Florida Senate Bill 1246, introduced in February, would make it a first-degree felony to take a picture of any farmland, even from the side of the road, without written permission of the land's owner. (The bill is perhaps an overenthusiastic attempt to pre-empt campaigns by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.) [Florida Tribune (Tallahassee), 2-23-2011]
Though Florida faces a serious budget shortfall, another Senate bill, 1846, would authorize the state to borrow money for golf courses and resorts in at least five state parks and would require that the courses be designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus' firm. (Update: SB1846 was too excessive even for Florida and was withdrawn.) [Orlando Sentinel, 3-12-2011]
Another "Sovereign" Citizen: In February, the Sarasota (Fla.) Police Department fired veteran homicide detective Tom Laughlin, almost a year after he had filed formal papers identifying himself as part of the "sovereign" movement, whose members believe they are beyond the control of any government and can establish their own financial system (which usually makes them much richer -- on paper), among other assertions. (The U.S. Constitution is cited as their authority, but only the original and not the popular version, which is a sham secretly switched with the original by President Abraham Lincoln.) In a subsequent interview with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Laughlin, who had a strong record as a detective, acknowledged that maybe he had gotten carried away. [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 2-18-2011]
Arkeen Thomas, 19, broke into a home in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in March, but the residents were present, and the male resident immediately punched Thomas in the mouth, sending him fleeing. (Minutes later, a woman identified as Thomas' mother arrived, picked up her son's gold teeth that had been knocked out, and left.) [TCPalm.com (Stuart, Fla.), 3-12-2011]
Arkeen Thomas, 19, broke into a home in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in March, but the residents were present, and the male resident immediately punched Thomas in the mouth, sending him fleeing. (Minutes later, a woman identified as Thomas' mother arrived, picked up her son's gold teeth that had been knocked out, and left.) [TCPalm.com (Stuart, Fla.), 3-12-2011]
That's just awesome.
Arkeen Thomas, 19, broke into a home in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in March, but the residents were present, and the male resident immediately punched Thomas in the mouth, sending him fleeing. (Minutes later, a woman identified as Thomas' mother arrived, picked up her son's gold teeth that had been knocked out, and left.) [TCPalm.com (Stuart, Fla.), 3-12-2011]
That's just awesome.
Yeah. Sometimes life is just too...........funny.
Florida. America's clown car.
India is the world's clown car. I've followed the odd news for years, and India consistently tops the list for absurd. Japan tops it for polite criminals. Some examples.
India's legal system is notoriously among the world's most leisurely paced. In December (1990) in New Delhi, four men (ages 82, 71, 63 and 62) were acquitted of accusations that they defrauded a government-run transport company by buying bogus motor parts. The men had been charged with the crime in 1955 (when they were, respectively, 47, 36, 28 and 27 years old), and the trial began in 1957. Hearings continued, off and on, for 33 years before Judge V.B. Gupta concluded in December that the government had failed to prove its case. [Houston Post-AP, 12-21-1990]
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/...
news.ninemsn.com.au/world/269699/indian-...
