Melanie Recoy was taken into the witness protection program at the age of two weeks after giving key testimony in the RICO trial of a prominent organized crime leader. Adopted by a mid-western couple unaware of her background, she has evaded those seeking to collect on the million dollar contract on her life. She blogs as Addie Pray at According To Addie.

Suckers. They are all over. Folks that will fall for anything. You know why they will fall for anything? Because they want to. They are looking for answers. If they think someone has the answers, they'll give themselves up like the homecoming queen on prom night.

All you have to do is tell them what they want to hear. It's simple. They will believe anything. It just is a matter of figuring out what it is that they want. Rain, an end to the heartbreak of psoriasis, a cure for the common cold, a new lover, to know your future, immortality, or a domestic paradise here on Earth, whatever. If the folks want it there's always going to be someone who promises to deliver.

But how do they keep this up? Nobody can deliver these things without a doubt. Won't the folks demand results at some point? Nope, they won't. It's easy to keep up this suspension of disbelief. You just have to convince the rubes that they are not quite there yet. This involves never admitting that you are wrong and limiting your marks exposure to reality.

Take for example the 1800's preacher William Miller. He convinced his flock that the world be ending on April 3rd, 1843. He also convinced his followers that they would have first pick on the good seats in heaven if they were wearing an accession robe, which he conveniently sold. When in April the world went on, he simply moved the date up to July 7th. When again in July nothing happened, he moved the date to March of the next year. Even more people showed up. a thunderstorm broke out at the hour of Miller's prophecy, dousing and ruining everybody's accession robes, but not ending the world. They bought more robes for the rain date of October 22. One man bought robes for his cows saying that, "it was a long trip and the kids would need milk". When the final promised event didn't happen, most of the flock simply ditched Miller and became what we now know as the Seventh Day Adventist. History has not told us what became of the cows.

Really. Look it up.