Hey “The Golden Compass” opens tomorrow and it’s scheduled to play here at Bonita Lakes Cinema in spite of a lot of people being upset about it because God has a death scene in the movie, or something like that.

I know, I hate it when people write about things they don’t know about, too, that’s just what I heard.

One Associated Press story read that some folks are calling the film the Anti-Narnia.

The movie’s based on British author Philip Pullman’s ‘‘His Dark Materials’’ trilogy, a fantasy series about a young orphan girl drawn into an alternate universe — again, that’s according to AP.

Some religious leaders are afraid the movie will prompt kids to read the books, which they say take not-so-playful jabs at God and organized religion.

Here’s what I do know something about — if it prompts people to read, that will be good. If you are a reader you know, too, that one thing you read leads you to another thing to read and before you know it you’ve got a gazillion different ideas and points of view to consider — ideas about God, atheists, censorship, freedom, fanaticism, movies, architecture, horticulture, cooking, sailing … !? … Well, I mean it can take you anywhere your imagination can think of.

Anyway, I know it’s a touchy subject. I think I might have offended a friend this week when we were discussing this stuff and one person said: “They killed God in “The Passion of The Christ” and no one got upset.”

The other friend said: “Yeah, he died, but he came back.”

I didn’t see “The Passion of The Christ” either, and me and my big mouth, I said: “Oh, it’s a zombie movie!”

Ooops!

I would just hope we can stick the Bible on the old non-fiction shelf and “The Golden Compass” on the old fiction shelf and make room for both if that could make everyone happy. Oddly enough on my Freedom Forum calendar that sits on my desk, on the Christmas Day date even, the quote for the day is from Heinrich Heine, a German poet and writer. It reads: “Wherever books are burned, sooner or later men also are burned.” That was from 1823. See, the German’s didn’t listen to him, either.



Hot beauty queen



Didn’t Christina Silva get burned this week! She’s the 24-year-old beauty queen who was dethroned as Miss California after it was discovered vote counters bungled the results of the pageant held Nov. 25.

The contestants were scored by five celebrity judges who independently ranked them. The mix-up occurred when the points were reversed, with the lowest point given to the winner and the highest to the fourth runner-up, according to Keith Lewis the state pageant director.

Raquel Beezley was determined to be the real winner and Silva was real miffed.

At least the pageant folks allowed Silva to keep her crown, sash and necklace and they returned her $1,500 entry fee, but, I don’t think the decision should have been reversed. They should have kept Silva as Queen and given Beezley an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize as consolation.



Tweety could wind up behind real bars



And speaking of mistakes …

Did you hear about Tweety, Donald and Mickey getting hauled into court this week?

An Italian court actually issued a summons for Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy (Donald’s … duckfriend), and Tweety Bird, to testify in a counterfeiting case at a court in Naples.

A man is charged with counterfeiting Disney and Warner Bros. products.

Instead of naming only the companies and their legal representatives involved, clerks wrote in the witness list the names of the cartoon characters that decorated the toys and gadgets the man had reproduced.

Let’s just hope they aren’t charged with contempt when they don’t show up.