Free Republic

Why Should This Photo Be Illegal? By Darren Warner Imagine going to the video store to rent a copy of your favorite hunting show, only to find the shelves bare. When you ask the clerk where they are, he tells you that the films are now illegal and that you can’t buy or rent them anymore.  This may sound like something out of 1984, but in United States v. Robert J. Stevens, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide this fall if photos like the one above, or video that shows hunters shooting at game, violate a 1999 federal law...

Dear America, I take it back. I don’t apologize. Because you know what? It’s none of your goddamned business. I work my ass off 10 months a year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture. I put myself through hell. I...

SOUTH JORDAN — After nearly two months of discussions on South Jordan's proposed ordinance to ban toy weapons on public property, the City Council has unanimously voted to pass the ordinance. In a work session before Tuesday's council meeting, council members discussed the proposed ordinance. Mayor Kent Money said he was concerned that the public did not understand the purpose of the ordinance. "First, we are only talking about the use of these projectiles in public places," he explained. The ordinance had originally been worded to ban the use of toy weapons on public and private property. However, after a...

Toll-paying 'transponders' that mount on front bumper could fall under court ruling. AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, February 16, 2007 First came the distressing news that many Texas vehicles are operating illegally, with license plates partially obscured within frames that violate the law. Now comes word that a state agency may be contributing to the delinquency of drivers. Texas transportation officials are studying the impact of a Wednesday court ruling that apparently renders certain toll road tags illegal. If a vehicle cannot adequately display the TxTag stickers on the inside of the windshield, then the tag must be mounted on the front...

Skeptics: Cell phone ban unenforcable Posted: April 26, 2006 07:06 AM CDT BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Skeptics say it will be impossible to enforce, but a ban on cell phone use while driving moved through a House committee today. The measure would bar new drivers from using cell phones while driving until they've had their driver's license for one year. The sponsor, Representative Dale Erdey, says the bill was designed to prevent accidents and highway fatalities caused by driver distraction. First offenders could be punished with fines of 150 dollars, 16 hours of community service or both. Repeat offenders...

What publication ban? A media blackout that makes it illegal to publish early election results wasn't enough to stop the CBC from broadcasting results for all the world to hear more than two hours before all polls were closed. Anyone who tuned into the Radio Canada International's radio feed Monday night got a sneak peek at election results from Atlantic Canada. It didn't take long for bloggers, who were busy trolling the Internet as they waited for the ban to be lifted, to figure out that it was possible to get an early play-by-play of the election results. "It appears...

A fetus doesn't count as a passenger in the carpool lane, an Arizona judge has ruled. The Phoenix Municipal Court decision doesn't affect drivers in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes around, say, Vancouver or Toronto, but it addresses a thorny question that may have occurred to some. Candace Dickinson, 23, of Ahwatukee Foothills, Ariz., got a ticket for driving alone in an HOV lane on Interstate 10 on Nov. 8. She fought it in court on grounds that she was pregnant at the time, the Arizona Republic reported. Judge Dennis Freeman rejected her argument on Tuesday. For HOV purposes, a person is someone...

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) -- Texas lawmakers sent a message to the state's high school cheerleaders Wednesday: no more booty-shaking at the game. The state's House of Representatives voted 85-55 to approve a bill that would forbid sexy cheers and give the Texas Education Agency authority to punish schools that allow "overtly sexually suggestive" routines at football games and other events.

Is it just me or did the police go OVERBOARD by arresting this woman when there are many, many, better candidates for arrest out there?

A frustrated Nova Scotia driver is learning fairness plays no part when it comes to the law. Charged and fined for transporting unopened bottles of booze behind the driver's seat of his small two-seat pickup truck, David Eisnor says he's not happy. The Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia resident says he was on his way home late one night last April, when an RCMP officer pulled him over and discovered two 1.5-litre bottles of wine and a case of beer in the cab of his truck. Citing the Liquor Control Act -- which prohibits the transportation of booze within reach of...

Remember when your old junker failed the new state car inspection? How much did the repairs cost? Maybe $500? Maybe $1,000? Maybe your car didn't really fail. Maybe the computer failed. Two years into a vehicle emissions testing program intended to clean up city air -- and expensive repairs that left a lot of us cleaned out -- the Texas government has announced that some of the tests were wrong. About half the vehicles from model year 1995 and earlier that flunked were tested on computers with flawed software, state environmental officials announced Friday. If your '89 Cutlass or '92...

A Council Bluffs, Iowa, man learned the hard way — don't mess with the city's black squirrels. ABilly G. Cates, 18, was fined $325 last Tuesday for letting loose his dog "with the intent to annoy, worry, maim, injure or kill the squirrel," according to the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil and the Omaha World-Herald.

SANTA FE— Every car sold or registered in New Mexico would have to have an alcohol-detecting device installed before 2009 under legislation approved by the House on Monday. New Mexico, always grappling for answers to chronic drunken-driving arrests and deaths, would be the first in the nation to require the devices, said Rep. Ken Martinez, D-Grants, the sponsor. The device is known as an ignition interlock, and drivers have to blow into them and pass the alcohol detection test before their cars can start. The measure, approved 45-22, headed to the Senate for debate. Gov. Bill Richardson said he would...

During a period of study in London in the early 1980s I was making daily use of the splendid library at SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies. The library is in the main SOAS premises on Malet Place, but the school also has some overflow accommodation in the fine old Georgian houses around Bedford Square. I used to walk past one of these houses on my way to the library. You could look down at basement rooms, below street level, in which were desks, shelves and filing cabinets piled high with innumerable books and folders, all behind a...

Greek govt bans all computer games By Thomas C Greene in Washington Posted: 09/03/2002 at 11:47 EST The government of Greece is making heroic efforts to humiliate the nation in front of the entire world, by banning all electronic games. That's right; something as innocent as playing computer chess on your laptop in a hotel lobby is now a crime with penalties of up to three months in stir and a fine of 10,000 euros. The purpose behind this charming legislation is to crack down on Internet gambling (which already was illegal) -- or, rather, to enable legislators to...

Greeks ban electronic games by mistakeBeware Greeks writing laws By Adamson Rust: Sunday 01 September 2002, 17:40 ONE OF THE SO-CALLED CRADLES of European civilisation appears to have got its Aristotles all in a twist over computer gaming. And mobile phones, for that matter. The Greek government appears to have lost its marbles. The government wanted to prevent its people from wasting their money by using electronic slot machines but the democratically appointed government has banned all computer games everywhere by mistake. And now the cops are raiding Internet cafes to enforce the said SNAFU. The law, according to our...

MORE ZERO TOLERANCE IDIOCY As I write these lines there is a young man sitting in a jail cell in Fayette County, Georgia. He has been there since yesterday afternoon. There will be a bond hearing today. That’s when we’ll find out if he can get out of jail. The young man’s name is Frank Gelman. He’s a 17-year-old junior at Fayette County High School Frank and some of his friends had started a lawn care and landscaping business to earn some extra money. When he drove into the school parking lot yesterday he had a chain saw and a...

Too close to NCC land, $500,000 'dream' house must be torn down Dave RogersThe Ottawa Citizen Saturday, April 27, 2002 Sunny Bad'aan offered the NCC $20,000 in landscaping to keep his 'dream house.' Sunny Bad'aan offered the NCC $20,000 in landscaping to keep his 'dream house.'   A judge has ordered Ottawa builder and entrepreneur Sonny Bad'aan to demolish his nearly completed $500,000 home because he built it too close to the the National Capital Commission's Ottawa River Parkway.Mr. Bad'aan, 57, and his wife Jo-Anne Bad'aan Bélanger bought the property on Lochaber Avenue near Westboro Beach on March 30, 2001,...