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Tuesday, August 14, 2001
John Leo :: Townhall.com Columnist
It's a mad, mad, world
by John Leo
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Was the Copenhagen Global Warming Summit Walk-Out a Win for the U.S.?


More news from the annals of zero tolerance and the continuing campaign to make the culture ever more deranged:

  • A New Jersey student made a baseball bat in shop class, then was expelled for refusing to hand it over to a teacher as a dangerous weapon.

  • A National Merit scholar in Fort Myers, Fla., missed her graduation ceremony and was sent to jail after a kitchen knife was found on the floor of her car. She said the knife had fallen there when she moved some possessions over the weekend.

  • At a Halifax, Nova Scotia, school, a ban against throwing snowballs also prohibited all arm motions that can be interpreted as possible attempts to throw something at anyone.

  • In New York City, a parks officer gave a 3-year-old a $50 summons for urinating into a bush. Also in New York, a cop busted an investment manager for tossing a pebble at pigeons who had nearly hit him with pigeon poop. "How would you like it if someone threw a rock at you?" the cop said sensitively. "They're living creatures too." The pebble-thrower is due in court on a disorderly conduct charge.

  • In Connecticut, a bill to ban handheld cell phones by drivers also makes eating or tuning the radio while driving an offense.

  • Walter Olson's Web site, www.Overlawyered.com, reports brightly on the amazing excesses of the litigious society. In New Orleans, a group of "rave" promoters, attempting to comply with a court order, banned glowsticks, the neonlike tubes of light waved by concertgoers, on grounds that they are drug paraphernalia.

    A Hooters restaurant in Augusta, Ga., made the mistake of advertising in six different fax mailings sent to 1,321 customers. Since federal law allows a penalty of $500 to $1,500 per unsolicited fax, a court returned a $12 million judgment against the restaurant, and it went bankrupt.

    A Minneapolis woman took a job in a sex-toy store and then filed a hostile-environment suit complaining about all the smutty talk she had to listen to.

  • The Canadian government thinks overweight airline passengers should be given an extra seat free of charge (why not have very thin passengers double up in a single seat too?).

  • In Florida, a former traffic-light installer sued Palm Beach County for firing him because he is color-blind and can't distinguish between red and green wires. Installers have to deal with 19 colored wires. Continued...

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    About The Author

    John Leo is editor of MindingTheCampus.com and a former contributing editor at U.S. News and World Report.

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