Witches, Vampires, and Labor Law

Black magic encounters the law:

The oft-delayed wrongful termination hearing filed by former Child Support Enforcement employee Evangaline Logg finally began before the Navajo Labor Commission Wednesday….Though [attorney Diandra] Benally stressed that the issue before the commission was strictly about whether Logg's termination was appropriate, there was a side issue that could not be swept under the rug: witchcraft.

[Supervisor William] Nez's written statement to be "protected by withcraft" is a major element of this case, [attorney David] Jordan said. Such allegations can be explosive on the reservation -- in fact, tribal law considers it grounds for defamation to call someone a witch, Jordan said.

Fear of witchcraft has played a role in some witnesses for Logg not to come forward, Jordan said.

Meanwhile, a teacher in Texas

told police he forced two girls to stay in the classroom because he was worried about witchcraft. Investigators say the teacher believed the girls had it out for him. Jose Amador Ramos, the Spanish department head at Roma High School, was charged with two counts of unlawful restraint….Ramos told police the girls had already cast a spell on another teacher and he feared he was next.

Witches may be plentiful these days, but some egghead thinks he's disproved the existence of vampires:

The professor took out the calculator to prove that if a vampire sucked one person's blood each month, after a couple of years there would be no people left, just vampires. He started his calculations with just one vampire and 537 million humans on Jan. 1, 1600 and showed that the human population would be down to zero by July 1602.

Well, maybe. For the record, I once wrote a short story that demonstrated that, by a similar mathematical progression, someday we will all be lawyers.

More Halloween links:

H.P. Lovecraft meets Charles M. Schulz.

"The Cremation of Sam McGee" told as a ghost story.

An experimental horror film based on the proto-surrealist novel-poem Les chants de Maldoror. Not safe for work!