Ban This Blog!

Tip o' the turban to Radley for alerting me to this story:

A fortune-teller who sued Montgomery County hoping to overturn a law that bans the business of forecasting the future has lost his case, attorneys for both sides told The Examiner. Nick Nefedro, previously of Key West, Fla., said county officials violated his First Amendment rights to free speech and discriminated against his Roma, or Gypsy, culture when they refused to give him a business license to open a fortune-telling shop in Bethesda. Montgomery code dating back to the early 1950s prohibits collecting cash for predicting the future.

I don't frequent fortune-tellers, some of whom I'm sure are pretty sleazy (just like the practitioners of any other chosen profession). I would hope that this old Wired story of mine cost the psychic hotline in question a small, um, fortune.

But banning fortune-telling? Jeez — overreach much?

Montgomery County is alone in banning fortune-telling — all other counties contacted by The Examiner allow fortune-tellers to operate. The District [of Columbia] does not even require a business license.

I love the county's explanation — that predicting the future is deceitful. The prosecutorial possibilities are almost endless here. If the county is honest (unlike those evil soothsayers, natch), all newspapers and magazines carrying horoscopes are going to have to be banned in its jurisdiction.

Ditto Nostradamus's writings.

Oh, and magic shows.

The same goes for hundreds of personal-finance books (and for hundreds of investment companies) that insist that, while past performance is no guarantee for future results, in the long run the stock market always goes up.

Come to think of it, the county should also ban all churches, as clergy explicitly tell their congregants of the heavenly afterlife that awaits true believers.

I predict that this isn't the last time some overzealous lawmakers will seek to overprotect mildly gullible entertainment seekers. Whoops, did I just write "I predict"? I suppose this blog should be banned in Montgomery County too.

Comments

[Fat Steve]

"But banning fortune-telling? Jeez — overreach much?"

Jeez - READ MUCH????????

The law doesn't ban fortune telling, just making money from it. If a person advertised personal finance services that were based on paranormal information, that would be fraudulent too.

Way to compare apples and oranges, dumbass.

This law has been on the books for 60 years, in a place where you don't live, you only now figured out you don't like it...unbelievable what some people will complain about. When I read moaning and whining such as this I seriously despair for humanity.

[Rogier]

Always nice to hear from someone with such impeccable manners.

So you support a law against receiving paranormal (spiritual) information and making money from disseminating it? I once again ask why CHURCHES are allowed to stay in business in Montgomery County; they do exactly that.

And should horoscopes be banned unless they're offered entirely gratis?

The other part of your argument is just as curious and inconsistent. The law doesn't ban fortune-telling, you point out -- merely "profiting from it."

Compare:
• "The law doesn't ban pornography, merely profiting from it."
• "The law doesn't ban bookselling, merely profiting from it."
• "The law doesn't ban private education, merely profiting from it."

These are all indefensible falsehoods for a reason. If the profit motive were forcibly -- by law -- removed from these activities, they'd all whither.

In a free society, people are absolutely permitted to write and publish books; teach at private schools; and produce dirty movies -- and what's more, they're free to make money from it, whether or not you approve of how they make a living. The profit motive is an important reason for the viability of the product category. You could even say that without free commerce, such things wouldn't exist (in a meaningful way) AT ALL.

Let's say you are a massage therapist and some peabrain on the county level denies you a business license because he doesn't approve of your manhandling half-nekkid people. Would you be fine with that?

I don't see why someone who claims to predict the future would be any different in this regard. Is it because fortune-tellers are flim-flam artists who make a mockery of science? True enough, I suppose. But then, so are priests, ministers, rabbis, and mullahs. And certainly a very large contingent of our politicians. And, by the way, so are people pushing penny stocks and anti-wrinkle cream and books about angels.

It's simple: Don't like fortune-tellers? Don't visit them. But if you think they're exciting, or schlocky fun, or whatever reason you have to want to visit one, why would legislators have a problem with that? Why do THEY know better what's good for you than YOU do? And seeing as you've aligned yourself with these holier-than-thou nannies, I gotta ask (because the mindset never ceases to amaze me): How do you and they work up the gall to profess to know what's best for EVERYONE ELSE in Montgomery County?

[taxpayer]

How could you run a business, or even a county government, without trying to guess the future? Probably you'll pay someone to do it for you, whether staff or consultant.

[Good Luck Charm]

"the future ain't what it used to be."