That Stupid, Awful Montreal Pit Bull Ban Is Back In Effect

Montreal's draconian pit bull ban is back in effect,
but it will probably only harm dogs, and not
prevent dog attacks against people, as intended.

Remember that pit bull ban that Montreal tried to enact and enforce earlier this year that a court temporarily put on hold.

It's baaa--aack. and once again a lot of innocent, docile dogs, some pit bulls, many who just sort of look like pit bulls, are now in danger of euthanasia, or at best. some terrible restrictions.

Back in June, a Montreal woman was mauled and killed by a dog that looked like a pit bull.

No question that was a totally sad and unnecessary. The owner of the dog that caused the problem is the most culpable, since the dog obviously wasn't trained right.

As is usual with politicians who genuinely want to "do something" about a problem or a tragedy like that terrible mauling, the fine leaders of Montreal totally overreacted.

The ban also affects American Staffordshire terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers and any dog that remotely resembles a pit bull. They have to be registered, muzzled in public, and nobody can own one if a criminal background check comes up with something.

The Dodo reported that a Quebec court had ended a temporary suspension of Montreal's ban on pit bulls.

The court at least did at least temporarily curbed a provision that would have spelled a death sentence to these types of dogs in shelters, The Dodo reported.  The Montreal ban would have banned the adoption of these 700 or so dogs in Montreal area shelters.

Rescue groups have been trying to move as many of these dogs out of Montreal for adoption elsewhere.

If Montreal thinks the "pit bull ban" would reduce dog bites, they need only look to Toronto to see how wrong they are.

Toronto passed a rather draconian pit bull ban in 2005,  and most pit bulls are gone from that city. However, the number of annual dog bite incidents has risen there in recent years. 

In other words, all dogs have the potential to bite. It's just a risk in life.

I'm glad Canadian politicians want to do something about problems that arise. I just wish they would do something that would actually make a difference, and not harm innocent dogs, or their owners.

Turns Out Yoga Pants Are The Downfall Of Society

Montana State Rep. David Moore is no fan of
yoga pants. Apparently they are a menace.
Image from Jezebel.  

The State of Montana has the best fashion police, let me tell you.

The world is going to hell in a hand basket, and Montana State Rep. David Moore knows exactly why:

Yoga pants. Especially the ones that are about the same color as human skin. It makes a person look naked or something, Moore said.

According to the Billings Gazette, Moore has introduced the morality saving House Bill 365, which would expand Montana's indecent exposure law to include, as the Gazette put it, "any nipple exposure, including met's and any garment that 'gives the appearance or simulates' a person's buttocks, genitals, pelvic area or female nipple."

That list would include flesh-colored yoga pants, Moore said. Other color yoga pants would have been OK, supposedly, under the proposal, but Moore doesn't like any yoga pants.

"Yoga pants should be illegal in public anyway," Moore said after a hearing on the bill, says the Billings Gazette.

This all got started last August, when there was something called  "Bare As You Dare" bicycle event in Missoula. This kind of thing happens in a lot of cities lately where people in a group ride bicycles while naked because it's fun, people want to celebrate and promote acceptance of all kinds of body images, or they're making some sort of statement like "bicycles are good" or "fossil fuels are bad."

I'm not sure how riding a bike naked will reduce our dependence on fossil fuel, but what the hell. Nobody is getting hurt at these events, right

If you ask Moore and another Montana lawmaker named Walt Hill, this kind of naked bike ride is a terrible threat to the Good Citizens of Montana, so any kind of indecent exposure must be stopped.

Officials felt like they had to give a permit for the "Bare As You Dare" event last year because denying it would maybe make the officials run afoul of First Amendment free speech protections.

So, the effort is on to cover up Big Sky country.

"I want Montana to be known as a decent state where people can live within the security of laws and protect their children and associates from degrading and indecent practices," the Billings Gazette quoted Hill as saying.

Yeah, because I surely wouldn't feel secure unless there was a ban on naked bike rides, yoga pants and guys walking around wearing no shirts.

The wrong kind of clothing is apparently dangerous, at least in the eyes of some lawmakers.

However, Moore's efforts are for naught. According to Jezebel and the Associated Press, a Montana legislative committed voted to day to quash the anti-yoga pants bill.

At the peak of the craze of wearing baggy pants that sagged halfway down people's butts, some states and municipalities tried to ban the wearing of them. 

Too dangerous? Too, I don't know, hip hoppy?

Way back in the 1930s people tried to ban zoot suits because they, like the baggy pants, represented an urban youth culture, rather weighted toward Hispanics, that the adults didn't like.

I'm still not sure how banning certain types of clothing, instead of banning objectionable behavior is going to fix society's ills.

But I guess fixing society's ills is too tough a task, so banning certain types of clothes seems an easy way out.

Talk about the emperor having no clothes!