| Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 |
| 2:30 pm |
Psychic Businesses Booming Amid Economic Downturn http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20234 With a lot of people cutting back in this tough economy, more and more people are looking to psychics for answers, reports CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City. Fahrusha is a psychic in the East Village and her clients' questions have turned from love and family to money and jobs. "As of September I've been getting many, many more questions: 'Will I keep my job?' And in the last three or four w |
| 2:30 pm |
World's Oldest Marijuana Stash Totally Busted http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20233 Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world's oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany. A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for h |
| Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 |
| 5:30 pm |
Atheists Want God Out Of Ky. Homeland Security http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20232 A group of atheists filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to remove part of a state anti-terrorism law that requires Kentucky's Office of Homeland Security to acknowledge it can't keep the state safe without God's help. American Atheists Inc. sued in state court over a 2002 law that stresses God's role in Kentucky's homeland security alongside the military, police agencies and health departments. |
| 5:30 pm |
Judge Allows Charges In Wis. Prayer-Death Case http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20231 A judge refused yesterday to dismiss reckless-homicide charges against parents accused of praying instead of seeking a doctor's care as their 11-year-old daughter died of untreated diabetes. Marathon County Circuit Judge Vincent Howard rejected arguments that prosecuting Dale and Leilani Neumann violated their constitutional rights to freedom of religion and due process. "The free exercise c |
| 5:30 pm |
Guest Column: Wicca Is Legitimate Religion, Not A Cult http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20230 In a recent letter to the editor, Lois E. Zinavage made some factual errors regarding Wicca and religion that I, a Wiccan of more than a decade, feel must be addressed. First, she refers to Wicca as a cult, and “a potentially dangerous one.” I can only assume she is using the word “cult” as listed on the religioustolerance.org Web site as the most negative: “Small, evil religious group, often w |
| 5:30 pm |
Documentary To Lay Bare 'Narnia Code' http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20229 CS Lewis included a secret code in the Chronicles of Narnia linking each story to a planet, according to a BBC documentary to be aired next Easter. It has long been accepted that the classic children's series features Christian symbolism, but scholars have laboured for years to discover a third level of meaning, trying unsuccessfully to fit the themes of the seven sacraments, the seven deadly s |
| 5:30 pm |
Exploring The Evil In Our Midst http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20228 Some men and women love to study the men (and the women) who see women as evil. Many of these misogyny scholars will gather in Budapest, Hungary, in May next year, at the first global conference on Evil, Women and the Feminine. The conferees will choose among wickedly inviting topics, including monstrous motherhood; menstruation and castration; vagina dentata and other psychoanalytic perspectives; |
| 5:30 pm |
Churches Losing The Daughters Of Eve http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20227 Women are leaving church. Not skipping out of the last hymn during service, but leaving…for good, this according to a report by sociologist Dr. Kristin Aune of Derby University. In her report, she states that churches in England have lost about 50,000 women parishioners every year since 1989. The role of women in the church is not a new controversy. Since the ‘60s women have been either leaving |
| Monday, December 1st, 2008 |
| 5:30 pm |
New Stone Age Artefacts Unearthed http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20226 Rare artefacts from the late Stone Age have been uncovered in Russia. The site at Zaraysk, 150km south-east of Moscow, has yielded figurines and carvings on mammoth tusks. The new artefacts, discovered by Hizri Amirkhanov and Sergey Lev of the Russian Academy of Sciences, include a mammoth rib inscribed with what appear to be three mammoths, a small bone engraved with a cross-hatch pattern, |
| Saturday, November 29th, 2008 |
| 4:30 pm |
Don't Do Voodoo This Christmas http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20225 Shopping in Dunnes Stores recently, I was very impressed by the gorgeous range of items they have in stock for the season; cuddly snowmen, oversized stockings, golden wreaths, and, of course, let’s not forget that old festive favourite: voodoo dolls. Yes, there on the shelf, as part of the novelty gift range for men were voodoo dolls of three varieties; 'nagging girlfriend', 'nagging mother-in- |
| 3:30 pm |
What's It Like Living Next Door To A Neighbourhood Witch? http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20224 You'd think milkmen would be used to pre-dawn doorstep encounters with all manner of 'unconventional' folk, wouldn't you? Well, not in leafy Dorchester. Grandmother Suky Burton roars with laughter as she remembers the day she and the man who delivers the pints locked eyes in a moonlit driveway. 'It was the early hours and I'd been to a ceremony at Stonehenge. Normally, I'd change out of my |
| Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 |
| 6:30 pm |
NPR Sends Wiccan Priestess To Public Prayer Booth http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20223 A pagan priestess runs into the president of the atheists in a phone booth in New York. No, it's not a joke — it's the start of a controversial report from National Public Radio — and your tax dollars may have paid for it. New York City officials this fall launched an art project called "Public Prayer Booth," which features a modified phone booth rigged up with a flip-down kneeler. Passers-b |
| 6:30 pm |
Nine Out Of Ten Dogmas http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20222 As someone devoted to academic research, I feel increasingly embarrassed when I encounter the words "research shows" in a newspaper article. The status of research is not only exploited to prove the obvious, but also to validate the researcher's political beliefs, lifestyle and prejudice. So last month a study by John Alford of Rice University proved that right-wing Americans are likely to be f |
| 5:30 pm |
Wizard Man Switching On Sutton Christmas Lights After Facebook Campaign http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20221 The Wizard Man of Sutton has agreed to turn on the town’s Christmas lights on Thursday night after a successful internet campaign. More than 2,600 members of the social networking site Facebook clamoured for Conrad Pugsley, 58, to weave a spell over the festivities. Billie-Jo Maynard, who conjured up the campaign less than a fortnight ago, said: “We are absolutely thrilled that the good peop |
| 5:30 pm |
Livingston Parish Council Repeals Soothsaying Prohibition Ordinance http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20220 The Livingston Parish Council smashed its crystal-ball ordinance Monday night. A federal judge had ruled that the parish’s prohibition against soothsaying is unconstitutional. A Wiccan minister, Cliff Eakin, had sued the parish over the ordinance, asserting that inspiration from the divine transmitted by a Wiccan minister should be treated legally the same way as a message from God transmitted |
| 5:30 pm |
Florida University Bans Christmas Decor http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20219 A Florida university has annoyed many of its employees and students by ordering a complete ban on Christmas decorations in public areas. That means Florida Gulf Coast University is not holding its greeting card contest this year, the Fort Myers News-Press reported. The giving tree in one building will be a "giving garden." |
| Monday, November 24th, 2008 |
| 4:30 pm |
Don’t ‘Defend’ Religion By Silencing Free Speech http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20218 A draft resolution scheduled for consideration by a committee of the United Nations General Assembly threatens to criminalize criticism of religion. In its current form, the resolution would declare defamation of religion to be a violation of international law. The resolution’s drafters hope to circumvent free-speech statutes in other countries, including the United States’ own First Amendment. |
| 4:30 pm |
Court Won't Rehear Appeal By Mother Accused Of Practicing Wicca http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20217 The state Court of Appeals on Wednesday declined to reconsider its decision in a child custody case in which the child's father claimed the child's mother practiced Wicca. Two judges dissented, accusing the majority of embarking on "a grand inquisition." In a per curiam order, the appeals court denied without explanation a petition for rehearing filed by the child's mother, who claimed a Chi |
| 4:30 pm |
Biography Channel Chronicles Witches, Past And Present http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20216 Most biographies explore the life of a single individual, but recently, a television documentary delved into the collective history of witches. Biography Channel’s “Witches” chronicles the evolution of witches over the past 700 years, from Bridget Bishop to the Blair Witch. “They are mysterious people,” the narrator says in the opening sequence. “Revered by some, considered peculiar by other |
| 4:30 pm |
Yardsmart: Folk Medicine A Gardening Tradition http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=20215 Health care is downright expensive. How many won't see a doctor because of the cost? And maybe others stay away out of fear of painful procedures and tests that don't always offer relief or a cure. Still more just don't want to reveal their embarrassing conditions. This is how it was 500 years ago when the working-class peasant had no hope of attaining medical care. So what did the people of Eu |