Archive for the 'Pants' Category


Here Come the Fashion Police. Literally.

Every time I see a law that is centered around the way a person dresses, I cringe. I cringe because, almost every law that gets passed in relation to clothing seems to be based on someones personal conviction of what they believe to be “decent”. Here’s a typical example:

Baggy trousers that hang way below the belt and expose what the wearer has on underneath could soon be banned in the southern US city of Atlanta, a city council spokesman said Friday.

“Many youngsters are walking around with their pants way, way below their waists, and you can see everything. Some people call it a fad or a fashion statement but it is simple indecency,” Dexter Chambers, the communications director at Atlanta City Council, told AFP by phone.

And by everything, you mean what exactly?

The trend of wearing oversized trousers that fall down and expose one’s smalls derives from the US prison system.

“It started in prison, where, as I understand it, belts are taken away from inmates. But it evolved into a situation where it was used by prisoners to let others know they were ‘available,’ and it still has that sexual connotation,” Chambers said. – [Yahoo/AFP]

And this is the basis of your objections? Why do people like to look at things and then infer a meaning from it without any logical frame of reference to do so? Even if wearing your pants low around your hips in prison might mean you are sexually available, that does not mean it means the same thing out here. How can you make that kind of leap?

Is he trying to say that all of the youth running around with low slung pants are basically advertising thier sexual availability? I’m no expert, but I seriously doubt that. Why does the idea of it being a fashion fad seem so unreasonable? They are quick to deny that any similar laws are aimed at exposed bra straps and athletic bras, but what exactly is the difference? They might as well.

Who decides what the dress code of the street is supposed to be? Why is it that you can have women walking around in thong bikinis, and men in naught but a pair of speedos, and that is considered “decent” but a fully clothed man whose only fashion faux pas is that his pants are so low that his underwear is showing is an abomination?

These things make no sense. The law should not be used to enforce any indidivuals personal moral code. If the teachers don’t like it, then the schools needs to implement and enforce a dress code. The law should be used to enforce serious public safety issues. Not social dress code.

US city planning ban on low-slung baggy pants – [Yahoo/AFP]


The $67 Million dollar pair of… Pants…

I was just reading today about that amazing administrative law Judge, Roy Pearson, who had sued a local, Korean family owned dry cleaning business for the astounding amount of $54 Million for a pair of pants (at a generous $13 million discount) that he claimed they had lost.

His claim, reduced from $67 million, was based on a strict interpretation of the city’s consumer protection law — which imposes fines of $1,500 per violation, per day — as well as damages for inconvenience, mental anguish and attorney’s fees for representing himself. – Yahoo/AP

Thankfully, this so called judge lost his case, and this is being claimed as a victory for the legal system, demonstrating that the legal system still works. However I’m not so sure this can really be claimed as a victory. This Mr. Pearson was actually a bona fide judge when he filed that ridiculous suit. What kind of a legal a system lets a person like this become a judge? What sane person could justify a $67 Million dollar suit for a pair of pants? And what kind of a Judge is this Pearson character going to be?

Frankly this whole incident actually makes me even more concerned than relieved, because there appears to be a greater, more insidious problem here than the simple need for litigation reform. I could understand this kind of behavior from your average, greedy, money hungry, litigious American citizen. But a Judge? How many more members of law enforcement, and our justice/legal system, people who we rely on daily to protect, serve, enforce law and mete justice in our communities, suffer from similar (or worse) character flaws? And how did the system allow them to get there?

Dry Cleaner Wins Missing Pants Case – [Yahoo/AP]

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