I wonder if this will pop up if South Dakota’s smoking ban referendum moves forward? A Canadian truck driver was arrested and fined for smoking in the workplace — his truck. (Via.)
Polish and Russian legislators are suggesting dealing with pedophilia by using drugs to lower the sex drive of offenders.
- Poland’s lower house of its parliament passed a law allowing judges to order the use of such drugs on persons released from prison if they were convicted of raping children under the age of 15 or close relatives. The purpose of the law “is to improve the mental health of the convict, to lower his libido and thereby to reduce the risk of another crime being committed by the same person.”
- A bill in the Russian Duma, meanwhile, takes a somewhat more stern approach. It says criminals will be sentenced to sterilization by use of drugs if they commit a rape or other acts of sexual violence against children under 14, have sexual relations with children under 12, or perform any other lewd actions with the children under 12 years of age. The sponsor said that “castration is the least inconvenience we may cause to the destroyers of our families and murderers of our children.”
Meanwhile, another Baltic country — Finland — makes 1-megabit broadband internet access a legal right starting next July. (Via.)
I’m guessing she was stoned when she made this call. “Saginaw County sheriff’s deputies arrested a 54-year-old woman Sunday after she reported the theft of several marijuana plants from her Brant Township home.” (Via.)
The judicial branch in Washington state is not an “agency” and, as a result, the state’s public records act does not apply to the judiciary.
A white Louisiana justice of the peace refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple. Don’t worry, though. He told the Associated Press, “I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way.” After all, “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.” I think letting them use the bathroom is especially nice.
Equality before the law is probably forever inattainable. It is a noble ideal, but it can never be realized, for what men value in this world is not rights but privileges.
H.L. Mencken, Minority Report
