A New Year for Taxing Witchcraft?

Well Happy New Year to everyone! Oh my gosh, WHAT happened to the time? The days between the end of Halloween and right this very minute....have gone by in a complete blur of the most monumental proportions ever. I must apologize for my complete lack of presence here in the Halloween Blog-o-sphere, but I kid you not when I say that I have not come up for air in the last 2 months. Honestly, I have to say that is one big reason the Christmas season has lost favor in my eyes over the years. There is just WAY too much to get done in WAY too little time. And everything just seems excessive to me....too much food, too much money spent, too much glitter, too many social gatherings, too much shopping, wrapping, baking, shipping and too much work. I realize that these are all the by-products of our 'consumerism driven' way of life in America. But they take a toll on me in a way that leaves me completely depleted and disenchanted. Hence, my adoration for Halloween.....a simple holiday that costs very little and is all about creativity, imagination, magic and child-like exuberance. A no stress celebration!

Being a photographer only adds to the 'excess' of the Christmas season too, because everyone wants something from me, but they all wait til' the last minute which just skyrockets my stress levels. And coping with all the 'excess' becomes even more of a hurdle when you are introverted by nature. So I do apologize for just disappearing for awhile....but I have begrudgingly ascertained that I am just one person, no matter how hard I try to pretend to myself that I can do the work of 10. And inevitably, somethings gotta give. I figured that the bulk of my time on this particular blog is best suited in the pursuit and lead up to Halloween anyway. So missing a few months at the end of the year to cope with the 'other' holidays is an acceptable trade-off in my mind. I can assure you that I have REALLY missed reading all things Halloween related and look forward to catching up soon. But this year is shaping up to be a rather busy one for me, that will include a good bit of traveling, so I may be somewhat inconsistent in my presence here. We'll see how things go. I do hope that everyone here had a great holiday season and are comfortably settling into 2011.

Before I go, I did want to share one interesting little tidbit I read the other day which made me chuckle. The country of Romania has now changed their labor laws, and officially declared 'Witchcraft' a legal profession. Apparently it is part of the recession laden country's crack down on rampant tax evasion. Hmmm! I had no idea that 'Witchcraft' was being used as a money making profession. I mean, I can see selling 'Witchcraft' supplies perhaps, but do Witches actually charge service fees for casting spells and whatnot? I checked the yellow pages here, and I saw no listings for 'Witch Services' at all. So my question is how are they taxed exactly, and for what services? Maybe a 4% tax on all spells, but 6% on curses and hexes? wth? A humorous end note to the story, was that a disgruntled Witch has now threatened retaliation against the government in the form of a spell casting using black pepper and yeast. Of course that prompted me to wonder what the tax liability is on that spell, and whether or not she can be found guilty of treason for threatening the government! Ha! Governments can be so ridiculous sometimes that it's almost not even funny! :o)