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Opening Arguments

Legal doesn't mean smart

I've frequently posted about dumb laws. Here's a Web site devoted entirely to that subject. Just a quick scan of the opening page gave me this favorite:

I  just received this email from a staffer in the U.S. Senate:

"On Monday, the Senate passed a resolution honoring soil. That's right. Soil. I mean, isn't soil happy to let its accomplishments speak for themselves? Sustaining life, surviving for millions of years, etc. Does it really need a nonbinding resolution to make it feel important? Seems if we were going to do something for soil we ought to at least give it a Congressional Gold Medal or something. The first sentence says it recognizes soil as an essential natural resource. I have always wondered whether soil is an essential natural resource, and now I know. The Senate has spoken."

Somewhere in there must be some of Indiana's dumb laws. My current favorite legislative dumbness (now that we've dumped the "buy illegal fireworks here but promise to take them out of state before using them" law) is the fact that driving without a seat belt is illegal but riding a motorcycle without a helmet is not.

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