At 02:12 AM 7/23/00 -0400, Steve Schear wrote:
>At 07:30 PM 7/21/00 -0400, David Honig wrote:
>>At 07:00 PM 7/21/00 -0400, Tim May wrote:
>>Indeed. And the solution to both is crypto: wear disguises in public,
>>and use anonymity.
>>
>>I was thinking about laws making masks illegal. Can you turn in
>>a neighbor for her colored contact lenses? His tinted hair?
>
>The only likely cover (excuse the pun) from such mask laws is likely to be
>religious. It is very unlikely that Moslem women will be required to
>remove their veils in public or private (e.g., a bank). Time for a new
>religion?
There've been cases in the US where Moslem women were hassled by police;
I think one example was in Detroit, which has a large Arab population.
And France has policies forbidding young Moslem women from wearing head
coverings
in public schools. (Not sure if they're nationwide or just some schools,
but the issue made it into the US press wires a few years back.)
Halloween gets protected, as a watered-down version of a Celtic religious
holiday.
Mardi Gras and New Orleans in general are special cases.
Bank robbers don't get protected, construction workers with dust masks and
goggles
probably get tossed off the job if they don't wear masks.
Cowboys get to wear bandannas over their faces if they're out threatening
cows,
but not if they're threatening stagecoaches.
The Klan aren't allowed to wear masks in public, unless the judge and
sheriff are members,
which was pretty common back when they were in power, so you just had to
shoot them
instead of hogtying them and hauling them into court.
And US public schools can ban funny-colored hair, but banning blond hair
on non-blond girl students or bad toupees on male teachers just wouldn't
succeed.
Thanks!
Bill
Bill Stewart, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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