They're Just Wild About Harry!

AP News and DailyProgress.com cover the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. They highlight the historic numbers:

The new Harry Potter book sold an astonishing 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours - averaging better than 250,000 sales per hour and smashing the record held by the previous Potter release.

"This is a cause for celebration, not just for Scholastic, but for book lovers everywhere," said Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic Children's Books, author J.K. Rowling's U.S. publisher...The Scholastic numbers are for the United States only. Sales figures from Britain are expected Monday.
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Even allowing for deep discounts on the $29.99 release, "Half-Blood Prince" still easily generated more than $100 million in revenue. It's not only the richest opening in publishing history, but tops the combined estimated take for the weekend's top two movies, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Wedding Crashers."

That means 6.9 million copies of witchcraft-loving children's literature has moved through the market! All those innocent children, who never play Grand Theft Auto or watch cable, will have their faith leached away! O the Humanity! The New Age has struck again! This is all the Masons' fault. Quick! To the barricades! Drive out the Smoke of Satan from within the walls of salvation!

Puh-lease! Can we go through one pop culture sensation without the usual suspects screaming that the sky is falling? I'm not in to popularity contests, but I'd like it if just for once the Catholic Church was not held up for scorn because of the misguided actions of a well-connected few. The real Enemy stalks us all like a starving lion. We expose ourselves when we exert our influence in pursuit of paper tigers.

May all of us fools keep our eye on the ball!