Wesley Snipes Has Got Nothing on Romanian Witches
Gawker relates the story of a tax revolt that could only happen in Romania:
The Romanian government is trying to pull the country from recession, and part of the plan is to start taxing witches. In turn, witches are casting spells on the president using dead animals and cat feces. That doesn't sound good.
Today, about a dozen witches are converging on the Danube River to place a hex on the government for the action it took on Saturday, whereby witches are now required to pay 16 percent income tax. One witch told the AP that "evil will befall them." Another witch who is particularly upset, Queen witch Bratara Buzea (pictured), is preparing to cast a spell made up of cat shit and a dead dog: "We do harm to those who harm us. hey 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."
The president of Romania, Traian Basescu, is already highly superstitious and wears purple on Thursdays because, by invoking the "violet flame," the president and other government officials believe they are warding off evil spirits and spells.
I wrote (sympathetically!) about Basescu and heart-gobbling witches back in 2005. Link via the Twitter feed of Nathaniel Clarkson.