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Of course this can be a very long list, but here are just a few things that you may find constrain your daily lives if you have particular hobbies:

(1) Thanks to Jimmy Carter I am now able to brew my own beer at home. Not too much of course (since my home has two adults, I am allowed at most 200 gallons per year). Most batches are 5 gallons (which yields about 50 beers) so this would not seem to be a binding restriction, but for the brew-nuts, it is, if you brew once per weekend you’d be breaking the law. In either case, I am not permitted to sell that beer to you. I am allowed to sell it for a price of zero. I am allowed to accept a thank you from you if I give you a beer. But I may not sell it. Nor may I ship it through the US Post Office.

(2) I may not advertise to raise funds from you to finance my brewing operation. In other words, if I want to borrow money from you down the street, I cannot post a billboard asking for you to help me out. Consider the things one is allowed to advertise for when thinking about the ludicrousness of this. Which raises another question, how is Kickstarter legal?

(3) It is illegal for me to educate my child as I wish. Indeed, I must offer, even as a homeschooler, particular subjects at particular times and I must notify the government of my specific plans. I have an idea … well, if I share it they’ll send the Feds after me. After all, this executive, like George Bush, has asserted the power to kill any citizen whom he deems allied with terrorists. I look forward to the day when an R occupies the office and the lefties agree that this is a reasonable power to allow for their hated political rival.

(4) I am not allowed to buy a new car that does not have installed in it a tire-pressure sensor gauge. They don’t work well, in fact they work so poorly that I argue they make me less safe.

Oh there is so much more. Enjoy the taste for now, and please do share a few of the things from your own lives that are illegal. If I had the time, I’d put together a “Page-a-Day” Calendar to sell at holiday time that goes through a year in life of a ward of the state to show exactly how pervasive its ugly reach is.

6 Responses to “Things That Are Illegal”

  1. aughtsix says:

    If I put a beer in the freezer to cool it down quickly, then forget about it for a while, it may or may not be illegal to dispose of the ice, while keeping the remaining beer. (Freeze distillation–just as alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water enabling traditional distillation, water freezes at a higher temperature than alcohol which enables fractional distillation by freezing)

    It’s somewhat contentious among home-brewers as to whether or not that is illegal, and as far as I can find, there’s no case law on the matter.

  2. Chris says:

    Speaking of beer brewing, there is an interesting documentary called Beer Wars (watch it for free on Hulu) that shines a light on the battle between the megabreweries and microbreweries and government interference. It’s a libertarian’s nightmare!

  3. Michael says:

    I’ve always thought it odd that, in the city, I must keep the lawn to less than 6 inches or be fined, yet the city will let the parks and some areas run wild in the name of wilderness restoration. I also cannot determine my own method of burial; it is illegal to just through me in a pit or in a cheap box of some sort then into a pit (which would save a ton of money).

  4. Harry says:

    In my township, it is illegal, should you have a field, to welcome a hot air balloon to land on your property.

    Also, you need a permit from the Fire Marshal to build a campfire in the back yard to cook hot dogs and s’mores for your daughter’s Brownie friends.

    A long time ago my brother as a township supervisor helped disband our local police force. One of the many benefits from this has been that we do not have $90,000 per cop per year people spending time chasing perps who build campfires or who get a glass of Champagne from the balloon people when they land in the hayfield.

    Also, you cannot land your helicopter in the township. Tell me what kind of propeller head dreamed that one up. I guess we do not want to be a destination for the glitterati.

    Also, it has always been illegal to litter, but I am not sure whether the progressives can do anything to end that without posting sentries (good jobs at a living wage) every 70 feet along both sides of the road, along with two chase cars each mile, 24/7/365.

  5. Harry says:

    Many of Wintercow’s readers would encourage him to exceed the limits on his brewing allowance bestowed upon him by the state. I think WC should buy a Trans Am and get into the moonshine business, with a subsidiary that makes alcohol out of biomass. I know the whole enterprise would be complicated to run, but it might generate enough money to finance a venture in fracking, which is illegal in New York, for now.

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