The law and the jungle

Crime of the week, from Elgin in suburban Chicagoland:

I'm not a big fan of Futile Gestures That Make Grand Philosophical Statements, whichever end of the political spectrum they come from. Can anyone tell me what practical effect this proposal would have?

Women seeking abortions would have to be told that a fetus might feel pain under legislation approved by the Indiana House.

For the Little Lost Lamb Hall of Fame, today's nominee is -- Phil Spector:

“It hasn't been a very pleasant life,” Spector told writer Mick Brown in a rare 2002 interview. “I've been a very tortured soul. I have not been at peace with myself.”

Some South Bend politicians say the city shouldn't have to foot the bill for police overtime for protecting visiting big shots and handling such things as crowd control and traffic messes. So they have a proposal:

It would require any person or group who hosts a dignitary, like the President of the United States, to foot the bill for extra police protection.

Is this headline just a clever play on words, or could it be true?

House passes bill too gross to talk about

It could, indeed, be true, so click on the link if you want details other than the fact that this is "not the same thing as throwing a coke at someone."

President Obama is going for the economy-wrecking hat trick. He's already determined to give us cap-and-trade and nationalized health care. Now he's adding immigration "reform," which will include some kind of amnesty plan, into the mix:

From cracked.com, the five most popular public safety laws that don't work: speed limits, three strikes, amber alerts, zero tolerance at schools, and sex-offender registries:

Really, is it ever possible to be too safe? Especially when it's our children at stake?

I know it might seem alarmist to bring this up, since it's a Canadian court. But, really, would you be surprised if it happened here?

A Quebec father who was taken to court by his 12-year-old daughter after he grounded her in June 2008 has lost his appeal.

Quebec Superior Court rejected the Gatineau father's appeal of a lower court ruling that said his punishment was too severe for the wrongs he said his daughter committed.

Please, please, please, don't say it was a mugging. The man wasn't hurt, for goodness sake, so it was just a theft when the mayor of Indianapolis had his cell phone plucked from his pocket by some con artists on his way back to the hotel from the arena where the NCAA finals were played in Detroit. (One man pretended to be having a seizure, then others surrounded the mayor when he stopped to help.)

Iowa has now joined Massachusetts and Connecticut as states that recognize same-sex marriage. Nine states recognize some sort of domestic partnership. Vermont's governor has just vetoed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, and legislators are looking to override. Voters in California have overturned the state Supreme Court's edict barring enforcement of a same-sex marriage ban. How can this issue not be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court?