This Time They Mean It

The Netherlands looks to ban mushrooms...again:

The Dutch government has decided to ban "magic mushrooms" and announced that it would put a bill before parliament under a proposal put forward by the ministers of health and justice, Ab Klink and Hirsch Ballin.

The decision, backed by a majority of members of parliament, was taken after a number of accidents mostly involving tourists.

Flashback to over a year ago when we first heard that the Dutch government was banning the sale of mushrooms after a French teenage tourist jumped to her death in March of '07. This past February I was surprised to find that smart shops were still open and doing brisk business. So I don't know what to expect with this recent news out of the Netherlands, but it would seem as if at some point in the near future smart shops will cease to exist legally in the tolerant country.

AHHHH!! TESTICLES!! AHHHH!!

From the Post Metro section.

As the General Assembly debates global warming and the death penalty, Myers (R-Washington) has something else on his mind: the outsized plastic testicles that truckers dangle from the trailer hitches of their pickups

[ellipsis]

His bill would prohibit motorists from displaying anything resembling or depicting "anatomically correct" or "less than completely and opaquely covered" human or animal genitals, human buttocks or female breasts. The offense would carry a penalty.

Wait for it...Wait for it...

"We have a governor whose agenda is, 'Let's make us the best,' " the delegate said. "So let's clean up what our children are seeing on our roads."

There we go. For the children, it's always for the children. Luckily for the sake of humor the testicle ornament industry is fighting back, even though this bill has about zero chance of getting out of committee.

"It's not a perverted sexual thing at all," said David Ham, founder of Your Nutz, a San Diego-based business that sells more than 200 kinds of fake testicles. "It's a sense of humor. This lawmaker is looking out for two or three old women in tennis shoes. He's got too much time on his hands."

He said those who support a ban would do well to recall that 50 years ago, many people in the nation lived on farms. "Did all the little donkeys and sheep walk around with their panties on so children wouldn't see their bodies?" he asked.

Donkeys and sheep in panties. Who isn't turned on by that image?

Full article here.

Ban Proposed on Listening to an iPod While Crossing the Street

The slippery slope of limiting individual choice in the name of public health and safety started to avalanche today with the announcement that a New York legislator is introducing legislation to ban using an iPod or cellphone while crossing the street.

A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in either New York City or Buffalo.

NewsChannel 4 reported that Sen. Carl Kruger is proposing the ban in response to two recent pedestrian deaths in his district, including a 23-year-old man who was struck and killed last month while listening to his iPod on Avenue T and East 71st Street In Bergen Beach.

"While people are tuning into their iPods and cell phones, they're tuning out the world around them," Kruger said. The proposed law would make talking on cell phones while crossing the street a comparable offense to jaywalking