"Are you a good witch or a bad witch?"

I came across an interesting article about a woman who claims she was fired from her job as a TSA agent in Albany, NY because A) she complained about the terminal's lack of security and B) she practices Wicca.


Wiccan "Triple Goddess" symbol.  It represents
the Maid, Mother and Crone and the
phases of the moon.

 Wicca, in case you didn't know, is a duotheistic (a male and a female deity system) nature-based religion that predates Christianity.  It's interesting because it happens to be vehemently female-centric (something modern religions lack, if you ask me).  In any case, it IS a recognized form of worship here in the United States...so that means the First Ammendment protects Wicca and you can't discriminate against someone because of it.



Courtesy of tsa.gov

 Anyway, you can read the full article here.  It strikes me as a little jaded toward the Wiccan woman, but it's obvious this is a convoluted issue.  What gets me is the original complaint against Smith, made by a supervisor she'd already had an issue with (Mary Bagnoli).  Apparently Bagnoli told supervisors Smith followed her car in her own vehicle one snowy night and put a hex on Bagnoli's heater so it wouldn't work.  She claimed to feel threatened by this episode of "spell-casting."

I'm sorry, is this real life or a Saturday Night Live skit?

So whatever you think about Smith's work record or behavior post-complaint and whether it warrants termination, you HAVE to admit taking that heater thing seriously is pretty freaking ridiculous.

Shouldn't TSA agents stop harassing each other and, oh I don't know, prevent another 9/11? 




*If you'd like to learn more about Wicca, please visit http://www.wicca.org/ or http://www.religioustolerance.org/witchcra.htm.