clipped from www.2theadvocate.com

A Livingston Parish Council ordinance outlawing fortunetelling and soothsaying is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

A Wiccan minister, Cliff Eakin, sued the parish over the ordinance, asserting inspiration from the divine transmitted by a Wiccan minister should be treated legally the same way as a message from God transmitted to a congregation by a Christian minister.

Under the First Amendment, the government can’t prohibit the expression of an idea just because society finds the idea disagreeable, according to the opinion by U.S. District Judge James J. Brady of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District.

Eakin said that a Wiccan who accepts a donation for telling fortunes, for instance, shouldn’t be treated any differently from ministers or churches accepting  tithes for passing on instructions on what they believe is God’s will.

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk

A video has emerged showing Sarah Palin playing a central role in a church service in Alaska in which witchcraft is denounced.

Thomas Muthee, a Kenyan who is a regular preacher at Palin's local Pentecostal church in Wasilla, made a passionate plea to defeat witchcraft and other supposed enemies of Palin during a sermon three years ago.

The role of the witchfinder in the life of the vice-presidential candidate running mate raises new questions about how much his team investigated her background before naming her as John McCain's running mate.

The video, available on YouTube, shows Palin standing in front of him at the service, head bowed, her hands held by two members of the congregation.

He spoke about the hindrances she faced from her enemies. "In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, every form of witchcraft is what you rebuke. In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, father make away now," Muthee said.

clipped from politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com

(CNN) — Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr is now the Libertarian Party's presidential nominee — and a potential headache for John McCain, as he reaches out to conservative voters who might otherwise vote for the GOP nominee in November.

The former Georgia congressman — who left the Republican Party two years ago, citing differences over fiscal policy and concerns over civil liberties — was nominated on the sixth ballot at the party’s convention in Denver. The vote on the sixth ballot was 324 for Barr, and 276 for Mary Ruwart, the last remaining candidate out of 14 originally seeking the Libertarian nomination.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Watch Video

clipped from wicca.timerift.net

Q: How many Pagans does it take to change a light bulb? A: Six. One to change it and five to sit around and complain that light bulbs never burned out before those damned Christians came along.

Wicca is NOT about confronting or combating Christianity. Rebuking their beliefs or soiling their historical legacy is not our purpose, nor should it be the purpose of any religion. Those who are turning to Wicca simply because they wish to leave Christianity, or they object to Christianity, or they just want to shock their Christian family should look elsewhere. Religion, ANY religion, is about belief, not negating another's belief.

The "We're Better than Them" theory.

The Purpose of Christianity or Get Over Yourselves

The Theft of Pagan Holidays

We've replaced these people's pagan gods with Folgers Crystals. Let's see if they notice.

clipped from www.ksat.com

A MySpace agreement announced Monday outlining steps it will take to protect children from online sexual predators and bullies was signed onto by every state but Texas.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said in a letter to MySpace's chief executive officer that he was not endorsing the agreement because it takes no action to verify people's ages.

"We do not believe that MySpace.com -- or any other social-networking site -- can adequately protect minors" without an age-verification system, Abbott said. "We are concerned that our signing the joint statement would be misperceived as an endorsement of the inadequate safety measures."

Abbott, who has made a crackdown on child predators a leading issue for his office, said the steps announced by MySpace are "remedial measures" that "constitute a starting point rather than a point of conclusion."

However, he praised MySpace for its willingness to work with his Cyber Crimes Unit.

clipped from www.cbsnews.com

We're all wondering what's going to happen in the year 2008. Well, as CBS Sunday Morning's Bill Geist found out, there's no better place to find out than in Cassadaga, Florida, the psychic capital of the world.

Why Cassadega? Well, you know how cell phone contacts are better in certain places? Well, spiritualists settled here in 1894 because contact with the other planes, if you will, was clearer to them here. Psychic entrepreneurs, like Dr. Rob, later opened for business around the religious settlement.

So, what does Cassadega's psychic industry foresee in 2008?

For the economy…

What do they predict for the presidential election?

But like Washington political pundits these psychics are not all talking to the same celestial sources.

Say it isn't so! Let's talk about something more pleasant, like hurricanes.

The message from Cassadega is that things should be more stable and happier for all of us in 2008.

And how's this for good news? We're all going to be thinner in 2008!