USA has some Strange Laws

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USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Crown »

Perhaps this should be in testing, and any mod that feels that is true feel free to move, just never started a thread there so wasn't sure.

Thought I should post this for a little giggle from LFC's North American tour;



WHAT, were your lawmakers thinking when they came up with some of these?* :lol:


*Assuming the fact checkers are correct of course.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Lord Revan »

To be fair you could probably go thru the laws of literally any western country and find similar wierd or simply really out of date laws that have not been removed from the books but aren't really enforced anymore.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Crown »

Lord Revan wrote:To be fair you could probably go thru the laws of literally any western country and find similar wierd or simply really out of date laws that have not been removed from the books but aren't really enforced anymore.
The skydiving one has to be within the last 30 odd years though, surely?!?

And yes, I'm pretty sure that police officers have better things to do with their time than arresting un-married women from skydiving in Florida, but HOW was this passed? lol
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by RogueIce »

Crown wrote:And yes, I'm pretty sure that police officers have better things to do with their time than arresting un-married women from skydiving in Florida, but HOW was this passed? lol
It's only illegal on Sundays, apparently. Incidently, this may be a bit of an urban legend...

http://www.floridalaw.blogspot.com/
OK, so enough with the weird and ridiculous Florida laws for now. (But, FYI, nowhere in the Florida Statutes could I find the single woman/parachuting on Sunday law.)
Either that or they're interpreting some other law restricting single, divorced and/or unmarried women from doing things on Sunday, which would sound like one of those 1800s morality laws that are pretty rarely enforced these days but, like Revan said, have never been officially taken off the books.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Sea Skimmer »

I can't help but notice that the thread is labeled US, and yet the second law is from Canada, and the background is a US and Canadian flag.

As for skydiving, as a sport it goes back to the 1930s, but some random people were doing it for fun before aircraft were even invented, from balloons. Everywhere on earth has absurd old laws unless an active attempt is made to cull them, some US states have done this in the last ten years. Most have not, or else the efforts have been limited, like only striking out laws at least 200 years old.

For how such a law would get passed, my bet is slipped into a much larger bill regulating aeronautical activity in the 1920s era when legislating morality was at at one of its peaks in the United State. It wouldn't be surprising if they banned unmarried women from a wide range of stuff on sundays at the time, and after all this is also back when it was the law almost everywhere that businesses be closed Sundays.

When Britain had the first public railways open, it was actually a really big deal if trains would be allowed to run on Sundays at all, and for decades traffic was kept to an utter minimal to avoid offending people. Indeed some lines advertised that they only ran the minimal number of trains allowed by law into the 1880s IIRC; as certain laws required that trains be run for the mail.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Crown »

Sea Skimmer wrote:I can't help but notice that the thread is labeled US, and yet the second law is from Canada, and the background is a US and Canadian flag.
Yes, I did say North America in the post, but the second law from Canada is actually false so ...
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by RogueIce »

Crown wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote:I can't help but notice that the thread is labeled US, and yet the second law is from Canada, and the background is a US and Canadian flag.
Yes, I did say North America in the post, but the second law from Canada is actually false so ...
And the blog I posted stated they couldn't find that skydiving law in the statutes either. None of the sites that mention it seem to state the actual statute number, they just repeat it as a matter of fact. But if you want to take a crack at finding it, go right ahead.

EDIT: There's also this article which does bother to state the statutes for some of the out-dated laws (though some of the more esoteric ones appear to be city and county ordinances rather than state laws, and stuff that probably made sense at the time [such as resisting a timber agent] but no longer does) and has this to say about the skydiving law:
Of course, not all of these so-called laws should be taken strictly at face value. A Web site called www.dumblaws.com says there's a Florida law stating unmarried women cannot parachute on Sundays.

Estrada [a judge with 22 years on the bench] counts himself as one who's never heard of that particular law.
Last edited by RogueIce on 2012-07-17 05:59pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Broomstick »

There have been instances of laws being passed to target an individual. For example, the Minnesota one against women impersonating Santa Claus might have been targeted at a specific woman seeking employment as a Santa Claus in a department store or some such and pushed by someone of wealth and/or influence.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by RogueIce »

And just to add in, another article debunking the Florida skydiving law:
Silly laws

Dumb laws have been the subject of television shows, books and a number of Web sites dedicated to the weird, silly or just plain dumb laws.
But don't be taken in. The vast majority of laws on those sites can't be verified - they're just not true. Here's a sampling of the bogus laws in Florida that you might find on those Web sites:

+ A special law prohibits unmarried women from parachuting on Sunday or she shall risk arrest, fine, and/or jailing.
+ Men may not be seen publicly in any kind of strapless gown.
+ Having sexual relations with a porcupine is illegal.
Now yes, it does list some of the cohabitation laws which are apparently still on the books, which as Skimmer said dates back to the morality laws period and is probably fairly common. But again, they could find zero confirmation about thet supposed skydiving law.

Perhaps people shouldn't take these "silly/dumb laws" things at face value?
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Crown »

RogueIce wrote:And the blog I posted stated they couldn't find that skydiving law in the statutes either. None of the sites that mention it seem to state the actual statute number, they just repeat it as a matter of fact. But if you want to take a crack at finding it, go right ahead.

EDIT: There's also this article which does bother to state the statutes for some of the out-dated laws (though some of the more esoteric ones appear to be city and county ordinances rather than state laws, and stuff that probably made sense at the time [such as resisting a timber agent] but no longer does) and has this to say about the skydiving law:
Of course, not all of these so-called laws should be taken strictly at face value. A Web site called http://www.dumblaws.com says there's a Florida law stating unmarried women cannot parachute on Sundays.

Estrada [a judge with 22 years on the bench] counts himself as one who's never heard of that particular law.
And ...
RogueIce wrote:And just to add in, another article debunking the Florida skydiving law:
Silly laws

Dumb laws have been the subject of television shows, books and a number of Web sites dedicated to the weird, silly or just plain dumb laws.
But don't be taken in. The vast majority of laws on those sites can't be verified - they're just not true. Here's a sampling of the bogus laws in Florida that you might find on those Web sites:

+ A special law prohibits unmarried women from parachuting on Sunday or she shall risk arrest, fine, and/or jailing.
+ Men may not be seen publicly in any kind of strapless gown.
+ Having sexual relations with a porcupine is illegal.
Now yes, it does list some of the cohabitation laws which are apparently still on the books, which as Skimmer said dates back to the morality laws period and is probably fairly common. But again, they could find zero confirmation about thet supposed skydiving law.

Perhaps people shouldn't take these "silly/dumb laws" things at face value?
O'rly;
Crown, in my original post wrote:*Assuming the fact checkers are correct of course.
So who was taking it at face value? I appreciate you going through the rigor more of fact checking a rather obvious facetious OP though, head of the class! :wink:
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Lord Revan »

it doesn't help that some laws in USA can be literally older then the country itself (old colonial laws that were adopted without change).

this can be true with some European countries as well Finland has been an independent country for less then 100 years but some of our law date back to Autonomy (under Emperial Russia) or swedish rule era
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by RogueIce »

Crown wrote:O'rly;
Crown, in my original post wrote:*Assuming the fact checkers are correct of course.
So who was taking it at face value? I appreciate you going through the rigor more of fact checking a rather obvious facetious OP though, head of the class! :wink:
Yes, I did see your disclaimer. Congrats for that? Though you brought it up again later:
And yes, I'm pretty sure that police officers have better things to do with their time than arresting un-married women from skydiving in Florida, but HOW was this passed? lol
When it turns out such a law was most likely never passed?

And I said "people" not you, so there's that. When I was checking it, I was rather surprised at how many places just took it at face value and apparently never bothered to check, even some news sites.

That and how often do you see those 'silly outdated laws LOL' things pop up that people just accept as fact? How do we know any of those other "True" laws in the video are verifiable if they just went and repeated some Internet Wisdom with their very first one?

Yeah, you may have posted a disclaimer but a lot of other people just take them at face value and assume truth.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Ahriman238 »

I come from Mass. It's technically illegal to swear in public, or publicly deny the divinity of Jesus Christ here. Punishable by up to a year in prison or up to a $100 dollar fine. We have lots of laws that no one will make the effort to strike but no one's going to bother enforcing.

Hell I think "not working on Sundays" is still on the books, and you'd have to arrest every store and business here.

Not to mention our very thorough code on weapons:
Whoever, except as provided by law, carries on his person, or carries on his person or under his control in a vehicle, any stiletto, dagger or a device or case which enables a knife with a locking blade to be drawn at a locked position, any ballistic knife, or any knife with a detachable blade capable of being propelled by any mechanism, dirk knife, any knife having a double-edged blade, or a switch knife, or any knife having an automatic spring release device by which the blade is released from the handle, having a blade of over one and one-half inches, or a slung shot, blowgun, blackjack, metallic knuckles or knuckles of any substance which could be put to the same use with the same or similar effect as metallic knuckles, nunchaku, zoobow, also known as klackers or kung fu sticks, or any similar weapon consisting of two sticks of wood, plastic or metal connected at one end by a length of rope, chain, wire or leather, a shuriken or any similar pointed starlike object intended to injure a person when thrown, or any armband, made with leather which has metallic spikes, points or studs or any similar device made from any other substance or a cestus or similar material weighted with metal or other substance and worn on the hand, or a manrikigusari or similar length of chain having weighted ends; or whoever, when arrested upon a warrant for an alleged crime, or when arrested while committing a breach or disturbance of the public peace, is armed with or has on his person, or has on his person or under his control in a vehicle, a billy or other dangerous weapon other than those herein mentioned and those mentioned in paragraph (a), shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than two and one-half years nor more than five years in the state prison, or for not less than six months nor more than two and one-half years in a jail or house of correction, except that, if the court finds that the defendant has not been previously convicted of a felony, he may be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars or by imprisonment for not more than two and one-half years in a jail or house of correction.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by The Yosemite Bear »

In California it's still illegal (but not prosecuted) under our rape laws to promise that you love or will always staywith a woman to get sex.

It's listed in our rape code as "Seduction"
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Crown »

RogueIce wrote:Yes, I did see your disclaimer. Congrats for that? Though you brought it up again later:
And yes, I'm pretty sure that police officers have better things to do with their time than arresting un-married women from skydiving in Florida, but HOW was this passed? lol
When it turns out such a law was most likely never passed?

And I said "people" not you, so there's that. When I was checking it, I was rather surprised at how many places just took it at face value and apparently never bothered to check, even some news sites.

That and how often do you see those 'silly outdated laws LOL' things pop up that people just accept as fact? How do we know any of those other "True" laws in the video are verifiable if they just went and repeated some Internet Wisdom with their very first one?

Yeah, you may have posted a disclaimer but a lot of other people just take them at face value and assume truth.
Christ on a bike; there's such a concept as 'compartmentalisation' where one can discuss a topic without actually buying into the validity of said topic as if it were factual, hang on didn't we have a 'board quote' along those very lines?

As I said; congrats on the fact check though.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Rogue 9 »

http://www.dumblaws.com/

All your dumb law needs, U.S. and international, there.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Losonti Tokash »

Hey, thanks for posting a link from further up the page that was already shown to have fictitious entries.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by RogueIce »

Crown wrote:Christ on a bike; there's such a concept as 'compartmentalisation' where one can discuss a topic without actually buying into the validity of said topic as if it were factual, hang on didn't we have a 'board quote' along those very lines?
Yes, okay, you didn't buy it. Congrats. Can we move on?

But yes, I do question how many of these "dumb laws" even existed in the first place, or were merely urban legends that have just been repeated so often people assume they're true. TBH I used to just read these and chuckle until I decided to fact-check that skydiving law, and now I wonder, especially some of the more esoteric ones like "women can't drive unless a man walks in front with a red flag" and similar.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Serafina »

Rogue 9 wrote:http://www.dumblaws.com/

All your dumb law needs, U.S. and international, there.
So it lists four "dumb" laws for Germany:
- All offices must have a view of the sky: Gee, maybe daylight is a good thing?
- A pillow can be considered a “passive” weapon: Well, duh, if i try to kill someone with it its a weapon.
- It is illegal to wear a mask: During public protests, that is. Mostly because police relies on targeted arrests to keep troublemakers out of such protests. Debatable, but hardly dumb.
- It is illegal for ones car to run out of gas on the Autobahn: Gee, maybe because it's bloody dangerous to have your car stand around in the middle of a highway? And unlike accidents or breakdowns, running out of gas IS avoidable, so you'll get fined for endangering traffic. Neither dumb nor odd.
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Re: USA has some Strange Laws

Post by Randalthorpk »

on the topic of out of date laws Wyoming (my home state) is great.

7 concernd Citizans (as defined by the same law as land owners holding more than 20 acres) can hang a man for horse theft.

It is ilegal to wear your spurs within the city limits of Laramie.

It is ilegal to be seen with a woman of Ill Repute on the Sabath (but aparently totaly legal every other day of the week) in Laramie.

Course we also have no firearm registration laws and no CCP regulation. Seriously its legal to own whatever you want and cary it wherever you want including all state and county govermental buildings (Cops realy dont like this one but they cant legaly stop you)
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