10 of the World's Most Bizarre Laws
Published on Yesterday
9/25/2009 under Misc
- by Gracie Murano - 42,491 views
Tibetan monks need permission to reincarnate
In one of history's most absurd acts of
totalitarianism, China banned Buddhist
monks in Tibet from reincarnating without
government permission. According to a statement issued
by the State
Administration for Religious Affairs in 2007, the
law, which strictly stipulates the procedures
by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important
move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.
" (Link)
Yellow margarine is illegal in Missouri, US.
Did you know that if you buy yellow margarine
in
Missouri you're committing a crime? A 19th
century state
law banned the sale of yellow margarine,
though "it's been years since any violator was
ordered to spread them." Most of Missouri's
restrictions on imitation butter date to 1895, and
they were last amended in 1939. Although the state
no longer enforces them, the penalties could still
make dealers in contraband dairy product toast: up to
a month in
jail and a $100 fine for first-time offenders
and six months in
jail and a $500 fine for repeat offenders.
Enforcement of the
law falls to the state
Agriculture Department, and officials there didn't
know when someone was last prosecuted under it. Case
records from the late 19th and early 20th
century show that Missouri courts upheld the
constitutionality of the restrictions in several
appeals. Agriculture Department spokeswoman Misti
Preston said it's likely that the Legislature
restricted margarine
and other imitation butter products to protect
Missouri's dairy industry, which was a key business
for the state
in the early 20th
century. (Link
| Photo)
It's illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament in
England
The reason people are banned from dying in parliament
is that it is a Royal palace. Anyone who dies there is
technically entitled to a state
funeral. So if they see you looking a bit sick they
carry you out quickly. However, a spokesman for the
House of Commons said: "The people who know about
these things here say there is no basis for such a law,
not to say it does not exist somewhere in writing."
(Link)
Brazilian men allowed to return non-virgin brides
You could expect it in a Muslim country, but actually
in Brazil, the country famous for its hot carnivals,
from 1916 until 2002, men were able to obtain an
annulment up to ten days after
the wedding if they discovered that their wife
was not a virgin before marriage. I bet Brazillian men
probably expected that these fine ladies stamped in
Rio's postcard were all virgins. (By the way, a
recently law in Brazil has forbidden Brazilian
postcards featuring women
in bikini, shame on them) . (Link)
It's illegal to sell sex toys in the state of Alabama
In Alabama, the justice is not only blind but sexually
frustrated. Alabama's anti-obscenity law, enacted in
1998, bans the distribution of "any device
designed or marketed as useful primarily for the
stimulation of human genital organs for anything of
pecuniary value." The
law does not ban the possession of sex toys;
residents may legally purchase sex toys out of state
for use in Alabama. Be aware, five minutes of pleasure
can cost you a lot, since the
law has strong penalties: Up to a
year in jail and a $10,000 fine for a first
offense. A second offense carries a prison sentence of
one to 10 years. (Link)
In the Netherlands, you are allowed to smoke cannabis
but not tobacco (in public places)
The bizarre Dutch policy of allowing smokers to puff
away on pure cannabis but not tobacco has perplexed
police in the Netherlands, who have fined a man for
mixing the two substances. Zero tolerance to tobacco
smoking in Dutch cafes and restaurants is being
exercised since a ban came into force in 2008. The man
was not fined for smoking a cannabis joint but for
smoking. You can smoke cannabis but not tobacco in
coffee shops. The unnamed 27-year-old man was caught
lighting a hand rolled cannabis joint during a routine
police check, and fined because officers found tobacco
mixed with the soft drug. (Link)
Carpooling is not allowed if you live in Canada
PickupPal is a Google Maps-based networking site, with
about 15,000 registered users in Ontario, that helps
people find carpool buddies. Sounds pretty useful,
right? Only problem is… most of the carpooling going
on at PickupPal is illegal. You see, in Ontario it is
illegal to carpool or rideshare with someone unless
you meet ALL of the following criteria:
- You can only travel from home to work (no rides to
schools, hospitals, daycare, etc.)
- You cannot cross municipal boundaries (nor driving
to the adjacent municipality for a GO station, TTC
subway, airport, etc.)
- You must ride with the same driver each day (no
exceptions, sorry).
- You must pay the driver weekly only (bring a
calculator).
Ergo, if you arrange to have your boyfriend pick
up your cousin Louis at the airport — you have
broken the
law. If you travel with a friend and give her
$5 for gas money — you have broken the
law.
Here's an excerpt of the current law, off the “Save
PickupPal” blog: “No person shall arrange or offer
to arrange transportation of passengers by means of a
public vehicle operated by another person unless that
other person is the holder of an operating licence
authorizing that other person to perform the
transportation.” (Link)
The head of any dead whale found on the British coast
automatically becomes the property of the King, and
the tail of the Queen
The Royal Prerogative 1324 decrees that any whale or
sturgeon found on the British coast belongs to the
monarch. The
law is very much still in place, as fisherman
Robert Davies found out in 2004 when he was
investigated by police in Plymouth. He had faxed the
Royal Household to tell them he had caught a sturgeon,
and was told to keep it, but did not realize it was
still illegal to try and sell it. (Link
1 | Link
2)
In Finland, traffic fines are calculated as a
percentage of the offender's income
In Finland, traffic fines are calculated as a
percentage of the offender's most-recently-
reported income. In January 2002, Anssi Vanjoki, 44, a
director of the Finnish telecommunications giant,
Nokia, received what is believed to be the most
expensive speeding ticket ever— $12.5 million —
for driving his Harley at 75 km/h (47 mph) in a 50km/h
(31 mph) zone. Mr Vanjoki appealed the fine because
his reported income dropped significantly about five
days after the incident; because of the new data, the
fine was dropped to $103,600, still the most expensive
speeding fine in history. (Link
1 | Link
2)
In Swaziland, teenager girls were forbidden to have
sex for 5 years to prevent AIDS
On June 28, 2002, King Mswati III of Swaziland, in an
attempt to protect his people from the spread of AIDS
and return them to more traditional values, passed a
number of edicts. Young women were to put off sex for
5 years and to wear traditional chastity tassels as an
outward display of their sexual status. According to
Swazi tradition girls under 18 should wear blue and
yellow tassels to discourage sexual advances, while
older women who are still virgins should wear red and
black tassels. Also, women were warned that any woman
wearing pants could face the possible punishment of
having the pants publicly torn off by soldiers and
torn to pieces.
In 2001, the king fined himself a cow for breaking the
ban by marrying again (a 17 year-old girl). (Link
1 | Link
2 | Photo)