your guide to automobile open container laws and related oddities

courtesy of jalopink.com

11 states where there are significant variations in the law:

Alaska
Generally speaking, the laws in Alaska are not at great variation with the federally mandated requirements. The one major exception is that you can have an open container on a "Motor-Driven Cycle," which basically means a motor scooter with less than 50 cc of engine displacement.

Arkansas
Technically, there is no federally complaint law regulating open containers specifically in vehicles according to the National Institute of Health's Alcohol Policy Information System. That being said, it's illegal in Arkansas to drink in a public place, which includes highways or any vehicles commonly used for transportation. [U of A]

Connecticut
Illegal for someone to drink while operation of a car on a public road, in a parking area for 10 cars or more, on a private road with an established speed limit or on any school property. Your passengers can get as blitzed as they like, assuming they are of legal age. Of course, the law doesn't make driving with drunks any less distracting or annoying.[CT.gov]

Delaware
Limited. No state-wide Open Containers law.

Louisiana
Though Louisiana does have a ban on open containers, there is an exception for frozen alcoholic beverages with lids on them. While you can't drink it, or put a straw in it, you can order a 60-ounce Hurricane or Strawberry Daiquiri from adrive-through.

Mississippi
Limited. No state-wide Open Containers law.

Missouri
Limited. No state-wide Open Containers law

Tennessee
While the law prohibits the possession of a beverage or consumption by the driver of a motor-vehicle, the law states that a passenger can have possession of a beverage.

Virginia
While there is no state-wide Open Containers law, the law does prohibit the consumption of a beverage by a person driving a car and says that it is presumed that the driver has consumed a beverage if there is an open container and some other indicator that the driver may be drunk (slurred speech, appearance, odor, et cetera).

West Virginia
Limited. No state-wide Open Containers law

Wyoming
As you probably have guessed, oenophilia runs rampant in Wyoming. While the law does state that you can't have an open container while driving (your passenger may), you can have resealed wine with you and that does not count as wine.

50 years since little rock high

50 years ago today, federal troops were sent to little rock high to enforce the Brown decision and integrate the school. the bbc has a great piece on the huge importance of this event (and of its continued relevance with recent court rulings against affirmative action in college admissions).


"with all deliberate speed..."

justice waaaaaaaaaaaaay delayed

with a quick scan of CNN and MSNBC, you may think that the only news has to do with paris hilon or a missing white pregnant lady in ohio, but it's funny when you look at what's making headlines in britain:

Next month James Fowler is expected to be charged in Alabama with the 1965 killing of Jimmie Jackson - which triggered the Selma to Montgomery civil rights march famously attacked by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma...Federal authorities in the US are under pressure to make a final effort to bring unsolved race crimes from the civil rights era to trial after a 71-year-old former Ku Klux Klansman was found guilty of charges over the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers.

James Seale was convicted on Thursday of kidnapping and conspiracy in the killings of Henry Dee and Charles Moore, who were found dead in the Mississippi river after they went missing while hitchhiking. The federal jury heard that the teenagers had been brutally beaten before being dropped into the river tied to heavy weights. Seale now faces a life sentence.

meanwhile, at gonzo's justice department:

Bradley J. Schlozman is systematically attempting to purge all Civil Rights appellate attorneys hired under Democratic administrations...he appeared to be "targeting minority women lawyers" in the section and was replacing them with "white, invariably Christian men"...Schlozman told one recently hired attorney that it was his intention to drive these attorneys out of the Appellate Section so that he could replace them with 'good Americans.'

for every long delayed step forward we get two steps backward...and these are the same folks who don't think we need the voting rights act anymore.

alabama apologizes for slavery

talk about overdue...at this rate they'll apologize for selma sometime in the 23rd century.

"This proves Alabama is open for everyone and we are ready to improve race relations," said state Rep. Mary Moore, a Birmingham Democrat who sponsored the resolution. "The issue of slavery and its impact on the country had been kept in the closet until a few Southern states said, 'We want to take it out of the closet."

in the closet? oh, that's an unfortunately poor analogy...and you're only now ready to improve race relations? and this is a democrat saying this? oy. at this rate, they'll apologize for selma sometime around 2341.

1/3 of america still thinks the bible is the literal word of god

and now to explain this new gallup poll are some facts gleamed from the data, all brought to you by the department of duh!:

Those who believe in the literal Bible amount to 31% of adult Americans. This is a decline of about 7% compared with Gallup polls taken in the 1970s and 1980s. It is strongest in the South...duh!

There is also a strong relationship between education and belief in a literal Bible, Gallup explains, with such belief becoming much less prevalent as schooling continues....duh!

maggie brooks library censorship syndrome in action

yeah, i'm sure these two boys just happened to "stumble" across the book...and the father is so concerned with what his kids might see at a library, maybe he should go with them and be, you know, a parent. oy, that first amendment is really taking a beating lately, and not just in rochester libraries...and that is not a poor maggie brooks related porn pun. but it could be.

Fox News devoted airtime today to a lawsuit brought by a father after his sons stumbled across a book on lesbian sexuality in an Arkansas public library.

The Bentonville, AR man is seeking $20,000 in damages and the firing of the town's top librarian, claiming his two sons were disturbed after stumbling upon The Whole Lesbian Sex Book in the town's public library.

happy surrender day!

hope everyone had a great surrender day! what? you say you don't know what surrender day is? well, it was on 9 april 1865 that robert e. lee surrendered the remnants of the army of northern virginia to general ulysses s. grant, thus formally ending the civil war. as a celebration, many reenactments, speeches, and dork-like notations by history dorks like myself are made all over the nation. additionally, throughout much of the south, the confederate flag is flown today at half mast. yes, really. some are still mourning their loss. still.