
We are the freak show - alexeisadeski3
http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=23079
======
edent
This is cute - although I suspect every single country could list off a range
of crazy laws and social norms which evolved over the years.

In the UK you can... * Drive, pay taxes, join the army, and have children -
but can't be trusted with the vote.

* Become an MP even if you lose the popular vote.

* Have sex when you're 16, but you can't look at pictures of people like you doing it.

* Go shopping on a Sunday - although the shop won't sell you anything until an hour after opening.

* Have to apply for university before you know your exam results.

* Cannot copy your CD onto your MP3 player legally.

* Send soldiers off to war, but have a charity pay for their care when they get home.

I'd love to know what bizarre things happen in other countries.

~~~
viraptor
> Go shopping on a Sunday - although the shop won't sell you anything until an
> hour after opening.

Does that apply to any specific shops? I don't shop that early on Sundays, but
I don't think I've ever seen this applied.

~~~
eterm
There are limited sunday trading hours. Some shops choose to get around this
by opening an hour earlier but not opening the tills.

It's a loophole really, and it isn't true that all shops must wait, just those
that choose to use this loophole.

Also it's based on size of shop, so not all shops have limits on trading
hours.

~~~
arethuza
I don't think any of these Sunday trading hours rules apply in Scotland.

The "apply for university before you know your exam results" doesn't apply
here either.

However, one of our legal oddities is that we have an extra verdict available
in criminal trials, as well as "guilty" and "non guilty" we also have "not
proven":

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_proven](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_proven)

[Corrected - I said "innocent" rather than "not guilty"]

~~~
RobAley
Just for clarification, in England we have "Guilty" and "Not Guilty", there is
no "innocent" here. The closest to an "innocent" verdict is probably the
dismissal of charges by a judge.

------
visakanv
"The personality of the United States changes periodically. Sometimes we're
generous and inspiring. Other times we're total dicks. It's a complicated
country. But no one thing defines the personality of the United States more
than our willingness to spend ten trillion dollars - and kill anyone who gets
in the way - just to put a bullet in one asshole's skull. That gives me
neither pride nor embarrassment; it's just a statement of fact." \- Scott
Adams:
[http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/our_moon_shot/](http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/our_moon_shot/)

------
eevilspock
Here's another:

* Our government freely collects intelligence on us while it is treasonous for us to collect intelligence on it. Yet we call ourselves a democracy with a government by and for the people.

~~~
moocowduckquack
I like the bit in US elections where you don't vote for a president, but
instead vote for people who promise to vote for the candidate you like, but do
not actually have to. I have never been able to understand that.

~~~
dagw
Nobody find it strange when most countries elect prime ministers that way.

~~~
moocowduckquack
Is slightly different, you have a party vote/appointment for the candidate for
prime minister, from elected party ranks, which is similar to the US
presidency, apart from the president not having to be elected to government
already.

But then the presidential vote doesn't vote directly for the president, but
elects electors, who then elect the president, which seems an unneccessary
step given you already have the vote results from each state and only has any
effect at all if an elector does not vote the way the have been campaining.

I am not saying it is any more or less democratic than my government, I am
just saying that this detail seems weird.

------
tzs
> A couple of 20 year olds can’t legally drink a glass of champaign at their
> wedding

In most states this is not true, I believe. They cannot PURCHASE alcoholic
beverages, but only 14 states ban general underage consumption of alcohol. The
rest either do not restrict it, or have exceptions for family events and/or
non-public consumption.

~~~
colinbartlett
That's interesting. I found this very comprehensive chart of state laws:

[http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=0...](http://drinkingage.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002591)

------
kubiiii
I thought the strange relationship with guns and the total mayhem that occurs
when a woman accidentaly shows a nipple rather than the whole rest of her body
would be in the list. BTW I love the US, maybe a little because of its
contradictions (we french have a bunch of them either).

~~~
walshemj
Its not that long ago that the UK law explicitly allowed for the ownership of
guns for personal protection it was only post WW1 when the government of the
day was paranoid about red revolution that this started to change.

The "peaky blinders" series recently on the BBC made this a major plot point -
Churchill freaking out over the loss of 50 BAR's

------
mikecane
>>>despite the fact that inflation is running at the lowest level in decades.

Here is someone who does not do his own food shopping. Food prices have
exploded since 2008, when the house of cards first collapsed. I used to be
able to buy 5 cans of store-brand chunk tuna for $3.00. Now the store brand is
gone, replaced by a national brand, and it's $1.29 _per can_ (up from $1.00
per can at the _start_ of this year). And that's just the most egregious
example from my own experience. Food packaging has also shrunk dramatically,
another way prices actually rise while the "store price" remains almost the
same.

~~~
dylandrop
Way to use an anecdote of a single commodity to claim the entire economy is
experiencing extreme inflation.

Moreover, you know tuna is extremely overfished right? This helps explain the
price of that can you bought going up.
[http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/09/overfishi...](http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/09/overfishing-
pacific-bluefin-tuna)

~~~
aestra
Minor point. That's bluefin tuna. The stuff that comes in cans in the United
States is albacore tuna. Albacore is less overfished than bluefin, the latter
of which is more highly prized in Japan. I believe bluefin is the one that is
widely illegally fished in Japan.

~~~
dylandrop
"About two-thirds of the world's tuna comes from the Pacific, but bluefin tuna
accounts for only about 1% of this."

Yes I know, but the above is the more important point, sorry I should have
quoted it. The amount of tuna fished from the Pacific (67%)! is way too much
to be sustainable.

For more sources on Albacore and Yellowtail see here:
[http://www.scidev.net/global/policy/news/pacific-
fisheries-m...](http://www.scidev.net/global/policy/news/pacific-fisheries-
meet-fails-to-end-tuna-overfishing-.html)

"The International Union for Conservation of Nature has put yellowfin and
albacore tuna in the "near threatened" category..."

------
bambax
No one anywhere can legally or illegally drink "champaign" as there is no such
thing. The word is _champagne_.

~~~
panacea
Well there's another funny one, pedant. _Champagne_ is produced in a specific
region of France, and in most parts of the world, when you buy it, it comes
from there.

Except the US... where they've decided they can make their own _Champagne_
despite none of the product having touched the ground in that region of
France.

~~~
bambax
That's interesting; I wonder how they pulled that off?

Producers from other regions of France produce wines that are almost identical
to true _champagne_ , but they cannot call it that.

They used to print on their bottles that their wines were made according to
the "champagne process" ( _méthode champenoise_ ) but were eventually barred
from saying even that (which is crazy, since it's all but true).

They now say they use the "traditional process" ( _méthode traditionnelle_ )
and I think everyone knows what it means.

It could be fun to import US-made champagne in France and continue to call it
champagne. But as a rule, foreign-grown wines are hard to find in France.

~~~
alexeisadeski3
"This is an interesting question, and unfortunately it comes with a confusing
answer. Let me start by addressing the use of the term "Champagne" as it
refers to wine. The French wanted to protect the use of the term "Champagne"
to only refer to bubbly made using traditional methods from grapes grown and
vinified in the Champagne region of France, so when the Treaty of Versailles
was signed in 1919 to end WWI, they included limits on the use of the word.
History buffs may recall that the United States never actually ratified the
Treaty of Versailles, and that in 1919 the U.S. was in the midst of
Prohibition, so alcohol-labeling laws hardly seemed important at the time.
This created the loophole that allowed producers here to legally slap the word
"Champagne" on their bottles of bubbly—much to the irritation of the
winegrowers in Champagne. Out of respect and to avoid confusion, many
producers in the United States called their bubbly "sparkling wine," even when
it's made in the traditional method.

Then, in early 2006, the United States and the European Union signed a wine
trade agreement, and the issue was brought up again. This time, the United
States agreed to not allow new uses of certain terms that were previously
considered to be "semi-generic," such as Champagne (as well as Burgundy,
Chablis, Port and Chianti). But anyone who already had an approved label was
grandfathered in and may continue to use the term."

[http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/5011](http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/5011)

