We Will All Come Together At The Church Of The Magic Eight Ball

You know, when the final history of this great country of ours is written, one of the things that will not be an issue is the damage we did to ourselves due to government intrusion in the marketplace by over regulation.

A spiritual counselor has filed a lawsuit against Chesterfield County in U.S. District Court in Richmond, claiming that the county is discriminating against her and her beliefs through over-regulation.

But we could be wrong about that.

Sophie King says Chesterfield is violating her constitutional rights to free speech, free exercise of religion and equal protection by failing to differentiate between fortunetellers and spiritual counselors.

It's been our experience that spiritual counselors are much better dressers, plus their tents don't smell like cat box.

King, who claims to be the latter, said she should not be subject to county requirement for fortunetelling businesses, which include a background check, character references, zoning restrictions, and a $300 business license tax.

Now why would the government be interested in someone who says, "Give me $50 and I'll tell you who you're going to marry"? This is just the kind of unwarranted intrusion that's ruining the entrepreneurial spirit in America.

"The law is ridiculous and totally unfair. It reminds me of the Dark Ages," said King, who has worked as a psychic for 17 years and who reads Tarot cards and provides other spiritual counseling.

Tell it sister. Say what you will about the Dark Ages, one thing we can all agree on is that it was a time of rampant governmental over-regulation of the...erm...prognosticating industry. Hey wait a minute. Tarot cards count as spiritual counseling? Does the pope know about this? There's bound to be an angle he can work there. We mean, they got Tarots for everything else, why not an all saints Tarot?

King claims she is not a fortuneteller -- a term she says carries negative connotations -- because she does not predict the future. Rather, she "relays information that she receives without knowing how it relates to the individual client or its specific chronological significance," according to the lawsuit.

Yeah. It's a shame we live in such a closed minded society that the contribution of fortune tellers is lost to us, and even more disheartening that a person who "relays information that she receives without knowing how it relates to the individual client or its specific chronological significance" is caught up in that same prejudice. Umm...quick question though. Does this mean that she's just a fortune teller who can't tell time?

County Attorney Steven L. Micas filed a motion to have the suit dismissed "for a number of reasons. The plaintiff asserts that she's a religion, but in fact she's just a business and subject to the normal regulations that affect businesses," he said.

OK, we're not lawyers, or theologians or anything, but is it possible for one person to be a religion? Aside from Peyton Manning we mean.

King moved to Chesterfield in October 2008 from Los Angeles and began a spiritual-counseling business.

Moved in from Los Angeles huh? Why are we not surprised?