Signs of the downfall

Saw this in the news. It's about Jindal's Louisiana:

Hundreds of people on their death beds who can't afford private insurance would have to go without end-of-life care in their homes this year if Louisiana goes through with Gov. Bobby Jindal's plan to shutter the state's Medicaid hospice program in February.

When you don't care for your young, sick and elderly, you no longer belong to a civilization, a society. You are merely individuals, fending for yourselves. This is how the end comes.

Ban on fortune-telling overturned in La.

Maria Ouspenskaya, actress.

I wonder if a Louisiana judge wasn't trying to protect Jeebus from harm when she decided this case. Judge Dee Drell sided with a magistrate and struck down a ban on fortunetelling for a spurious reason:

The city argued the business of fortunetelling is a fraud and inherently deceptive, but U.S. Magistrate James Kirk concluded that fortunetelling is free speech protected by the First Amendment. 

I don't see how that argument holds water. Sure, if you're fortunetelling on a streetcorner for free, you might conclude this is free speech. But these "psychics" charge money for their lies. It is indeed a fraud.

But horrors, if they let the law stand, it might cast a shadow on churches where they also collect money and tell people lies. Might religion be the same sort of illegal fraud? I imagine the authorities had an aha moment that went something like this: "We'd better get this goldarned law off the books right quick before it hurts the baby Jeebus!" 

Fraud is fraud. The judge was wrong and the magistrate before her was wrong. 

By the way, here's my favorite part of the linked story:

Adams told The Town Talk newspaper last year that she is a fifth-generation psychic.