Double, Double, Toil For Your Troubles

Just when you think the world is getting way too 21st century pragmatic and progressive, a story like this comes along to remind us that Dark Age sensibilities still poke at the furthest corners of our civilization.

Apparently, in an effort to raise revenue to alleviate Romania's economic crisis, Prime Minister Emil Boc (how very vampirian), backed by President Traian Basescu (who names these people?), has decided to slap a big ol' tax on the income of his country's witches, fortunetellers, and fringe folk who otherwise make their living capitalizing on Romania's reputation as one of the most superstitious countries in the known universe, outside of perhaps Northern California.

Apparently, these dudes have never read Macbeth. Piss off a witch, and they strike back with a vengeance. “We do harm to those who harm us," sayeth one old gal, who goes simply by the name of Witch Alicia. "They want to take the country out of this crisis using us? They should get us out of the crisis because they brought us into it . . . my curses always work."

At last report, the witches had settled upon an ancient spell involving "cat poo and dead dog" to curse Romania's president and every member of the government. They also plan to hurl poison mandrake into the Danube to further strengthen their spell.

"This law is foolish," said another witch over the telephone to an AP reporter (apparently, her powers of telepathy were on the fritz that day.) "What is there to tax, when we hardly earn anything? The lawmakers don't look at themselves, at how much they make, their tricks; they steal and they come to us asking us to put spells on their enemies."

Pass the Fresca and the popcorn, Party People, and just think of how awesome it would be if this actually worked.