Transylvania BREAKING: Crackdown on Witches in Romania

[Leopolds Ghost]

World Briefing | Europe

Romania: False-Prophecy Penalty

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/world/europe/09briefs-witches.html
Published: February 8, 2011

A month after the authorities began taxing Romania’s witches and fortunetellers on their trade, Parliament is considering a new bill that would subject them to fines or even prison if their predictions do not come true. Superstition is taken seriously in Romania, and officials passed the tax bill in an effort to increase revenues. The new bill would also require witches to have permits and provide their customers with receipts, and it would bar them from practicing near schools and churches. Witches argue they should not be blamed for the failure of their tools. “They can’t condemn witches; they should condemn the cards,” said Bratara Buzea, above, a “queen witch.”

Dangerous Precedent

This could set a dangerous precedent. What if they adopted a similar law for economists?

Or, worse yet, newspaper columnists?

http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/dangerous-precedent

Related article: "All Signs Pointing Up On Jobs" -- http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/all-signs-pointing-up-on-jobs/

[DJ13]

1. Can we apply the same law to politicians?

[PassingFair]

2. "When you believe in things that you don't understand...

Then you suffer ...
Superstition ain't the way"

[RandomThoughts]

3. I don't believe in much of that stuff.

But it is important for people to know, that many people that are supposedly 'running things' are getting advice from such sources, and just following orders.

I figure people have to think and feel to avoid the Machiavellian, and the bad supernatural.

[treestar]

4. People should not be admitted to the practice of witchery

Unless they prove they have trained for it and pass a test to prove they are a witch! Then they should show each year that they have participated in a set number of hours of Continuing Witch Training, to prove they are keeping up on developments in the field. If their witchery proves incompetent, malpractice suits and disciplinary proceedings are in order!

[Uta]

8. I can't tell if you're kidding or not.

but, the test is simple : Witches sink.

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. This new learning amazes me, Sir Ufa. Tell me more

I was under the impression that witches float.

[Uta]

13. No

Ducks float.

[Leopolds Ghost]

16. So if she weighs the same as a duck...?

Clearly biometric identifiers are needed.

[treestar]

19. Yes, back in the bad old days when you had to prove you

weren't a witch, the only way you could prove it killed you, since you'd sink if you weren't a witch.

Nowadays all candidates for witchery should have no trouble proving they float. Section One of the Exam for Admission to the Practice of Witchery.

[Leopolds Ghost]

29. They had a similar thing with changelings in olden times

To prove your kid was real and not a changeling, you threw them in an oven. If it was a changeling they would cry out and turn back into an evil spirit. If not... well, now you know where Hansel & Gretel comes from.

[RKP5637]

5. What if they applied that to religion in this country? n/t

[Leopolds Ghost]

6. Vampire uprising scheduled by Twitter, dubbed the "Sparkly Revolution"

Organized by Twilight fans to protest the planned gov't crackdown.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. If this were a SyFy channel movie

the Romanian government would end up being really sorry.

[MineralMan]

9. Sounds good. Let's apply it to DUers who prognosticate, too.

Me? I just procrastinate, and I always do it privately.

[Ilsa]

11. First, they came for the witches and I didn't speak out because I am not a witch.

Then they came for the werewolves, and I didn't speak out because I'm not a werewolf.

Then they came for the vampires, and I didn't speak out because I'm not a vampire.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

[LongTomH]

12. OK, Monty Python and the Holy Grail references beginning in 5...4...3...2....1

:popcorn:

[Baclava]

22. Well, she turned me into a newt!

I got better.

[Leopolds Ghost]

23. What proof do you have that she turned you into a newt? Do you have a receipt?

The new law requires receipts.

[fayhunter]

14. Hey, if this were applied to Witches in Delaware running for the Senate, we might be into it.

[Snoutport]

15. AND weathermen!!!!

Not just witches and politicians but weathermen too!

[Leopolds Ghost]

28. How do you prosecute a politician?

Most of them are crooks anyway. And how many of them are witches?

[FLPanhandle]

17. Nice to see some laws trying to protect the gullible from those fleecing them.

That fact that it's all B.S. and people should know better says much about their science education.

[Leopolds Ghost]

18. So you believe in more state intervention to oppress religious minorities and the Main St economy?

Manmohan Singh wants to pass a similar bill tracking untouchables in India with biometric identifiers in order to eliminate what the Washington Post describes as India's "creaking socialist welfare state" (their journalists' words, not editorial board) and replace it with cash payouts to the poor which can then be tracked -- and reduced if need be.

And here in the US, Virginia wants to widen I-395 into the nation's capital by eliminating car-pool lanes and replace the uniquely popular system of informal car-pooling in the nation's capital with single-occupancy toll lanes using RFID tags and photographing the interior of cars to scan for the identity of the occupants.

Similar economic sentiment.

[FLPanhandle]

20. What does biometric identifiers and car pool lanes have to do with protecting others

Nice way to go totally off topic.

[Leopolds Ghost]

21. It's all part of the same strategy of corporate statism. Regulate the little guy

With measures that would be considered impossible (and hence unimaginably intrusive) even a century ago.

Yet the sort of "oppression" the ancients got away with is considered commonplace gov't intrusion today.

Meanwhile the corporations can do whatever they want.

Why not pass a similar law against media outlets?

[provis99]

24. Fine. Let's apply this to Christians, too.

Finally a way to get rid of religion once and for all: jail them for their phoney prophecies.

[Leopolds Ghost]

25. dup n/t

[Leopolds Ghost]

26. I'm tired of the government telling me what to think, what to wear, etc.

You want that sort of thing, move to a dictatorship. Oh WAIT! (See what I did there?)

So many liberals have bought into the culture wars, it's no wonder this country's so fucked up.

Besides which, active left movements (which this country has none) have always had a religious wing.

(Y)ours does not (unsurprising, since most anti-clerical folks are fairly affluent and to the right of me on many issues)

[Leopolds Ghost]

27. Not to say religion is well-represented by clerics. Bringing us back to witches being the little guy

You won't see gov'ts apply these sort of restrictions to anyone BUT the minority, and yet some people who profess to be liberals keep trying to impose them on people "WE" don't like. Using taxation to enforce cultural norms.

[Edweird]

30. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

[Rex]

31. I heard the vampires and werewolves came to a ceasefire agreement.

Which means they will be feasting on us, double time! :hide: