# Strange Laws That Made You Laugh **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 7, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045 "2016-08-07T15:06:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grind)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/1 "2016-08-07T15:06:43Z")
In Texas, it is illegal to sell your eyeballs. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/2 "2016-08-07T15:13:50Z")
> [@grind](#): > > In Texas, it is illegal to sell your eyeballs. As usual with these sorts of things, the reality is far more mundane. [The actual law.](http://www.dumblaws.com/law/1354) > [@](#): > > § 48.02. Prohibition of the Purchase and Sale of Human Organs > > (a) “Human organ” means the human kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, eye, bone, skin, fetal tissue, or any other human organ or tissue, but does not include hair or blood, blood components (including plasma), blood derivatives, or blood reagents. > > (b) A person commits an offense if he or she knowingly or intentionally offers to buy, offers to sell, acquires, receives, sells, or otherwise transfers any human organ for valuable consideration. > > (c) It is an exception to the application of this section that the valuable consideration is: (1) a fee paid to a physician or to other medical personnel for services rendered in the usual course of medical practice or a fee paid for hospital or other clinical services; (2) reimbursement of legal or medical expenses incurred for the benefit of the ultimate receiver of the organ; or (3) reimbursement of expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ. > > (d) A violation of this section is a Class A misdemeanor. > > Added by Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 40, § 1, eff. Aug. 26, 1985. Amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, § 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994. ---
**Author:** ![grind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grind)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/3 "2016-08-07T15:23:01Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > As usual with these sorts of things, the reality is far more mundane. > > [The actual law.](http://www.dumblaws.com/law/1354) These laws are outdated. Check out this one! In Waynesboro, Virginia, it’s against the law for a woman to drive a car in Main Street unless her husband is walking in front of the car waving a red flag. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/4 "2016-08-07T16:53:23Z")
> [@grind](#): > > These laws are outdated. Check out this one! > > In Waynesboro, Virginia, it’s against the law for a woman to drive a car in Main Street unless her husband is walking in front of the car waving a red flag. That seemed an odd response. This one is just flat out wrong: [http://www.whsv.com/home/headlines/Strange-Waynesboro-Driving-Law-227121681.html](http://www.whsv.com/home/headlines/Strange-Waynesboro-Driving-Law-227121681.html). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/5 "2016-08-07T17:34:54Z")
My dad told me about this one when I was a kid: > [@](#): > > A bill is pending in the Kansas legislature to “regulate” the movement of trains at railroad crossings. “When two trains approach a crossing,” says the bill, “both shall stop, and neither shall go ahead until the other has passed by.” [_The Signal Engineer Volume 6_](https://books.google.com/books?id=EM00AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=both+shall+stop,+and+neither+shall+go+ahead+until+the+other&source=bl&ots=h-blcGpeGK&sig=p8chCW2C4ZkeLBD_S8afWU6Zsvs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWpN_-6a_OAhUP3GMKHVz7DTIQ6AEIJDAB#v=onepage&q=both%20shall%20stop%2C%20and%20neither%20shall%20go%20ahead%20until%20the%20other&f=false), 1913, Simmons-Boardman Publishing Co., Chicago, New York, Cleveland, London ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/6 "2016-08-07T21:52:00Z")
FinCEN,which stands for “Financial Crimes Enforcement Network”, and it is a crime to fail to report your assets to them, even if no crime has been committed, suspected nor implied. So, the act itself creates a crime, and calls it “crime enforcement” to criminalize legal actions that are not being enforced as crimes. It’s reach has been escalated piecemeal since established in 1990 by the Treasury Department. It criminalizes any “US Person” who does not report offshore assets. Assets can include power of attorney over another parson’s assets, and a “US person” may be someone who has never been physically present in the USA in his life. For example, a Canadian with a claim to US citizenship by parentage, is required to report his Canadian mother’s property for which he has power of attorney. If his bank in Canada fails to determine his US Personhood, or fails to report his assets to the US government, his Canadian bank will be denied he right to transact any international business with any US bank. So Canadian banks have spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money surveying every account holder, to determine if they are US persons, and reporting accounts to the US Treasury Department. All so the US can “enforce” crimes that are not even suspected, and do not even appear to be crimes before or after scrutiny… Nobody is laughing. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/7 "2016-08-07T22:39:48Z")
I think the ground rules should be all posts about a law require a cite. Otherwise this will just be perpetuating the internet BS about laws that don’t really exist. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/8 "2016-08-07T23:57:08Z")
“It’s illegal to chain your alligator to a fire hydrant in Michigan” Although completely true, it’s stated to be confusing … generally it’s illegal to chain _anything_ to a hydrant; your dog, your bike, and yes, even your alligator. You might find it illegal to park your car in front of one as well. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/9 "2016-08-08T00:30:23Z")
Louis “L.M.” Boyd is almost singlehandedly responsible for mis-stating many of these laws and repeating the absurd, often invented ones. His column used to drive me insane with how he could make tap water an absurd thing, through enough tangled description. The one about waving a red flag in front of a car may date back to England’s “road locomotive” laws, which had all kinds of hugely restrictive rules about the earliest generation of steam-powered road vehicles. (2 mph max, walker with red flag in front during the day and a red lantern at night, full stop and five minute wait at any crossroads, etc.) It had to be repealed ca. 1910 to allow modern(er) autos to be operated. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/10 "2016-08-08T02:35:02Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I think the ground rules should be all posts about a law require a cite. Otherwise this will just be perpetuating the internet BS about laws that don’t really exist. Here’s mine: > **[Financial Crimes Enforcement Network | Controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Crimes_Enforcement_Network#Controversies)** > > In 2009, the GAO found "opportunities" to improve "interagency and state examination coordination", noting that the federal banking regulators issued an interagency examination manual, that SEC, CFTC, and their respective self-regulatory organizations developed Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) examination modules, and that FinCEN and IRS examining nonbank financial institutions issued an examination manual for money services businesses. Therefore multiple regulators examine compliance of the BSA across ind... ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/11 "2016-08-08T13:40:19Z")
I always thought it was funny that the Federal Government did not rule that all employees are entitled to take bathroom breaks when necessary until April, 1989. What did we do before then, cross our legs? Of course, it took that long for such a ridiculous legal battle to get to the federal level. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/12 "2016-08-08T13:48:48Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I always thought it was funny that the Federal Government did not rule that all employees are entitled to take bathroom breaks when necessary until April, 1989. What did we do before then, cross our legs? > > Of course, it took that long for such a ridiculous legal battle to get to the federal level. In the USA, the federal government is not in the business of making such rules. They are left to the several states, and the federal government exercises the unusual power to intercede only when there is willful , negligent or flagrant violation of human rights at a state level. There are those who believe that this is as it should be. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/13 "2016-08-13T17:17:23Z")
This one makes me cry: [NJ lesbians must first have sex with men before receiving insured fertility treatment](http://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/nj-lesbians-must-first-have-sex-with-men-before-receiving-insured-fertility-treatment/) > [@](#): > > The lawsuit stated that the law requires couples to engage in unprotected heterosexual intercourse on top of being medically diagnosed with infertility before their coverage can pay for the treatments. > > The suit targeted the Department of Banking and Insurance for allegedly failing to update its definition of an infertile couple in the wake of the legalization of same-sex marriages. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/14 "2016-08-13T21:18:38Z")
The silly NC bathroom law, if strictly enforced, could bring a situation where nobody would be allowed to go pee, without first showing a birth certificate. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-laws-that-made-you-laugh/762045/15 "2016-08-13T22:21:56Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > The silly NC bathroom law, if strictly enforced, could bring a situation where nobody would be allowed to go pee, without first showing a birth certificate. Wait! We don’t have to do that _now_? Goddammit! Somebody’s been pranking me!