How various societies nearly handled over-population or imprisonment

Sachyriel

Banned
Does anyone know the origins of these outlandish laws?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070730103722AAnT8bt

if and did they ever get treated seriously etc...

# In Canada, It is illegal for a teen to walk down main street for Fort Qu'Appelle with their shoes untied.

Because Teens are easily swayed by group culture, if one teen starts walking down street with their shoelaces floppin' around then the rest of them pick it up, you know how kids are. So in order to keep kids safe from their own untied shoes epidemics, it must be a law. And a harsh law at that.
 
Interesting, but who enforced it, does anyone know of any laws that were placed into the constitution, taken out, things that could have been put into other important documents etc...
 

King Thomas

Banned
The no blindfolded drivers law is in fact quite sensible;imagine the damage by crashing a blindfolded driver could cause. The others are ridiculous.
 
Does anyone know the origins of these outlandish laws?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070730103722AAnT8bt

if and did they ever get treated seriously etc...

I'm a lawyer, so people often ask me about this stuff, and I've looked into some of it. Very few of these "laws" are what they seem to be. In most of the examples, what's really going on is that the legislature passed one or two relatively normal laws, and some joker noticed that you get humorous results if you either combine two normal laws, or if you read one law in an exaggerated context. And in a few cases, the original author was blatantly lying.

Here's how it works:
  • Claim: "In Alabama, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while operating a vehicle." Truth: Alabama Code Section 32-5A-53 Obstruction to driver's view or driving mechanism. "No person shall drive a vehicle when it is loaded, or when there are in the front seat such a number of persons as to obstruct the view of the driver to the front or sides of the vehicle or as to interfere with the driver's control over the driving mechanism of the vehicle." Haha, I bet that includes blindfolds! Ha!
  • Claim: In Merryville, Missouri, women are prohibited from wearing corsets because "the privilege of admiring the curvaceous, unencumbered body of a young woman should not be denied to the normal, red-blooded American male." Truth: This one's a load of crock. There's no such town, and the oldest published source for this 'law' is 1989.
  • Claim: In Florida, if an elephant is left tied to a parking meter, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would for a vehicle. Truth: 1. In Florida, parking meters are for 'vehicles', not 'motor vehicles.' 2. In Florida, 'vehicle' is defined as anything that you use to travel on the road. This is rather useful, because it lets traffic cops stop people from doing dangerous things, like riding a horse on the sidewalk or a bicycle on the highway. But haha, you could ride an elephant up to a parking meter, right? Ha!
 
Curious to know if any strange laws could have been passed if a particular party or person came into power?
 
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