I have always thought that politicians from where I come from are crazy. Until I found out that there are many ridiculous laws all over the world. Here are some of them:

The United States

In Oxford, Ohio, it is still forbidden for a woman to remove her clothes in front of a picture of a man.

Impotence is grounds for divorce in twenty-four states.

In Illinois, it is illegal to speak English. The official language is “American.”

In Vermont, a wife must get written consent from her husband to have dentures made.

In Ohio, women cannot wear patent shoes as it reflects their underwear.

Canada

It is illegal to climb trees.

The color of your house and garage doors are regulated by city laws.

People may not publicly remove bandages.

You cannot pay for a 50 cent item using pennies.

Switzerland

It is illegal to discharge water down the toilet loudly past 10 p.m.

France 

You can go to jail if you name a pig Napoleon

Only music by French composers must be played from 8 a.m. up to 8 p.m. and 70% of the music on the radio must be French.

It is illegal to sell dolls with a face that is not human.

Italy

A man may be arrested for wearing a skirt.

To strike someone with a fist is a felony.

The United Kingdom

It is illegal for a person to die in the Houses of Parliament because anyone who dies inside is automatically granted a Royal state funeral.

If a dead whale is found on the British coast, the head becomes the King’s property, while the tail goes to the queen so that the bones can be used for her corset.

In the city of York, if a Scotsman is carrying a bow and arrow within the ancient city walls, you may legally kill him.

Finland

In the past, Donald Duck was banned because he did not wear pants.

Taxis pay royalties for playing music in cabs for paying customers.

South Africa

A license is needed to purchase a television set.

Australia

According to the law, children cannot purchase alcohol, cigarettes or condoms but they can legally use all of them.

Roaming the streets wearing black clothing, felt shoes and black shoe polish or pain on the face is considered illegal because they are “tools of thieves”.

You can actually go to jail if you dress up as Batman.

Only licensed electricians may change a light bulb.

Singapore

It is illegal to carry a Bible or to talk to someone about Jesus.

Thailand

You are not permitted to leave your house without wearing underwear.

It is illegal to step on money because it is a sign of disrespect to the King.

What do you think is the zaniest law on the list?

Image from Loren Javier

As much as you wanted to avoid any loss, damages, stolen items, disasters, or accidents in relation to your home, there are situations, which are unanticipated and unexpected. What you can do now is to know how to make your home insurance claims faster and to get a timely response from the representatives of Allianz Home Insurance. They know and understand that you are in a tough situation but cooperation will help you to settle everything smoothly, to avoid further arguments and other obnoxious actions or statements.

Allianz Home Insurance will assist you to avoid misunderstandings and further complications. In fact, they have simple guides to assist you, should in case that you would be included to the number of claimants who have home insurance policies. Make sure that you have the necessary documents in relation to valuable items at home that should be insured and paid for. It is best that you have separate copies of it, especially if you have accounted each item and included them on your insurance policy coverage, which varies on the type of plans that you chose and purchased. Remember that details and agreement terms found in tangible documents are also necessary to keep, for your reference and safety.

Your next step is to inform them right away by calling their numbers so they can register and record all the information such as your home insurance policy number and the details that you have provided on the insurance such as address and the holder of the policy. If it happens that day, state that you have witnesses. Inform the other party about it so that they can make an affirmation to back you up to have a credible claim that it’s not negligence and other circumstances that might disprove the request.

Do not forget to inform the authorized representative and contact law enforcers to validate the report and for them to attend to your concern and process your claims. If you would remember, Allianz Home Insurance requires you to submit the full disclosure of your property and other details, which would assist you later, once you file your application. Once you have done your part in preparing all these things prior to your claims, within 24 hours, you would have an easier transaction and not just have your appeal noted as a report or complaint. Of course, everything must be reported and submitted in the form that they have online and with the assistance from their professional claim consultants, your request will be attended and processed.

Recent news reports show that many law school graduates are now taking on low paid temporary work, usually for short term contracts. This somewhat shatters the vision of high powered lucrative jobs as offered by the marketing departments of costly law schools. As revealed by these reports and The Best Colleges, many students are taking on life long debts, only to find that no jobs are available once they graduate.

From: The Best Colleges

I believe him. I really do. And I think that anyone who has been under so much stress for a long time would probably understand this outstanding citizen turned bank robber. I don’t know if I would actually go and rob a bank but who knows?

In any case, this guy from Detroit has been sentenced to two years in prison for robbing banks. Jimmie Lee Fortune started robbing banks in April of 2008. His reason, as he told the judge, was that he needed money to pay for his mother’s plumbing bills. He also needed money to get his driver’s license reinstated. Without money, he wouldn’t have been able to do these things. As such, he decided to go ahead and rob a bank.

After the first successful attempt, he just kept going. Fortune’s MO was quite simple. He would enter a bank and demand money. His threats ran along the lines of “Large bills or I start shooting!” The funny thing is, he was not even armed when he did this.

Then the inevitable happened – he got caught. U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman was the one assigned to hear Fortune’s case. He said that he received 17 letters of support for Fortune, who asserts that he was very depressed and stressed at that time. He said that he was having difficulty separating reality from fiction. Prior to his bank robbing spree, he was an outstanding citizen. This is what saved him from a worse fate – more years in prison.

14-year-old Gets The Best Of Chicago CopsPicture this. A 14-year-old boy walks into a police station in Chicago wearing a cop get up. He not only was not found out to be what he really was, he also managed to get an assignment – to patrol in a squad car for a whole 5 hours! It was not till the end of this period that he was found out to be a boy and not a cop.

So how was his real identity discovered? At the end of his “shift,” some officers noticed that the boy’s uniform lacked a star. Apparently, this star comes with the regulation police uniform. One thing led to another and the disguise was uncovered.

What happens to the boy now? He has been charged with impersonating a police officer – something that is as grave as grave can be, we all know that. However, since he is only 14 years old, he was charged as a juvenile and his name has not been released as well.

What do police officers have to say about the whole thing? First, that they are conducting an investigation as it is a serious security breach (Heck, yeah! A 14-year-old being able to pose as a police officer, you think?). Second, that the boy did it because he has aspirations of being a police officer and not because of malicious intent (I wonder, will he still have the chance of becoming a real one?).

At the end of the day, the responsibility falls back in the cops’ court – they have to make sure that they have proper authentication procedures in place.

I don’t know about you but I have always dreamed of working for any one of the government’s intelligence or law agencies; say the FBI or CIA. This year, it seems that the FBI is going to make some people’s dreams come true. According to Reuters, the FBI is launching a mass hiring campaign for agents. The report states:

The FBI said on Monday it had launched one of the largest hiring blitzes in its 100-year history involving 2,100 professional staff vacancies and 850 special agents aimed at filling its most critical vacancies.

The agency, which seeks to protect the United States from terrorist attack, fight crime and catch spies, among other duties, said it currently has more than 12,800 agents and about 18,400 other employees.

Over 2,000 job openings in the FBI – can you imagine that? This is the premier government agency dealing with all sorts of issues and to be part of the FBI is an honor in itself. If you’re wondering why they are conducting a hiring campaign on such a huge scale, the answer lies in many things, one of them the September 11 attack. Though it has long been over, the FBI has since then received a lot of criticism for not having enough people to handle the needs that they face. These include agents and staff who are multilingual and experts in computer science. As such, the agency is seeking to add fresh blood to its ranks.

If you’ve got the skills – and you pass the security check – then this just might be the perfect time to consider a career move.

Without wanting to turn this blog into a National Enquirer of sorts, I just had to share this story about Sharon Stone, in which a judge denies her custody of her 8-year-old son Roan.

Its a terrible thing for any parent, but the things that this legal document speak of, make the old Shazza look very Joan Crawford-esque indeed. Of course she later denied the allegations of wanting to get botox injections for her son’s feet because they were smelly, but the damage was done (who wouldn’t be afraid to leave any child with this woman?), and the judge ruled that Roan stay with his dad, Phil Bronstein, in San Fransisco, and not in L.A. as Sharon wished.

The document, known as the Tentative Statement of Decision, was obtained by TMZ, and said:

“Mother appears to overreact to many medical issues involving Roan…..

Despite his young age, Ms Stone’s alleged over-reactions were “painfully real” to the boy….

….Another example of an overreaction is that Mother suggested that Roan should have Botox injections in his feet to resolve a problem he had with foot odour……As Father appropriately noted, the simple and common sense approach of making sure Roan wore socks with his shoes and used foot deodorant corrected the odour problem without the need for any invasive procedure on this young child.”

…..Father has championed for Roan’s well-being out of, what appears to this court, nothing less than the unconditional love for his son.

……Unfortunately, and for unexplained reasons, it appears that Mother did not involve herself to the extent she could or should have in this process … Mother has attempted to put up roadblocks to Roan’s getting help, or has decided against participating in his care.”

But for me, the clincher was this:

“If Mother has, in fact, limited her career to make herself available for Roan, she has done little to make this evident to Roan, his school or this court.”

Sharon has 2 more adopted kids, I wonder how they’re doing?

It seems like crazy logic, but what’s been happening with record companies and their lawyers these days does indeed sound like JK Rowling’s writings. In “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, Bill Weasley explains to Harry:

“To a goblin, the rightful and true master of any object is the maker, not the purchaser. All goblin-made objects are, in goblin eyes, rightfully theirs,…..They consider our habit of keeping goblin-made objects, passing them from wizard to wizard without further payment, little more than theft.”

In fact, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who is now in a lawsuit with Universal used that very quote, and more from Rowling’s work in their brief. The legal battle, though it involves the sale of promotional music, is actually a worthy one, one which could implicate our personal cd and LP collections – so what we pay for and buy could very well NOT be ours, and we could get sued by the record companies.

“UMG seems to think that the promotional use only label somehow gives it eternal ownership over the CD,” says the EFF.

“While this might make sense to a goblin living in Harry Potter’s world, it’s not the law under the Copyright Act.”

It should be interesting to see what the US courts decide. Hopefully it won’t mean we live in Harry Potter‘s world.

For more on this story, go here.

We all know that in this world, infidelity would usually be instigated by husbands. But coming across this article where a wife would cheat and decide to go with another man, would the hubby give her a second chance despite moving on?

Women are always given the benefit of the doubt of being categorized under being battered but cheating on their part and then suddenly wanting to get back to their old lives is like walking on a thin line. In most cases, husbands would close the door and would rather carry on what is left. Focusing on career and the children is what mature men would normally do, not leaving any room for reconciliation between them?

It is in these cases where a man would decide. Should he choose his heart or just leave it to God�s Will. Whatever the decision would be, the final one made would be for the best of everyone. Lost trust is something that cannot be easily rebuilt and mature men know this all too well.

The thing about newspapers is that they need to make catchy headlines about current events to solicit the attention of the people who look towards the paper as a means of information on current events today anywhere. Politics, the economy and current situation of the country are among the top attention-catching headlines that papers would normally get.

The level of attention that people would get from most would largely depend on the area of interest a potential reader would look for. This is not to point towards these current events as stimulating points of interest. Rather it should be considered as a person�s need to be aware of what is going on around him.

In some cases, they are contributing factors as well in decision-making in both personal and professional aspects necessary to ensure the convenient mindset that a person should always be up to date with. People are just to cautious since nothing around them should be taken for granted, especially if it concerns them as a whole.