A couple who removed much of the vegetation from their lawn to save water are now in a legal battle with city officials from Orange California. This is a clear example of how city ordinances prevent people from being eco-friendly.  My favorite quote in this whole article comes from the officials themselves:

“Compliance, that’s all we’ve ever wanted,” said Senior Assistant City Atty. Wayne Winthers.

Ain’t that the truth.  Two things spring to mind one is a Thoreau quote:

Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

The second is a Zapp Brannigan quote:

I don’t pretend to understand Brannigan’s Law, I merely enforce it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

NOTASULGA, AL: Residents of the tiny Alabama town of Notasulga are rallying around a local fixture after his eviction from the post office.

“Sammy” the cat was banned from the building after someone wrote in to complain about the cat’s presence.

“They said ‘This is a federal building and he doesn’t pay federal taxes so he can’t come in’,” said postal worker Rochelle Langford.

Before his banishment Sammy spent most of his time lounging in the post office’s window.

Sammy’s supporters think they’ve found a way to move him safely back in.

They’ve rented a P.O. Box in his name.

Post office workers say they’ll allow Sammy back in, but will try to keep him out of the way of customers.

I liked this response

<sarcasm>As the official Blog of Bile Drug Czar I feel it is my responsibility to bring to light important victories in the drug war such as this one. If you don’t believe I’m the blog of bile Drug Czar, I can give you a number to call that will let you know I’m part of a special inter-blog task force. Unfortunately I was unable to check with our official Blog of Bile NY Times Czar as to whether I can post this or not, but as I am a federal agent I can skip that part of protocol.</sarcasm>

Seriously though, wow, just wow. It’s gotten to the point where things are so convoluted that a rent-a-cop with a badge, gun and crown vic can randomly start heading drug raids. A war mentality breeds this kind of crap. I’d be willing to bet any idiot with a rifle could go to Iraq, claim they were a military security contractor and start shooting random people from rooftops. This is almost the same thing, but it’s happening in the US.

http://www.catholicexchange.com/…

In a decision that foreshadows the possible fate of Fr. Alphonse de Valk, Canada’s leading pro-life voice among Catholic clergy, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal has forbidden evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson from expressing his moral opposition to homosexuality. The tribunal also ordered Boisson to pay $5,000 “damages for pain and suffering” and apologize to the “human rights” activist who filed the complaint.

The complaint stems from Canada’s debate leading up to state legislation recognizing so-called same-sex marriage. In 2002, the pastor wrote a letter to the editor of his local newspaper in which he denounced the homosexual agenda as “wicked” and stated that: “Children as young as five and six years of age are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system; all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.”

The activist subsequently filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission — a quasi-judicial body that investigates alleged discrimination within the Canadian province. The government tribunal published its decision [http://albertahumanrights.ab.ca/Lund_Darren_Remedy053008.pdf] on May 30.

While agreeing that Boisson’s letter was not a criminal act, the government tribunal nevertheless ordered the Christian pastor to “cease publishing in newspapers, by email, on the radio, in public speeches, or on the internet, in future, disparaging remarks about gays and homosexuals.” Moreover, the tribunal’s decision “prohibited [Boisson] from making disparaging remarks in the future” about the activist who filed the complaint and witnesses who supported the complaint. Many of Canada’s religious leaders and civil libertarians have expressed concern that the government’s human rights tribunals are interpreting any criticism of homosexual activism as ‘disparaging’.

The tribunal also ordered Boisson to provide the complainant with a written apology for his letter to the editor. This last requirement threatens civil liberties in Canada, said Ezra Levant, a Jewish-Canadian author and lawyer. Levant, himself the target of an Alberta Human Rights Commission investigation, is facing the possibility the state may order him to apologize as well.

What a bunch of horseshit. People like to point to Canada and many of the EU nations as a bastion of civil liberties. With any amount of research you can see that it’s only the liberties of the secular statists who are protected. This is outright censorship and should be condemned. If people want to combat what some could consider hate speech they should work to ostracize those who speak it. Don’t purchase the media publishing it. Don’t use the threat of violence to get people to not speak… use a superior position to make their ideas appear incorrect.

http://news.scotsman.com/…

Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual check-ups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44% of the entire population.

Those exceeding government limits and suffering from a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if, after three months, they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered towards further re-education after six more months.

The limits of 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks.

To reach its goals of shrinking the overweight population by 10% over the next four years and 25% over the next seven years, the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. The country’s Ministry of Health argues that the campaign will keep the spread of diseases like diabetes and strokes in check.

With the new law, Matsushita has to measure the waistlines of not only its employees but also their families and pensioners. As part of its intensifying efforts, the company has started giving its employees “metabo check” towels that double as tape measures.

Companies like Matsushita must measure the waistlines of at least 80% of their employees and get 10% of those deemed metabolic to lose weight by 2012.

NEC, Japan’s largest maker of PCs, said that if it failed to meet its targets, it could incur £9.7m in penalties.

Penalties and re-education for being too fat? What exactly would this re-education entail? I’d imagine it’s not optional and the fines will just be passed on to the general public.

This whole “problem” goes away by letting people be responsible for themselves and their healthcare.