More Psychic Smackdown

"Sister Charlotte", a self-proclaimed clairvoyant, tarot card reader, and palm interpreter has been banned from making claims she can't prove in her advertising. Britain's Advertising Standards Authority issued the ban in response to a complaint that Ms. Charlotte printed leaflets saying she could cure anything from depression to cancer by removing "negative energies" and replacing them with "positive" ones. Unfortunately for her, the ASA doesn't look too kindly upon people making money off of outright lies. As an American and a fan of free speech, I'm a little wary of these kinds of rulings. People should be allowed to offer whatever ridiculous services others are willing to pay them for. But it's the medical claims that push cases like this from harmless charlatanism to outright fraud. And to borrow a well-worn joke, shouldn't Ms. Charlotte have seen this coming? More details here.