(no subject)

[mrph]

Texas woman faces obscenity charges - for selling vibrators

Or, more accurately, for selling vibrators and admitting (to two undercover police officers) that they're vibrators. As the article points out, it's perfectly legal to sell them in Texas... just as long as you claim they're novelties and avoid mentioning their sexual uses.

Maximum sentence, if she's found guilty, is a year in prison.

Sounds like a news story you'd expect from Iran, not America... and do the Texas police really have nothing better to do with their time?

Comments

[duranorak.livejournal.com]

"Texas law allows for the sale of sexual toys as long as they are billed as novelties, BeAnn Sisemore, a Fort Worth attorney representing Webb, told the Houston Chronicle before a gag order was issued by the judge presiding over the case"

...sorry, but it's late and it made me laugh. :)

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Re:

[dakiara.livejournal.com]

Rofl, missed that one :D

[girfan.livejournal.com]

My last job before moving to the UK was working in a sex toy store in Chicago.
We often had women from Texas buying vibrators and dildos in our shop and they told me it was due to the restrictions put on the sale of them in Texas. They couldn't get any in Texas that looked "realistic".

Not all parts of the US are Puritan, but this and the Janet Jackson nipple incident sure make it seem that way.

[butterflyrobert.livejournal.com]

In America, everything is legal if you are a good liar. The laws are a joke to make the religious conservatives shut the hell up.

You want to smoke pot and get caught "Officer, its medicinal"

You have a waterbong and get caught "Officer its a tobacco water pipe"

You get caught soliciting a prostitute "Officer, I was just looking for an escort"

You have 20 pounds of cocaine in a suitcase "Officer I found this on the side of the road and was on my way to the police station to turn it in"

You evade taxes "Officer, I couldn't understand the forms and couldn't afford a tax lawyer or an accountant"

You beat your spouse and get caught "Officer she/he hit me first and threatened to kill me"


All of those defenses have held up in court in the USA.

Basically, the rule of thumb is "If its even remotely possible and can't be 100% PROVEN to be a lie, go for it" and the other rule is never admit to doing anything. If you're guilty of something really bad and there are reliable witnesses, try to provoke the police into beating you. They are usually rednecks and are likely to oblige.

[the_axel]

The diference between Iran & large chunks of small town America is smaller than you might think.

Get away from the major cities in the north east and west coast and you'll find a lot of fundamentalist Christians.

Abortion and teaching evolution are still incredibly contentious issues.

IIRC, about 3/4 of Americans believe God created the world in 7 days.

It's a wierd country.

[paulw.livejournal.com]

The company has representatives in every state and is doing some of its best business in California, New York and the Bible Belt, a section of the United States where Christian beliefs and clergy are influential.

That made me smile. How many of the clergys wifes are buying this gear then?