Night Of The Twisters

Has anybody read the book "Night of the Twisters"? Well the main charicter, Dan, had a cat. All through the first part of the book, before the tornado hit, Dan was always saying how smart the cat was. Does anyone remember the cat's name? Any guesses...anyone....anyone? No? Minerva. Sound familiar, like a certain CAT-Animagus's first name, very smart, brave, and stern. Maybe you'd recognise this name better, Professor MINERVA McGonagall. Does anyone think that's a coincidence? Nobody, wow you guys learn fast. So does anyone know if J.K. Rowling has read "Night of the Twisters", cause this just kinda sparked my attention.
Also, for those of you who haven't read "Night of the Twisters" or if you've forgotten, Minerva the cat is supposedly killed during the tornado, well actually Dan and his family never find her, and she is replaced by Minerva 2, a kitten.
Could this be a sign of things to come? Or is my imagination overactive? What do you think?

I think JKR likes names that start with the same sound (aliteration) like Godrick Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, Severus Snape, Peter Pettigrew and Minerva McGonegal. Still it is posible she could have read Twisters and decided to use the name for Professor McGonegal. I thought JKR probably took the name from Roman mythology.

Minerva from mythology? Where?

Minerva, Roman goddess of war and wisdom. Man if that isn't an oxymoron, I don't know what is. That's like being goddess of hot and cold. There's nothing wise about war.

I might argue that one Zonko...

All right! Make my day. Argue with me. Uh, what are we arguing about?

*laughs* Sorry, I should've made myself clearer. War, is what I meant. I don't believe it to unwise all the time. Sometimes, I think its something that has to happen. I love arguing this topic, but I hate it when it gets really heated.
Then again, maybe you didn't mean that you were completely against it, perhaps you'd perfer to avoid it when possible? Sorry, I always tend to jump to conclusions.

Whew! I thought for a minute you were going to argue without me.

War is a failure of civilization. People know how to talk, write books, make movies, create art, create music to communicate with each other. When we throw that all away to communicate through the smell of each other's blood, we speak the language of animals.

Politicians love to declare war. But they don't send themselves to fight. They send young men and women. Our country loses; our enemy's country loses. The only ones who get fat from war are the politicians who award government contracts and the businesses who get government contracts.

In the end, it is the average citizen who is left with the red mop and the bucket trying to put the world back to the time when people knew how to talk, write books, make movies, create art, create music to communicate with each other.

And that's what I think.

YES! Perfect setup for the perfect argument, Zonko! Buckle down, cuz here I go!
...
Give me a minute to cool down and speak like a normal person, I'm so excited, I haven't argued this one for what feels like years!
...Okay.

I'll take it from your post, that you don't approve of America's declaration of war on that terrorists. I do. I've always been fully supportive of it, since 911.

I am not a fan or war, and I do not love it. I love peace, nothing would make me happier than to achieve that ever eluding "world peace."

However, what people often seem to forget is that sometimes, in order to keep thier peace, they have to fight for it. America wouldn't have gone overseas terrorist hunting if they hadn't attacked us first. Since 911 (unless I've been decieved) we have gotten several threats from the terrorists (I'll get to Iraq in a bit, don't worry). We needed to act on that.
If a murderer crawled into a mother's room one night, gagged her before she could react, killed her only child before her eyes, and then retreated back into the night, so you really think that mother would go, "Oh, well, I don't want to start anything dangerous, so I'll let it go."? No! She would do EVERYTING in her power, to see that man dead. And that'd be right, don't you think? Blood for blood. That's the only thing that'll keep them in check.

Now about Iraq. We have found out that there weren't any weapons of mass destruction. We say "Stupid President Bush, why did he go in in the first place?"
The reason why he did, my friends, is because at the time, that was the information he had, and he needed to act on it. If you got a piece of paper taped to your front door that said your house was going to blow in tens minutes time, would you laugh it off as a joke? Probably not. Same thing with President Bush and America. he wasn't going to risk another disaster like 911. Besides, Suddam was for the terrorists.

Here's a great analogy that I always love using, I touched on it during the beginning. The Lord of the Rings. I'm guessing most of you have read the books or saw the movies. There's this evil bud guy, Sauron, who creates this ring to take over the world. What happens when the Elves and good Men find out? They go out to battle against him. Why? because he threatens everything they hold dear. Same thing with Frodo and his companions. They know they aren't perfect, they'd much rather pass on their responsibilties and return to their homes in peace, but they don't, because they love their land too much to do that. They give everything they've got to hold on to their peace, freedom and land. They have to fight, wage warfare, to KEEP the peace.

Personally, that is how I view this war against terrorists. The reason President Bush isn't out there personally, is because he's the President, and he has extremely important work he's doing here, that's his responsibility. Hm. Also, he'd be the perfect ransom if he was capture, so that'd stink. The men and woman out there fighting for America are out there because they made that choice. if they were forced by anyone, taht someone is the terrorists, who dared to attack the country they love. I, personally, am a little to cowardly to join the military, otherwise, I might be out there too, but like I said, I'm a whimp at heart. Anyway, the military isn't for everyone.

*takes a breath* Okay, I hope I haven't offended anyone, especially you, Zonko. This is just the way I feel about war. I hate it, but sometimes is something that has to happen when one's peace and wellbeing is encroached.

KaraC: Wow. That was huge. I love to hear people think. I am not offended by opinions because I firmly believe an opinion is a terrible thing to waste.

First I apologize for leading you in a political direction. Philosophically, I believe the greatest failure of humankind is war--any war. War is chaos and it leads to death. The goal of humankind is to survive. We are at the top of the food chain. Plants and animals do not need us. We need them. If humans disappeared tomorrow, the world could go on quite happily doing what it does. Mother Nature takes no sides. Disease, disaster, death are equal opportunity employers in the business of life.

In the Potter books, JKR draws many parallels to our society. We have an "Axis of Evil," Voldemort and his followers. We have an aggressive and repressive "Ministry of Magic" whose function seems to be preventing the magical community from doing things in the interest of "Homeland Security," underage wizards/witches may not use magic, Flying Carpets once used are outlawed, Portkeys must be registerd, Animagi must be registered, Squibs must be registered, Witches and wizards are identified by their wands as they pass through "Security" at the Ministry Building. Those who disobey are locked up in Azkaban and tortured by thugs and felons known as dementors. But the Ministry has no issue with using dememtors because this is part of their "Homeland Security" policy to protect the magic world from being discovered by muggles. Does any of this sound familiar?

The biggest difference between our society and the magical world is that there is a leader who understands that power corrupts. That's Dumbledore. He knows that if the Ministry of Magic had no checks and balances, two things would happen. 1. Witch/Wizard rights would diminish; 2. The Ministry's rights would expand.

But of course Dumbledore is a great wizard. He is powerful enough to take on the ignorant, the self-righteous and the bullies who want more power. Still he doesn't force his hand because he understands another important principle. The definition of a bully (any bully) is one who forces his will on a weaker opponent. Many bullies have bent weaker opponents to their will and told them, "It is for YOUR own good."

Dumbledore also knows about the cost of war. He has seen his magical world almost destroyed by war in the past. He knows Voldemort is out there and he knows war is in the wind but he waits. I believe he will wait until he has no further options before he considers war. War for victors and vanquished alike is too costly. He will fight to defend but he will not march into Voldemort's camp with an army of young witches and wizards. Dumbledore has no desire to inflate his own ego. He values life above anything that death can achieve.

Even in our world, humans can achieve more by living than by dying.