Court Refuses Trial by Combat

They should have accepted it and televised it.

A court has rejected a 60-year-old man’s attempt to invoke the ancient right to trial by combat, rather than pay a £25 fine for a minor motoring offence.

Leon Humphreys remained adamant yesterday that his right to fight a champion nominated by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) was still valid under European human rights legislation. He said it would have been a “reasonable” way to settle the matter.

Magistrates sitting at Bury St Edmunds on Friday had disagreed and instead of accepting his offer to take on a clerk from Swansea with “samurai swords, Ghurka knives or heavy hammers”, fined him £200 with £100 costs.

Humphreys, an unemployed mechanic, was taken to court after refusing to pay the original £25 fixed penalty for failing to notify the DVLA that his Suzuki motorcycle was off the road.

After entering a not guilty plea, he threw down his unconventional challenge. Humphreys, from Bury St Edmunds, said: “I was willing to fight a champion put up by the DVLA, but it would have been a fight to the death.”

Bank Runs Coming to a EuroZone Near You?

This is why I keep my bank account balance as low as possible at all times, and don't hoard fiat currency.

I just got off the phone with Pierre Jananovic . . . La Banque Postale has lowered the limits on the amounts of cash customers can withdraw per week by 50%. First of all, for you Americans and Brits, the way France works its banking system – customers are limited to how much they can withdraw per week from their accts no matter what the balance. Now what has happened here is that Gold card members – who could take out 3,000 euros a week – are now limited to 1,500 a week. This was sudden, without warning, and people here in France are freaking out. Pierre tells me that its the first clear sign that liquidity in the European banking system is drying up.

Dance Police

Thank god these brave officers protected the public and arrested these dangerous dancers at the Jefferson Memorial. Imagine what would have happened if they were allowed to just boogie down!

Anarchy in the UK

Brits break the law 21 times per year. Things like having sex in public, speeding, doing drugs, downloading copywritten material for free, not cleaning up dog poop. If these laws were enforced 100% of the time, then probably half of Britain would be behind bars. Of course, the article never mentions the mathematical consequences of this gross overcriminalization, nor does it wonder if perhaps there are too many laws on the books. The last few lines in the article are facepalm material:

John Miles added, 'The survey shows the average person who answered feels they break the law 21 times a year, but in reality this number is probably far greater.

'We are sure there are some things people wouldn't even know were illegal - particularly things like failing to clean up dog poo or dropping litter.

'There is a saying that 'rules are made to be broken', but when something has been made illegal it has to be for a good reason.'