Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Penis Theft Panic Hits City

Penis theft panic hits city.. | Oddly Enough | Reuters: "KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur."

11 comments:

Joan Reeves said...

I wouldn't touch that item with a ten foot -- well, you know.

Anonymous said...

As the easy joke went in KINSEY, if you didn't know better already, you could be in for a great diappointment...

Anonymous said...

But, golly (keeping the percentages intact), won't people just find ANY excuse to beat the [excrement] out of someone else?

Though perhaps the accused sorcerers in question, if any did, might've thought better of making the threat/going through the motions.

It's not as if the Congo is otherwise a happy land at the moment...BBC NEWSHOUR this morning had reportage of leftover Tutsi imbeciles from Rwanda joining up with local yahoos to inflict worse than lynchings, in the spirit of jolly fun, ethnic purity, and other noble pursuits.

Randy Johnson said...

So that's what happ--er, forget I said anything!

Doc Quatermass said...

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/06/10/stories/13100611.htm


Robert E. Bartholomew and Benjamin Radford have a chapter on shrinking genital scares in their book, Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking.


http://www.radfordbooks.com/Hoaxesmythsmania.html

And Robert E. Bartholomew has a chapter in his book, , Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics: A Study of Mass Psychogenic Illnesses and Social Delusion, which covers much of the same ground as the co-authored book.

Doc Quatermass said...

> So that's what happ--er, forget I
> said anything!

So the johnson's no longer randy? :-)

Randy Johnson said...

Doc, I bow to the master.

Anonymous said...

Penis Theft Panic - excellent name for a rock band


Jeff

Todd Mason said...

More an album title, I'd think.

Cap'n Bob said...

I'd prefer to leave mine to science. Better yet, a cute little scientist I know.

Doc Quatermass said...

> Doc, I bow to the master.

Thanks, Randy. I use to be master of my domain, but found out it wasn't very healthy for my prostate. :-)

As a young man I use to have four supple members and one stiff one. Now I have four stiff and one supple. -- Henri, Duc D'Aumale

The most distressing fact of growing older is that I find my private parts shrinking. -- Cecil Beaton