Talk about dumb laws.

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Everyone loves dumb laws. What are some of your favorites? Do you think these things are really true, or do you think someone just made them up?

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2000

Answers

...well, I'm not sure why marijuana use isn't legal at least in the sense that alcohol or cigarettes are legal.

Though maybe that's proof, you can't propel legislation on something that tends to pacify its advocates into lethargy.

But you mean the really dumb laws I suppose.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000


REM once said in an interview that it was illegal to drive golf carts on the street in... um, maybe Athens, or maybe some other Georgian city.
There's been a controversy lately over whether rollerbladers should be covered by the laws for skateboards or bicycles here in Halifax. Apparently if you apply both laws (which some police have been doing), they are only allowed to rollerblade on crosswalks.
This might be an urban legend, but I have no trouble believing it: students at Dalhousie University still have the legal right to graze cattle at the Commons in Halifax. We seriously considered buying a cow, just to see what would happen if we tested the law.
Joanne



-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000

What about all the laws in various states (quite old laws) that prohibit sodomy and oral sex?

I think Texas might actually be one of those. I wonder if GWB has broken his own laws?

Oooh, the scandal!

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000


Alberta still has a law on the books that says that when a person is released from jail, he is entitled to a gun, ammunition and a horse to ride out of town on. My friend Denise wants to get arrested because hey-- free horse!

(PS: This is an actual law, not an urban legend!)

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000


My dad sent me this link this morning:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1886363528/qid=965153487/sr=1-3/ 103-3107645-6305460

It's a book entitled The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, and that's exactly what it's about, apparently.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000



Golf carts are not street legal in lots of places. I know this partly because I have a couple of subscriptions to small town newspapers, and up in Sierra County there is this retarded young woman who uses one to get around. Her dad was sheriff or something and some political rival of his started enforcing the law about driving golf carts on the street. A big flap ensued over this. They figured out some way to get around the law, though.

I think a lot of those dumb laws are just urban legends & don't find them very interesting. The ones I really think are dumb are the anti sodomy & marijuana ones, and the seat belt & helmet laws.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000


Someone told me recently that sex with animals is illegal. If it is, I don't understand why.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000

Some of these laws are just antiquated. For a while everyone I knew thought the no-spitting-on-sidewalks laws had to be urban legends; but in fact they were part of a hygiene campaign which curbed a lot of more relevant behaviors. There're a lot of things besides spit that people used to dump on the streets.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000

The spitting on sidewalks thing was an important law even all on its own - the spitting in question was chewing tobacco, and the sidewalks were wood...

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2000

Is it true that self service gas pumps are banned in Oregon?

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2000


Speaking of Marijauna laws...

"The Ontario Court of Appeals ruled that Canada's current law prohibiting the possession of marijuana is unconstitutional. The ruling says that if the federal government doesn't put a new law on the books within 12 months, it will cease to be a crime to grow or smoke marijuana in Ontario."

Yeah! Lets all go to Windsor and smoke a big fatty together! I say, JournalCon should definately be moved to Toronto, immediately.

And imagine what this will do for tourism.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2000


Yes, it's true. You cannot pump your own gas in Oregon. I don't know what the reasoning behind that is. I heard somewhere that there was concern that people would smoke while getting gas, but I've never heard any news stories about gas stations elsewhere in the country exploding, so that argument doesn't hold up.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2000

I know that in the early nineties it was against the law to pump your own gas in NJ as well--I'm not sure if this is still the case.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2000

Yep, it's still illegal to pump your own gas in NJ. Drives me nuts, especially with all the shore traffic in the summertime.

And I could be wrong, but I believe there had been legislation proposed to chnage that, and it was struck down.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2000


'Change'. That word would be 'change'. I'm sorry; I'm really not illiterate.

And I just remembered...in Ocean City, NJ, it is illegal to sell liquor within the city limits (i.e., the entire island). It's in the charter. Should it ever happen, the entire town reverts back to the Methodist church.

The liquor stores on the mainland make a killing.

-- Anonymous, August 02, 2000



Yes, there are quite a few "dry" towns in the U.S. My friend Lucinda got married in North Carolina and the reception hall was in a dry town, so they had to buy all the alcohol in a neighboring town and bring it in.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

Good point; I suppose what makes it strange (to me) is the fact that it was actually set up in the initial charter and it wasn't legislation passed later. (Are there still dry counties, or have I been watching too many Dukes of Hazzard reruns?)

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

Liquor laws vary by state, hence package stores in Oregon and Pennsylvania and other places. In Kansas, as far as I know, it's county by county and the whole state is dry except for the two counties that happen to be where the state colleges are. Kansas and Utah both have weird liquor laws where you can drink if you are a member of a club so restaurants sell you these little membership cards that allow you to drink there. My friend from Kansas said it was a pain to have to carry them around in his wallet.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

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