Reply #18: I like the Egyptian solution better...

[onager]

Full disclosure: I've lived under sharia law in Egypt for nearly 3 years now. I spent 2 years living in Saudi Arabia under a much worse form of it. I am an atheist.

Now with that out of the way...

In Egypt a while back, the cops nailed a guy for selling "love charms" in a little farm village near the Nile Delta.

Well, actually, they didn't have to nail him. He went running into the arms of the cops, screaming for help.

His problem started when he took a good deal of money from 2 local farmers (fellahin, if you want to practice your Arabic).

Both men had unmarried daughters who had reached the spinsterish age of 19 or 20, and they wanted the girls married off. So they went to this mystiKal/Speeritchulist asshat for a no-fail Love Charm.

Unfortunately, no suitable suitors suited up and arrived on the doorstep. So the 2 farmers started talking to their neighbors, and found that Mr. Mystikal had been taking money from a LOT of people in the village for love charms, money charms, health charms, etc.

Like a scene out of a 1930's Universal horror movie, the villagers formed a mob and attacked Mr. Mystikal's apartment. They broke down the door, hauled him out into the street, and started beating the shit out of him.

He managed to escape and ran to the local police for help. They promptly arrested him.

I'm just wishing somebody would do the same to Sylvia Browne, John Edward, or Pat Robertson...