Virginia imposes a 30-day waiting on men who want to get a vasectomy.

Illinois is fast becoming Nanny State central.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is set to sign a bill banning “Yo-Yo Water Balls.”

1) Duane Freese slaps around that twit Morgan Spurlock. I’m reading Spurlock’s new book right now. It’s dreadful, unserious tripe. The sad thing is, people read this stuff, then quote it at parties and dinner table discussions as if it were profound. Or true.

2) Counterfeiters torpedoed the Subway Sandwich Card promotion.

3) The Colts’ stadium scam came up $48 million short. Is anyone really surprised?

4) From the “There Oughtta Be a Law” department: A Dutch town has banned profanity. Rogier van Bakel says, “fuck them.”

5) The American Medical Association is calling on the NCAA to ban alcohol advertising at college sporting events. Yes. Because that will stop underage drinking on campus.

6) Our friend Julie Gerberding continues to insist that a few extra pounds are unhealthy. Again, I think her time at the CDC ought to be just about up.

Okay, so this one’s a little old. And it never passed. But back in 1897, the Indiana state legisliture apparently tried to legislate the value of pi at 3.12.

The article comes courtesy of Alex Tabarrok, who notes an equally disturbing, more recent California bill that would limit public school textbooks to 200 pages.

New York City Councilwoman wants to ban “dangerously oversized” gumballs and jawbreakers to kids under 14.

Thanks to Pete Guither for the tip.

The New York City Council has just passed a law mandating 2-1 women-to-men bathroom ratios in all new public venues.

Indiana has a tax on dog owners, but only on those who also own an RV, an all-terrain vehicle, a snowmobile, or a human-powered boat.

Seattle: No pizza within 1,000 feet of a public school.

Thanks to Jim Clemens for the link.

This one makes me angry. Because one wayward pit-bull with a bastard owner attacked and killed a little girl, the city of Denver has banned the breed, and is rounding up and killing every pit-bull in the city.

Breed-specific legislation is overly emotional, ineffective, and inhumane. The entire city of Denver ought to be ashamed of its public officials. Pit-bulls make up a disproportionate percentage of vicious dogs that attack humans and other dogs because people who breed vicious dogs happened to favor pit-bulls (actually, that’s not even true any more. Rottweilers surpassed pit-bulls a few years ago as the breed with the most-reported dog-on-man attacks). You can train a poodle to kill if you’re so inclined. Ban pit-bulls and dogfight enthusiasts will simply pick another breed.

On the other hand, the vast majority of pit-bull breeders are responsible, and there’s nothing about the breed that’s inherently mean, vicious, or incompatible with children. Hundreds of them are about to be euthanized anyway.

The end of the article is telling:

What happens, I ask, when all of the Denver pit bulls have been rounded up and put down?

He would not want to be a Malamute, he said.

A male Malamute attacked and killed a 7-year-old girl in Fruita last Saturday night.

“It is not the breed,” an unsmiling Bill Suro said.

How very sad.

UPDATE: Jacob Grier has more.

Maryland regulators rush in to save consumers from cheap gas.

North Carolina: Huntin’ with ‘puters.

Sometimes, there really oughtta, but only to undo stupid policies set in place by other laws.

A bill pending in the Maryland legislature, however, would require school health officers to make sure students are allowed to wear sunscreen when they go outdoors on sunny days, a right that is not universally recognized in schools, according to cancer prevention advocates.

[...]

Most systems place sunscreen in a category with lotions, food supplements and cough drops: Neither medicine nor food, they are deemed items that could make a child sick or cause an allergic reaction if used the wrong way.

“We wouldn’t want them to be sharing them with other kids who might have a hypersensitivity,” said Donna Heller, health services manager for Howard County schools. “Even with hand and body lotions, we require a note from the parents.”

Montgomery County schools treat sunscreen as an over-the-counter medicine. A student must bring in a doctor’s note to apply it, and only older students are allowed to carry it with them at school.

“If you had a very young kid, and they put it in their eyes, it could hurt them,” said Judith Covich, Montgomery’s director of health and student services.

Yes, and that same kid could also jam a pencil in his eye. Or his own finger. Or he could eat glue. Or pour it in his ear. Foolishness.

Creve Coeur, Missouri:

THERE OUGHT to be a law. …

That’s what Connie Davie of Creve Coeur thought when she saw dogs tied outside, all alone, day and night, in every kind of weather. In fact, she thought, as images of the lonely, pathetic-looking canines kept creeping into her mind, surely there is a law against such obvious abuse.

Curious, Davie called her local police department to find out just what the law said.

It said nothing. There was no law. As long as a dog has access to food, water and shelter, the law was happy.

So Ms. Davie pestered the city council, and she got herself a law. It’s now illegal to tether your own dog in your own backyard in Creve Coeur unless said tethering meets city council guidelines. Lovely how the St. Louis Post-Dispatch treats this budding fascist as a fine example of civic do-goodery. You too can restrict your neighbors’ freedom! Just find something they do that you don’t like, and get the city council to ban it!

Up next for Davie: Outlawing the tying of goats to the back of trucks with three-foot ropes.

Hat tip: Brian J. Noggle.

Which begs the question…

Longwood, Florida: $25 per day fine for keeping a messy home.

Contra Costa, California:

Contra Costa, California is considering a proposal to confiscate cars with loud stereos. Under the proposal, anyone with a stereo loud enough to be heard from 25 feet away would be fined $250 to $1000 and have their car confiscated for one month.

On the first offense.

Texas also wants to make online dating services do background checks on their customers.