Posted on 09/06/2010 3:54:07 AM PDT by tlb
fortune tellers in Warren, Mich., must be fingerprinted and pay an annual fee of $150 — plus $10 for a police background check — to practice their craft.
But officials in Warren, a town of 138,000 near Detroit, say it's time to weed out tricksters. "We had no mechanism of enforcement to protect people against unsavory characters,"
Regulating an industry that deems itself clairvoyant, has no standard education requirements and yet rakes in cash for revealing spiritual truths may itself be an act of faith. It also might make good economic sense: about 1 in 7 Americans consulted a psychic or fortune teller in 2009.
Last year, Will County, Illinois, decided to count fortune telling as an official business (along with tattooing and dog watching).
"We are not looking to do anything to oppress people's beliefs," argues Nichols, "We are looking to specifically identify crime and people who prey on the vulnerable."
Psychic Gina Marie Marks pleaded guilty Wednesday, Sept. 1, in Florida to grand theft and organized fraud. One of her victims testified that Marks swindled her out of $312,926.29 — and persuaded her to get a tattoo, to boot. It's now "a constant reminder of the psychological abuse I endured at the hands of this false prophet," she told a Broward County judge.
Michael Steinburg, of the Michigan branch of the ACLU, suggests Warren's policy may jeopardize those practicing yoga or predicting the weather. "It makes it illegal to say incantations to give good luck without having a license," he tells TIME. The ACLU has defended the free-speech rights of Maryland fortune teller Nick Nefedro, who won his case in June to operate a shop in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
I bet they didn’t see that coming...
Damn, you beat me to it.
GMTA, FRiend!
I figure they should put the Amazing Randi in charge of this, and noone would be permitted to advertise as a psychic without passing the annual test.
Of course that would put all the stimulus promoters, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Reid, and Krugman et al. out of business too!
What,as opposed to the real psychics?
Perhaps you should have to be cleared by a shrink to be able to waste your money on a fortune teller in the first place! ;-)
Excess Prophets Tax... lol!
No sympathy, however, for the crystal ball gazers who failed to see this coming. Even less, if they voted for Obama.
A Gypsy Czar?
That caught my attention as well.
And you think 98.9% of those who voted didn’t vote for Obama?
The GOP may have the Mormons, but the Dems have the psychics.
When I was growing up, the Bunko Squad used to arrest “psychics” for fraud.
Looks like it’s still a good idea.
> I bet they didn’t see that coming...
Ba-da-BING!
:)
What is the usual clientele of these folks? Is it rich people with cash to spare looking for a thrill? Is it desperately poor people looking for a leg up on their fate? Some mix of these and/or other?
.....Is it desperately poor people looking for a leg up.....
I’d say it is a real chore and takes superior expertise to con $312k from a poor person
I suspect it is a wide mix, though the psychics to the stars probably aren’t usually the same ones ministering to the down-and-outs. (But none of them have found a customer in me, so I really don’t know.)
Or better yet, an Unsavory Character Czar...now THERE’s a position. Sorta like being Director of the Department of Redundancy Department.
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