 -0700 Dave Hardenbrook
<DaveH47 at mindspring.com>
wrote:

>On the subject of goats, I notice that Dumbledore talked about his
>brother who hexed goats, and now the recent (Sun., August 27, 2000)
>editorial in the San Jose Mercury News by Mark Purdy that goes
>against school vouchers because they could subsidize "witch
>schools" that teach kids to sacrifice goats.  Understandably
>real-life witches are angered by the misrepresentation and I
>feel the same way, but I wonder if his remarks were meant as a
>tongue-in-cheek though badly worded nod to JKR...

That sounds a little too obscure a reference. (Also, a defect in this
sort of thinking if he is seeking to continue the witchcraft=devil
worship connection - given the popular image of the devil as a goat
 - why would 'devil worshipers' wish to sacrifice goats?)

The goat sacrificing remark and the West Coast connection sounds
if anything rational as more a dig in the direction of some of the Afro
Caribbean and South American magical religions in which animal sacrifice
is still utilized.


Vivienne