Lianne Hart reports in the LA Times:
In a state where the best Mardi Gras beads go to women who flash their breasts during parades comes a Louisiana legislator who wants to ban low-riding pants that reveal underwear or the “cleft of the buttocks.”
“In our society, we have a line of decency that should not be crossed — and that line starts around the waist area,” the bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Derrick Shepherd, said in a recent speech on the House floor.
If the bill becomes law, violators who publicly and “intentionally expose any portion of the pubic hair, cleft of the buttocks or genitals” may face a $175 fine or 24 hours of community service.
Just another example of what I have been warning about. Societies need order and discipline to survive, and if there is no self-discipline power mad governments are more than happy to step in and provide it. And this is true across the political spectrum. In one of the scariest comments I have heard in a while,
Glenn Green — a city councilman from a New Orleans suburb that has tried to enact a similar ordinance — said the state “should be able to say what is moral, what is decent and what is acceptable behavior for young people.”
Yikes.