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We noticed last week that Sarah Palin was opening her propaganda movie, The Undefeated on the same day as the final Harry Potter movie. It's turning out about as well as you'd expect. Like Dolores Umbridge and the centaurs.

As Reuters reports, the movie is only being released in 10 theaters nationwide, all focused on right-wing precincts like Orange County and Dallas. And the folks who are showing up are certainly enthusiastic:

"Run, Sarah, run!" shouted Californian Sherman Roodzant, 64, as the final credits rolled on the 1:10 p.m. showing in a half-filled theater in Orange. Roodzant drove 150 miles (240 km) to see it and said it was worth every mile.

"It was awesome," Roodzant said. "It showed her life story and showed what a great American she is and what a great potential leader she is. It made me feel stronger toward her."

That kind of fervor is exactly what distributors are banking on. They saw it at the premiere last month in a small town in conservative-leaning Iowa.

"I couldn't believe the crowd reaction" in Iowa, said Trevor Drinkwater, CEO of ARC Entertainment, which is handling the film's distribution. "It is a biased crowd, but still."

And of course, they're outraged that the movie isn't showing in more theaters RIGHT NOW:

Gay Meador, 62, said she was "shocked and ashamed" that the Orange AMC theater was the only place where "The Undefeated" was showing in her area, let alone California.

Except, of course, for the little problem that, as Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic reports, most of the seats in the 10 theaters where it's showing are going empty:

I hurried through the teenage hordes, bypassed a concession stand that sold 1,020 calories of soda for $5.25, and entered theater number 30, hoping I'd have ample time before the previews to talk to some people. But inside, the theater was empty. I sat there alone for 20 minutes, at which point an usher stuck his head in the door, gave me a quizzical smile, and said, "How come you're not watching Harry Potter?" Then he left me by myself again, and without any good answer.

And those who have seen the film with, ah, more objective eyes seem to want the hour and a half of their lives back -- such as Marlow Stern at The Daily Beast:

When Palin is selected as John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential election, and the small-town girl is besieged on all sides, the film loses its grip entirely. In a classic film-propaganda tactic, personal attacks on Palin by media pundits correspond with shocking videos of avalanches, packs of lions feeding on zebras, people being buried alive in sand on the beach, and medieval knights with arrows in their backs. At times, the viewer feels like he or she is playing out the iconic scene in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, where criminal Alex DeLarge is strapped to a chair, eyes spread wide, and subjected to a series of violent images as a brainwashing technique.

Me? I'm going to see the Potter film this afternoon. In IMAX 3-D. The Palin film isn't showing anywhere in Seattle.

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Most normal moviegoing folks -- especially those of us with kids -- are looking forward to July 15 for one very good reason: It's the release date for the final Harry Potter film, and the trailers look terrific. The end of Voldemort, at last!

Then there are the hapless conservadweebs who instead will plunk down their hard-earned dollars to endure two hours of propaganda devoted to singing the praises of Sarah Palin titled The Undefeated.

Of course, this is kind of a strange title, considering that Palin indeed was defeated in her campaign for the vice presidency. And for some reason, they didn't title it The Uncompleted as a way of actually describing her term as governor. Or The Quitter, which would also be more accurate.

Anyway, Andrew Breitbart plumped the first trailer for the movie yesterday. You'll notice that he didn't bother to mention to readers that he's in the trailer. There is no need for full disclosure at propaganda mills like Breitbart's operation.

Indeed, the Palin trailer -- and no doubt the movie itself -- reminds me of the propaganda techniques identified half a century ago by the long-defunct Institute for Propaganda Analysis, because each of them can be seen at work here:

-- Name Calling, or hanging a bad label on ideas or persons.

-- Card Stacking, or the selective use of facts or outright falsehoods.

-- Band Wagon, or claiming that everyone like us thinks this way.

-- Testimonial, or the association of a respected or hated person with an approved or despised idea, respectively.

-- Plain Folks, a technique whereby the idea and its proponents are linked to "people just like you and me."

-- Transfer, or an assertion of a connection between something valued or hated and the idea or commodity being discussed.

-- Glittering Generality, or an association of something with a "virtue word" to gain approval without examining the evidence.

Now, you may ask yourself: Why would Sarah Palin put out a propaganda movie about herself right now if she weren't running for the presidency? And that would be a good question.

The answer, of course: She wouldn't.

Meanwhile, look for a fresh bumper crop of "Republicans for Voldemort" bumper stickers.

I shall always be grateful to JK Rowling and the legend of Harry Potter. My eldest child had resisted reading HP, despite the fact that I had purchased and read each of the books up to that point and raved about them. She preferred her far less challenging Rainbow Fairy and Junie B. Jones books, and even those she rarely picked up. But finally, in the summer of 2005, out of sheer boredom, she picked up the first Harry Potter book. She was so enthralled, she stayed up until late into the night, reading by flashlight. She finished the first book in three days; the second book took only two. By August, she had finished through Book 6 and had started the series over again. Thus was born my incredible book-lover child, who now reads voraciously (she checks out ten books every weekend from the library) and has tackled such classics as To Kill A Mockingbird and Pride and Prejudice as well as pop hits like the Twilight series and Meg Cabot's books.

But it all began with Harry Potter.

Naturally, as a mother, I was and am still thrilled that she is such a curious and hungry reader, but there was a hiccup along the way. I had taken my kids to the neighborhood pool and my eldest was cooling off in the shallow end with the ever-present HP book in her hand. One of the neighborhood children, seeing what my daughter was reading, volunteered as children will that her parents would not let her read Harry Potter, because it was about witchcraft and was not something a good Christian would read. Luckily, I was close enough by to be able to tell this child gently that while we respected others' beliefs, that it was MY belief that ideas are never bad things and that my children would never be prevented from reading things that interested them. I bit my tongue to keep from telling this child that the fact her parents were scared by fictional characters showed how shaky their faith must be.

Nevertheless, it began an very interesting (and ongoing) conversation with my child about censorship and fear. She sought out more information about these evangelical fears of Harry Potter, and I have to tell you, I'm so proud of how strong of mind she's grown in these four years. I've no doubt that she would be able to tell that little neighbor kid off on her own now.

But it looks like now that the book series is complete and the whole story is known, the evangelical community is having a change of heart:

Conservative Christian reviews of the new Harry Potter movie are surprisingly positive.

"As 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' opens, we are once again reminded of the characteristics that make him something of a Christ figure," Connie Neal writes for the evangelical Christianity Today.

"It is more likely that at the end of the viewing or reading, rather than the allure of magic ... what remains are the scenes that evoke values such as friendship, altruism, loyalty, and the gift of self," wrote L'Osservatore, the Vatican's semi-official newspaper.

Even Focus on the Family's pluggedin finds something redeeming: "Harry, whatever his faults, embraces such unglamorous words as 'duty,' 'responsibility' and 'sacrifice.'"

Has Harry or one of his Hogwarts cohorts cast some sort of spell over conservative Christendom?

After all, it was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) who in 2003 warned that Harry Potter books and movies "are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly."

It was James Dobson of Focus on the Family who in 2007 denounced the series, saying that "given the trend toward witchcraft and New Age ideology in the larger culture, it's difficult to ignore the effects such stories (albeit imaginary) might have on young, impressionable minds."

And it was the American Family Association's Donald Wildmon who described the Harry Potter series as "books that promote witchcraft and wizardry."

Hardly. In fact, as more conservative Christians seem to be realizing, the "Harry Potter" series actually promotes Christian themes.

In the final book of the series, Harry reads two verses from the New Testament: The first (from I Corinthians 15) on his parents' tombstone that says, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"; a second (from Matthew 6) on another tombstone that reads, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

"Those two particular quotations he finds on the tombstones at Godric's Hollow, they sum up -- they almost epitomize the whole series," author and Christian J.K. Rowling told MTV in 2007.

Um, it's still fiction, guys. But I do find it so ironic that once again, the evangelical community went off in ignorance over something that once their initial fear and fearmongering was over, they found commonality in.

That's what we in the reality-based community like to call "not judging a book by its cover." You should try it more often.

Long-time readers know that I take a certain amount of pleasure in mocking Florida, where I was born and raised. There’s just something … unique about it.

Take, for example, a Tampa-area school firing a substitute teacher for doing a magic trick for his students.

The telephone call that spelled the end of Jim Piculas’ career as a substitute teacher in Pasco County came on a January day about a week after he performed the disappearing-toothpick trick for a group of rapt middle school students.

Pat Sinclair, who oversees substitute teachers in the Pasco County School District, was on the phone. She told Piculas there had been a complaint about his performance at Rushe Middle School in Land O’ Lakes.

He asked what she meant. “She said, ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’” Piculas said.

He said the statement seemed bizarre to him, like something out of Harry Potter.

Piculas said he replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He said he also told Sinclair, “It’s not black magic. It’s a toothpick.”

Oh sure, it’s a toothpick today. But what about tomorrow? What will we tell parents when a substitute teacher starts trying to do spells? Or shows kids pictures of Willow from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”? Or accidentally turns someone into a newt? Hmm?

As Piculas — who, as far as I know, is not a warlock — explained it, he got a call after doing his trick from the head of supervisor of substitute teachers. “He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue, you can’t take any more assignments you need to come in right away,’” Piculas said.

The disappearing tooth pick was, apparently, the “huge issue,” and led to the disappearing job.

Although I have yet to embrace the Harry Potter phenomenon -- almost 400 million books in print! -- I figured I would mark the occasion of the final book's release with this classic clip of the crazy lady from Jesus Camp.

And while I'm on the subject, let me say something about Harry Potter: Warlocks are enemies of God. And I don't care what kind of hero they are, they're an enemy of God. And had it been in the Old Testament, Harry Potter would have been put to death! You don't make heroes out of warlocks!

How this doesn't qualify as psychological child abuse is beyond me. Poor kids.

World O' Crap has the latest from the Agape Press: "What a great idea -- instead of giving the trick-or-treaters tooth-rotting candy, I can give them Christian-based comic books that warn them about the dangers of the Harry Potter books. Nobody will egg my house after that!...read on"

(Update): Can you imagine being a cute little kid dressed up like Spider-man or a Princess, going from block to block waiting for someone to give you an Almond Joy or a Snickers Bar-only to see that you got this.

Fresh off his big Crawford stop, Mike's book soared to # 1: Marching Orders: "This is something you may never see again....a conservative radio host's book beating the sales of Harry Potter!!!!....well, maybe only in an area of Tennessee..."

Actually:Amazon.com Sales Rank: #8,428 in Books. Did the Heritage Foundation forget to buy their usual allotment?

Last night, the General stood in line at his local purveyor of heretical literature to buy the latest Harry Potter book. I thought I should read that satanic text so that I could better understand our enemy...read on

I have to ask JC what happened after he opened the first page of the satanist The Da Vinci Code.