Weird AH laws

tom · Jun 16, 2004

In Sliders IIRC there was an opening scene where they slide out of a room with an electric chair which they rescued Quinn from seconds before. "Nice going...this time it only took you five minutes to wind up on Death Row!""Well how was I supposed to know killing an endangered species was a capital offense? And how was I supposed to know mosquitos were an endangered species?".
What kind of laws could we run afoul of if we found ourselves suddenly in an AH? Try to give the rational behind the law, don't just come up with a screwy "spitting on sidewalk is first degree felony", explain that there was a pandemic here a few years ago.
Alternately, what OTL laws would get an AH person in trouble here?

Linkwerk · Jun 16, 2004

Well, anybody from one of Straha's TL's would be tossed in the slammer for the "Willie Nelson's special reserve" 8 oz. bag of pot they picked up at safeway that morning...

Straha · Jun 16, 2004

well a TL with a long conventional WWIII in yhe 60's could have *STRICT* recycling laws with not recycling being a felony

Aedh Rua · Jun 16, 2004

Well, in my TL called Bitus, which I'm still working on, albeit at a glacial pace, there are very strict laws against various kinds of trespass on sacred land. Moderate-sized areas are simply left to lie fallow, and only the Gods are permitted to go in, except maybe a druid or two, once or twice a year, on specific occasions, and in a particular ritualized manner. This is based on real Gaulish religious customs, recorded by Lucan IIRC, and also on such more modern Gaelic customs as the Gudeman's Croft, a small fenced area on a farms that was forbidden to cultivate. Other areas are forbidden from cultivation and building, but able to be visited, much like a national park. This custom is actually described in the Botorrita inscription, a Celtiberian inscription proclaiming exactly such a law. That inscription calls for stiff fines for violating the decree, so chances are that strict laws, in this case, do not bring the death penalty, but merely financial ruin.

NHBL · Jun 16, 2004

No Harps

"The playing, possession, or display of any variety of harp is prohibited on military bases througout the Empire. Violators are subject to a mimimum of 30 days in prison."
"Any member of the armed service who shall play or posess a harp of any sort shall be dishonorably discharged, o such lesser punishetn as curt martial shall determine."
These laws were encted as the Rebellion of June 1915 errupted in Ireland. In addition to being an Irish symbol, seemingly innocent dispalys of a harp in shop window, or a harp scrawled on a lamp post, were the signals to saboteurs to strike. On June 23, throughout the British Isles, rails were sundered, bridges blown, telegraph lines cut--and worse.
Irish dockworkers struck at the Royal Navy itself, as many dreadnoughts lay in drydock following the Second Battle of Calais. Two deadnoughts were wrecke outright, never to sail again as the blocks supporting them were destroyed, while others had their repairs greatly delayed, suc that they were only at sea again after the Armistice (July 1915)
When Ireland (except Northern Ireland) was given its independence at the treaties ending the Great War, there was no deisre to repeal these laws so hastily enacted in the time of war and rebellion.
To this day, they are still on the books, and part of the Britsh Empire's traditions.

Fiji · Jun 17, 2004

How about a world where vast amounts of oilfields get nuked, leading to many nations abandoning nuke power and with much of the worlds oil unreachable there are extreme laws against wasting of energy.

offices have a single source of light with 4 people huddles around it.
computer screens go in powersave after a few seconds of idle time.
at home, having the lights on in more then 2 rooms at the same time is a serious offence.

bit far fetched, I know

hmm, just popped into my head, a few years ago the ulterior party in the UK tried to get elected useing the election promise that wrong parking would carry the death sentence.
Their reasoning was that wrongly parked cars held up police, firemen and ambulances and thus cost lives.
and this is OTL we're talking about.

aktarian · Jun 17, 2004

Every household must have a cat. To prevent spread of disease via rats.

Poligamy is allowed but sodomy is strictlly prohibited. In order to make up losses in brutal war.

Straha · Jun 17, 2004

in the same vein as your cat one....

Poisession of dogs or rodents as pets is punishable with 12 stripes of the lash and burning of said animals.

tom · Jun 17, 2004

Aktarian:
Not so far fetched, I understand Paraguay was almost that bad after the Triple Alliance War.

Straha · Jun 17, 2004

tom said:
Aktarian:
Not so far fetched, I understand Paraguay was almost that bad after the Triple Alliance War.

well obviously it would get that bad with 90% of the male population killed off.

aktarian · Jun 17, 2004

tom said:
Aktarian:
Not so far fetched, I understand Paraguay was almost that bad after the Triple Alliance War.

That they had to import cats to kill rodents?

SU wasn't much better off in 1945.

Grey Wolf · Jun 17, 2004

It being illegal to smoke in an Irish pub would probably catch many a person from an ATL out

Grey Wolf

Derek Jackson · Jun 21, 2004

Swearing being taken seriously is a possibility.

Any number of different combinations of legal and illegal recreational substances.

Laws against usury.

Laws against advertising

aktarian · Jun 21, 2004

Derek Jackson said:
Swearing being taken seriously is a possibility.

Which swearing are you talking about?

Derek Jackson · Jun 22, 2004

I was thinking about profanity but I believe that one of the Comandmants could be read as forbidding swearing in court

aktarian · Jun 22, 2004

Derek Jackson said:
I was thinking about profanity but I believe that one of the Comandmants could be read as forbidding swearing in court

Both meanings could be. Profanity strictlly forbiden/puishable or taking oath in front of witness as good as writing.

Adamanteus · Jun 22, 2004

I liked the one with the requirement of all households to own a cat. I think a decent POD would be that a physician, probably an Arab, discovers that fleas spread the plague, when he notices that a family which was killed off had a houseful of dead rats, from which he saw emerging fleas, which had jumped from their now dead hosts. He proclaims that all rats must die, and that people must bathe frequently. And in those days, the best mousetrap was a cat.

I'd say this might not go over too well because in those days, cats were seen by Christians as witches' familiars, but I'm sure in desperation, they'd even accept the advice of a "Mohamedian" infidel.

Dave Howery · Jun 22, 2004

were cats feared and shunned across all of Europe, or was it just the odd fanatic here and there who got hysterical over witches' familiars? It's hard to imagine most of the population having that attitude.... as religious as they might have been, you'd think they'd hate mice and rats eating their foodstores more....

edvader · Jun 23, 2004

Read Heinlein's NUMBER OF THE BEAST. They have a machine that crosses ALL or almost all universes-REAL and fiction. NO LOVECRAFT thank goodness. ONE US there are NO lawyers. LAW is Baasically AN EYE FOR AN EYE. An arsonist is burnt at the stake. Let you guess what happens to a rapist. Yes, I KNOW this is not one of the Master's best but it's interesting.

Diamond · Jun 23, 2004

-In the TL/world for my story "A Song of My People", there are laws set up by a UN-analog which forbid the naming of technological innovations for their inventors or in any way that could be construed as 'nationalistic'; instead inventions are given more neutral names.

-In my 2nd Carthaginian Empire thread:
--In Avaria, it is forbidden for anyone but the priesthood to wear the color red, as this is associated with the 'holy fire' of the Avarian Church.
--Until the mid 1700s, human sacrifice was still legal both in Slavonia and Mexica.