Dumb laws

[thomas]

A hilarious collection of weird laws & regulations.

France:

- Between the hours of 8AM and 8PM, 70% of music on the radio must be by French artists.

- It is illegal to kiss on railways in France.

- No pig may be addressed as Napoleon by its owner

England:

- Any person found breaking a boiled egg at the sharp end will be sentenced to 24 hours in the village stocks (enacted by Edward VI).

- It is illegal to stand within one hundred yards of the reigning monarch when not wearing socks (enacted by Edward VI)

- It is legal for a male to urinate in public, as long it is on the rear wheel of his motor vehicle and his right hand is on the vehicle.

- Committing suicide is classified as a capital crime.

- Placing a postage stamp that bears the Queen (or King) upside down is considered treason. (Such regulations also exist in other monarchies, e.g. Thailand)

Thailand:

- No one may step of any of the nation's currency. (For the same reason stated above)

Cambodia:

- Water guns may not be used in New Year's celebrations. (Dozens of victims must have drowned.)

South Korea:

- Traffic police are required to report all bribes that they receive from motorists. (Yeah sure!)

Singapore:

- Homosexuals are not allowed to live in the country.

- Oral sex is illegal unless it is used as a form of foreplay.

- As it is considered pornographic, you may not walk around your home nude. (No wonder birth rates are dropping!)



Hm, a lot of these laws are legal standard or common law in European countries. I really don't know why they are quoted as "dumb", such as:

Denmark:

- If your vehicle stalls and you leave it on the side of the road, you must mark the vehicle with a red, reflecting triangle. This equipment is only mandatory when the car stalls, not at any other times, however.

- Headlights must be on whenever a vehicle is being operated in order to distinguish it from parked cars.

- There is a penalty of 20kr for not reporting when a person has died.

- A fee is levied on each purchaser of any plastic bottle which is returned upon return of the bottle

- Restaurants may not charge for water unless it is accompanied by another item such as ice or a lemon slice.

Netherlands:

- Prostitution is legal but the prostitutes must pay taxes like any other business. (Applies to most Euro countries)

Switzerland:

- It is considered an offense to mow your lawn on a Sunday, because it causes too much noise.

I haven't even started quoted U.S. laws, however there's a lot more

=> dumblaws.com - Domain Name For Sale | Dan.com

 

[lineartube]

Is it just me or some of those laws do make sense?

"A fee is levied on each purchaser of any plastic bottle which is returned upon return of the bottle"
That makes sense when people are being educated to recycle plastic bottles. Otherwise they might ended up in garbage.

"Prostitution is legal but the prostitutes must pay taxes like any other business. (Applies to most Euro countries)"
...Most Euro Countries?? Mine it's at fault, then.

But this law makes sense too. If prostitution is a legitimate business then it should be taxed.

This makes me curious to where on Earth would this be find dumb? Maybe in Mormon lands??

 

[Maciamo]

I don't think any of the laws cited for France and England still exist. If they do, nobody know about them and they are therefore not applied.

I confirm that the not so dumb laws exist in several countries, not just Denmark and the Netherlands.

 

[thomas]

There's certainly a lot of dead law among the regulations quoted. Anyhow, I remember that particular French law that stipulated that a certain amount of songs on radio had to be French. I'm not sure if it's still in force.

As for prostitution: a lot of Central European and Scandinavian countries (with exception of Sweden) legalised the oldest profession. It seems to be logic: if you can't prohibit it, control it and levy taxes on their income.

I'm sure that countries like Italy, Spain, Greece or Portugal still prohibit prostitution, but well, don't tell me it doesn't exist.

 

[lineartube]

In Portugal there is a law about the minimum amount of portuguese music that the radio stations have to play, but they usually prefer paying fines than losing costumers.
Portugal is the land of Fado, the most depressing type of music known to mankind! (Ok, i'm exagerating... )

As long as there is a need, there always be a supplier. And sex is one of the most wanted commodities of all time.
Prostitution is illegal in Portugal but we are an old Christian state and the church still has some influence in the day-to-day life.

 

[thomas]

> In Portugal there is a law about the minimum amount of
> portuguese music that the radio stations have to play

Does this also include music from Brazil?

> we are an old Christian state and the church still has some
> influence in the day-to-day life.

Same here (although there is quite a bit of opposition against Rome's policies among Catholic laymen and priests).

 

[lineartube]

I don't think so. As portuguese they mean portuguese speaking music, so it could be Portuguese, Brasilian or even from Angola.

As for the Chruch, it remindes me of a funny example that happened here some years ago. When the state created an auction for the 2nd commercial TV license, the Church block won. People went out into the streets and pressured the government into giving the license to the Church group. And it did.
As to give a quick update on Portugal, there are currently 2 state-owned channels and 2 "publicly" owned channels.
So the church got the 4th channel, wich is called TVI and for a while it had it's good "christian" tv grid with masses, soap operas, series and so on but they got into a problem: no one was watching it! With a share of 2,8% on the first year they were going down really fast so they did changed ownership 2-3 times until today.
Today they have Big Brother, mexican and brasilian soap operas and the worse, and they have an impressive share, sometimes getting 2nd and 3rd on the national TV ranking. The Christian message got boxed in one hour mass in each sunday.

 

[thomas]

Yep, the Catholic church does not only have "otherworldly" interests, they are terrific entrepreneurs too. I have watched some of these Mexican soaps, they can be pretty juicy, lol.