In the first half, practitioner and teacher of natural magic, Dr. Evelyn Paglini, returned to share predictions, and talk about the dark side of the occult, as well as candle magic. In the near term, she sees a bleak outlook for the economy, and is especially concerned about senior citizens, whom she said may have to choose between heat or food, this winter and the next. This winter will be especially frigid, with record ice and snowfalls, leading to power outages and airport closures, she predicted. California will see earthquakes in the 5.8 to 6.3 range, and there will also be "rumbling" in the Midwest, and South Carolina, she continued. She believes the Occupy Wall St. movement is going to get bigger and better, with more defined goals and political power, though infiltrators will try to tarnish the organization.

"To succeed as a practitioner on the dark side, you must master good and evil," said Paglini. But, interestingly, as diabolical as those who practice black magic can be, they often don't see themselves as being on the dark side, and are able to justify their actions, she commented. In working with candle magic, one chooses an "image candle" in the shape of a person to represent themselves or another person, and then picks a specific color for the candle, such as green for success, money, and prosperity. While the candle is lit, the practitioner focuses intently on the outcome they desire, she explained.

----------------------------

In the latter half, technology expert Lauren Weinstein reported on recent attempts to regulate the Internet. There are pieces of legislation showing bi-partisan support in the US Senate and House, such as the Protect IP Act, and the Stop Online Piracy Act, which are ostensibly designed to curb piracy on the Internet. Yet, Weinstein noted that such bills if passed would allow entertainment industries and the government to shutdown any website they wanted to, and a website owner would have to file a complaint or appeal in order to get their site back up. Such legislation "would eviscerate or destroy most of the safe harbors that are in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," which protected ISPs and websites from being sued, he commented.

Weinstein expressed concern that such laws will end up eroding free speech on the web. In Europe, there's a push for something called "The Right to be Forgotten," a plan for people to have items about themselves that they don't like removed from the Internet. In the US, if these new bills pass, the Courts may rule that large parts of them are unconstitutional, yet the Internet may ultimately be moving toward a more closed model, like China has, he lamented.

News segment guest: Dr. Robin Falkov

Note: Linda Moulton Howe, who regularly appears the last Thursday of the month, is out on assignment.