Hit 'Em Hard (And Then Hit 'Em Again)

“Lawyers and a member of the Federal National Council have said a 1983 law that considers sorcerers con artists was insufficient, and have called for the law to be amended to allow harsher punishment.

'Magic and sorcery has nothing to do with religion,' Salim Al Ameri (Abu Dhabi) said. 'It only affects people badly.'

He recently recalled a case he heard of a 'sorcerer' who told someone he could make the sky rain money.

'Some people believe this,' he said. 'Sorcerers say "I can help you get a job", and people believe them. We want to protect people in society from this.'

Prison sentences for those found guilty should exceed the current three years, he said.”

Our Problem? Not Enough Astrology In Our Daily Lives

Poor India, it's taking so long to come out of the dark:

“Pune: In a setback to the progressive movement in Maharashtra, leading anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead by two unidentified assailants while he was out on a morning walk here on Tuesday. 

Known for his over two-decade long campaign against outdated and inhuman social practices, Dabholkar was currently engaged in mobilising public opinion and holding discussions with Maharashtra government for passing an 'anti-superstition and black magic' law in the state legislature, opposed by certain sections of the society, including the Warkari sect. 

69-year-old Dabholkar, who headed the 'Andhashraddha Nirluman Samiti' (anti-superstition movement), was out for a morning walk when two motorcycle-borne unidentified assailants fired two bullets from close range into his head from behind, police said quoting an eyewitness.”

Whether claiming to defend superstition or black magic, those bullets are all they've ever represented,...

 

Where's The Wizard Of Oz When We Need Him?

This is when you know life is going your way:

Fear and despair are making residents of cholera-ravaged Haiti turn on each other, as angry mobs have begun killing neighbors suspected of intentionally spreading the disease through witchcraft.

Up to 12 people accused of using "black magic" to infect others have been murdered as a result of the week-long witch hunt, with new cases being reported daily.

Local officials reported that six suspected witches in the town of Chambellan were stoned or hacked to death, a fate that an additional three people met in the city of Jeremie.

Prosecutor Kesner Numa told Agence France-Presse that the victims were believed to have planted "a substance that spreads the disease" throughout the population.

"Their corpses were burned in the streets."

The violent uprising comes at a time of political crisis for the impoverished Caribbean nation, after reports of fraud and vote-rigging plagued last week’s presidential elections.

Likely a result of the January earthquake that killed a quarter of a million people, Haiti’s cholera epidemic has claimed nearly 2,000 lives over the past two months.

With no end in sight to the problem and no one to blame, people are now looking for scapegoats.

"They [the mobs] really believe that witches are taking advantage of the cholera epidemic to kill," Numa said.

Hey, man - like football players and Grammy winners - you gotta thank "God" for everything,...