The World's Strangest Laws

Didn't really know where to put this, I thought this would be the best place.
(if not, please move to correct forum)

Found this article that has a long list of "The World's Strangest Laws".

The World's Strangest Laws

Here's just a few of these "strange laws":

In Victoria Australia, only a licensed electrician is allowed to change a lightbulb.

They must have some union there!

In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants – even, if she so requests, in a policeman’s helmet.

The policemen in the UK better hide their helmets when they see a pregnant woman!

In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation.

I'll bet there's a lot of people that are glad they don't live in India!

In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon more than six-feet long.

I believe it would be hard to conceal a weapon over six feet long!

In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth.

I don't think many husbands would NOT want their wives to wear false teeth if they were toothless.

In Eureka, Nevada, USA, it is still illegal for men with mustaches to kiss women.

I'm glad I don't live there, I have a mustache!

In Afghanistan the Taliban militia banned women from wearing white socks just in case men find them attractive.

You know, those sexy white socks.

In Arizona, USA, it is illegal to hunt camels.

I think it's because they are on the endangered list in Arizona.

And I'll give you one more

In Chico, California, USA, the law says that anybody who detonates a nuclear device within the city limits is liable to a fine of $500.

Now, I think this is a good law! I'm glad it's illegal to detonate a nuclear device within the city limits, I think more cities should adopt this law.

This is just a couple of the laws in this article.
There must be at least 150 of these.

I thought these laws were quite "interesting" and thought I'd share.


[edit on 18/8/07 by Keyhole]

In a town near where I grew up, Alderson WV, it is illegal for a Lion to walk down the street. Actual law on the books...

Seems way back when, a circus lion escaped and after all was said and done, the town could not do anything to punish the circus. So they enacted a law...

Great find Key....


Semper

I've read many of these before... they're quite amusing, but I don't know why any of them were made into laws lol

I still think it's weird that in some places Alcohol cannot be sold on Sundays.

Dates back to the Christian Foundational beginnings of the Nation...

Almost all of your States/Counties and Municipalities can trace their roots to some form of religious beginnings...

The "Blue Laws" are a hold over from when we understood the Constitution said..

Freedom OF religion

not

Freedom FROM religion

Although antiquated now and many such areas are repealing them with little or no opposition, one has to ask the obvious....

If you so desperately need alcohol that you can not seem to wait one day, is the fact that it is not sold on Sunday your only problem?


Semper

Originally posted by semperfortis
Dates back to the Christian Foundational beginnings of the Nation...

yes, because democracy is SUCH a christian concept... that was founded in pagan greece...
just like the republic is such a christian concept... that was found in pagan rome...
just like the philosophies of john locke that the country was founded on were inherently just christian ideas... which they weren't...
and because all of the founders were christians... none at all were deists...

america's foundational beginning were christian, however. you're right, it was perfectly christian to wipe out the natives...

Almost all of your States/Counties and Municipalities can trace their roots to some form of religious beginnings...

well, that's quite obvious.

The "Blue Laws" are a hold over from when we understood the Constitution said..

Freedom OF religion

not

Freedom FROM religion

you can't have the freedom to practice your own religion unless you're free from all the other religions that wish to impose upon you

now, it doesn't matter what the constitution meant back then, it matters what it means now. the document was made to govern people in an age that was incredibly ignorant compared to the modern era. i guess religion was something they needed to hold on to when they just couldn't understand how the world worked... today, we don't need it because we can explain those things with science

Although antiquated now and many such areas are repealing them with little or no opposition, one has to ask the obvious....

If you so desperately need alcohol that you can not seem to wait one day, is the fact that it is not sold on Sunday your only problem?

wow. now that's just idiotic.
it isn't about desperately needing alcohol, it's about someone imposing their stupid religious beliefs on us.... i say stupid because they believe the person that founded their religion performed a miracle of turning water INTO alcohol........
honestly, why shouldn't i be allowed to go to a bar on a sunday with my friends? i know i'd learn a hell of a lot more from some drunk guy at the bar than i would from some bronze age religion

[edit on 8/22/07 by madnessinmysoul]

madnessinmysoul,

Your public education roots are showing again.

Localities have the ability to determine what laws they will put into effect. This is a local ability..just as it is for some states. THeir reasons are their own buisness no matter what the source. Science has nothing to do with it. It is more history.

I think they sometimes call this in some countys a "dry county." But that is the buisness of the countys ..not science.

However I agree with semperfortis. If one doesnt have enough savy to stock up afore hand ....they have other serious problems. If I want a drink I will make sure to stock up so that it is there for me when I want it..no matter what the local ordinances are on selling it. I will find a way. I just dont happen to have a career in drinking. Not for me thanks. Little to no intrest in drinking as a career opportunity.
Here in this city they stop selling beer/wine after 11pm or so in the local convenience stores. NO matter to me I seldom buy beer. This is a city ordinance. No problem or matter to me. If I want a beer I will make sure to stock up early. As it is I seldom drink more than a six pack or perhapsed two per year. I told you I am not a career drinker.

Hard liquior is sold here by the state alcoholic beverage stores. ABC stores as they are labeled..state run. But this is here a state function. In other states it is done through privately run stores. No matter to me I dont and will not be a career drinker here either though I do keep hard liquior around this residence. My point is that these are state functions and determined by the states or localities. Not by some all seeing, all knowing, divivnity of science.

The Blue Laws are Olde Testament in origin. Preachers are lying and deceiving us on this. As believers we are not under OLde Testament Bondage...but free from this. If commuities want to have stores open on Sundays...no matter to me. If they dont want to open on Sundays no matter either. I am ok either way. Just dont try to shove down my throat that Sunday is the Lords day in particular so that you can keep the church coffers full. I dont buy into that nonsense. Communities and individual buisnesses should have the ability to determine thier hours open or closed even on Sundays. Not the Churchs by some kind of phoney default setting which is not true.

As you can see I dont believe in the Church organization functioning in this manner.... that is a local community function. Not a function of science or the Churchs. I have no problem with a local community deciding to do or not do something like opening stores or not...deciding to sell or not sell alcohol under thier dictates. We who know about this history call this liberty. No problem here with me on this.
However I just dont also buy into that Blue law rubbish. No thanks.

Orangetom

Nice reply Orangetom,

I was not going to grace it with an attempt to educate someone that obviously believes in revisionist history at best and liberal lies at the worse, but you pretty much spelled it out...

And you said it best with "Public Education"

Semper

Semperfortis,

Let me beging by saying OOHRAH....Semper Fi.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am definitely not against science. No way. I just think that science is a poor substitute for religion. Especially when it becomes obvious that to some science is in fact thier religion.

Science has in fact put us in better schools, cars, homes etc etc et al. But science has not made us better people. I will never believe this. Science has made us better customers..but not better people.

As to public education.. I think public education needs alot of improvement. I dont put much stock in what will happen when much of public educaction has gelled down to a television in every room.

Yes I am aware of much of revisionist history today. Not impressed with it at all. Sometimes I refer to much of it as drama queen history.

OOHRAH...keep the Faith.
Semper Fi

Orangetom

[edit on 27-8-2007 by orangetom1999]

[edit on 27-8-2007 by orangetom1999]

reply to post by semperfortis


Ah, no it's actually a holdover from the temperance movement that also led to Prohibition. We're talking early 20th century, late 19th at best. Odds are you won't find too many "dry" towns prior to this period, excepting perhaps in times of rationing when soldiers were in the area, as was the case during the war against Mexico. Even the Amish have their cider

Christian foundation. Heh.

is there ANY topic on ATS that is not eventually turned into a religious debate?


Sad, there is a forum for that ya know?


Jasn

Ah No,

If you really look at the history of the "Blue Laws", as I have in my testimony before the State Senate, you will find one thing is clear...

But, allow me to illustrate..

There is an old saying that one cannot legislate morality, but the concept behind a blue law comes as close as possible. In the modern sense of the term, a blue law is any ordinance that attempts to control the sale of commerce or limit business hours on Sunday, also known as the Lord's Day or the Christian Sabbath. Many parts of New England and the South still observe a number of blue law restrictions, especially the prohibition of alcohol sales and the limited hours permitted for retail sales on Sundays.

~~~~~~~

A blue law usually begins as an honest attempt to curtail immoral activities on a day devoted to religious observances.

~~~~~~~

Settlers of the New Haven colony were given a set of laws in 1656 that sought to define proper and moral conduct. These laws contained a great deal of extremist Puritanical thought, such as denying food and lodging to Quakers, Adamites, and other 'heretics'. The bulk of these laws emphasized the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy by refraining from a number of activities, including kissing a child and walking in a garden.

These laws were not called blue laws by the colonists themselves. The term blue law in reference to this early legal code did not appear until the 18th Century, when a Reverend Samuel Peters paraphrased what he called the Blue Laws of Connecticut. There is not much evidence that any of these rules were actually implemented, but the principle of legislating morality influenced future lawmakers. The modern idea of a blue law really started with temperance movements and other moral causes espoused during the late 1890s.

www.wisegeek.com...

As you can clearly see, your reference to temperance is only applicable to the modern application and not to the historical reference that we were discussing.

Also:

Religion also played a big role in the push for temperance. In
Documents A and I people tried to show how God looked down on the
consumption of alcohol. These people claimed to be working for the
"common good" of mankind (Document S).
www.cyberessays.com...

To dismiss the religious foundational principles involved in such things as the "Blue Laws" is of course everyones right. One can also dismiss the sun and stars, doesn't make it right, but what the heck if it makes you happy..

Religion, Exactly


Semper

From my reading of the Bible, both Olde and New Testaments it became obvious to me that the New Testament Sabbath was a person not a day. It is a person 24/7. To keep a particular day is Olde Testament Bondage.

This is where most preachers/priests and myself part company.

Then to attempt to legislate such a day and further to use this type of legislation to control commerce is to me bondage. I am not under Olde Testament Bondage.

I became aware of the extent to which some of the Church Organizations wanted to take this in reading a book titled

Seperation of Church and State in Virginia..written some time in the 1890s. This was a very intresting and informative book. States were even going so far in colonial times as to establish an official state religion. Fortunately, according to this book, most of the state governments resisted these attempts.

There is no prohibition against drinking in the Bible...nor Tobacco. THere is a caution against being drunken. As I recall it was something to the effect of "sitting long at the wine." or being a "wine bibbler."

But if you stop to think for yourself ..in those days and even in places today it is probably safer to drink the wine than the local water. The prohibition or caution is against being drunken.

Amazing to me what nonsense some will attempt to justify in the Lords Name ..even such nonsense as Blue Laws.

If a buisnessperson wants to open on Sundays..no problem..if not no problem too. If a buisness person wants to sell alcohol on any day of the week no problem. IF they dont want to sell alcohol in thier stores..no problem with me either and I do know some who wont sell alcohol in thier buisnesses...no problem with me here. IF states and localities want to regulate the times of the day alcohol can be sold and not sold..ok with me too. That is a state and local function. Not a Church function. Nor is it a Science function.

Thanks,
Orangetom

[edit on 27-8-2007 by orangetom1999]

reply to post by semperfortis


Yes, I am aware that many blue laws are religious in nature, and that many "Christians" were hell-bent to make alcohol illegal in their eternal quest for a Mosaic version of Sharia law.

However, dry towns and alcohol limitations are a product of the temperance movement and not part of the foundation of our nation.

Originally posted by SimiusDei
is there ANY topic on ATS that is not eventually turned into a religious debate?


Sad, there is a forum for that ya know?


Jasn

I've been thinking about this statement quoted above.
You do know Jasn..that there is a religious belief and practice called Gnosticism??
It is sometimes called the religion of wise men. Reason and Logic are its bailywick. Philosophy is another version of this reason and logic. The word translates "love of wisdom"...Philosophy.

Science too has a bailywick in reason and logic. Hence my often used references to science as the religion of some peoples and posters in these rooms.

If you know the history and the difference is is very easy to spot people who claim to seperate science from religion and yet try to get science to be the basis of the new order or what will replace religion with the religion of science.

Main point here is to be very careful among people as to what passes for logic and reason/philosophy...it is often disguised religion.

Thanks for your post,
Orangetom