A recent amendment to legislation changing the height requirement for rear splash guards on trucks in Arizona that would have resulted in the ban of mudflap images deemed obscene or hateful has been defeated in the state legislature. Introduced by Tempe Democrat Ed Ableser, the amendment's restrictions would have encompassed the cheeky chrome naked-lady-silhouette mudflaps we've all seen countless times before. One of the amendment's other supporters, Theresa Ulmer (D - Yuma), said that the ban would help promote family values and would also dovetail with efforts to curb pornography and sexual predators.
It's one thing to work the well-intentioned family values angle. You lose us, however, when you mention chrome girlie mudflaps in the same breath as porn and sexual predators. They are kitschy, not criminal. What's next? A ban on Yosemite Sam "BACK OFF" mudflaps because the guns he's holding condone violence? This is the problem you run into when going down this road -- the scope of what's deemed harmful or obscene creeps wider and wider.
[Source: AP via Instapundit)
The catalyst for it all came about when Rep. Ableser saw a vehicle sporting mudflaps that used a derogatory term for black children on them. We called Rep. Ableser's office for more information on that, but haven't heard back yet. Suffice it to say that whatever he saw must have been pretty classless and reprehensible, otherwise he would not have been inclined to pen regulatory legislation. That said, the amendment proved too far-reaching, as evidenced by the 31-19 defeat it was handed. It's one thing to find something offensive (we each have our own definition of what "crosses the line"), but legislating good taste is always going to be near-impossible.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
rotorglow @ Feb 21st 2007 5:36PM
Arizona is where I first saw the "giant plastic scrotum" under-truck ornament, hanging from the spare-tire of a lifted Silverado.
rodri @ Feb 21st 2007 5:42PM
I don't understand it. How sexual can a silhouette be? It's not like it is a photo of some couple having sex. Is a naked body necessarily sexual?
Mike @ Feb 21st 2007 5:42PM
And I thought that NY was being stupid for trying to ban spinner wheels. Who are these idiots making laws now, how the hell did they get elected? Seriously, their wasn't anything more important than to try to ban mud flaps featuring an nude silhouette?
Mike @ Feb 21st 2007 5:43PM
And whats wrong with porn?
Tony @ Feb 21st 2007 5:47PM
who said she's nude ? she may have a bikini on.
Tom @ Feb 21st 2007 5:56PM
So ever what happened to land of the free?
GLENN @ Feb 21st 2007 5:58PM
What happened to free speech and freedom of expression- the basic principles that this country was founded upon.
chuck goolsbee @ Feb 21st 2007 5:58PM
I swear most legislators sit around all day thinking up the most ridiculous laws. Here, have some wisdom:
"The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition
is so powerful a principle, that it alone, and without any assistance,
not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity,
but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the
folly of human laws too often incumbers its operations"
--Adam Smith
in "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations"
"Politics is the seedbed of social enmity, evil suspicions,
shameless lies, morbid ambitions, and disrespect for the
individual. Name anything bad in man, and it is precisely in
the soil of political struggle that it grows with abundance."
--Maxim Gorky, April 20, 1917
--chuck
Peter Brunton @ Feb 21st 2007 6:03PM
Yes, I can see that having an image of a woman with exagerated breasts on the back of your truck is ceratinly not sexual in anyway. I'm sure every trucker who displays this image is thinking of his mother and trying to honor her memory. NOT
Keith Russell @ Feb 21st 2007 6:11PM
--"So ever what happened to land of the free?"
It won, by a VOTE of 31-19.
iQuack @ Feb 21st 2007 6:34PM
"One of the bill's other supporters, Theresa Ulmer (D - Yuma), said that the ban would help promote family values and would also dovetail with efforts to curb pornography and sexual predators."
------------------------------
It's typically the Republicans who go nuts over "family values" issues. So, it's refreshing to see a Democrat trying to rescue wholesome families from salacious, truck mudflaps.
Seems the real boobs here are the Arizona legislators, not the images on any mudflaps.
naggs @ Feb 21st 2007 6:44PM
Seems the real boobs here are the Arizona legislators, not the images on any mudflaps.
+1
paul34 @ Feb 21st 2007 6:57PM
I think we should introduce a bill to buy these "fine" folks airfare to another country, never to return to this one. Umm hello? This is the United States. Meaning I can say whatever the hell I want. Is that REALLY that obscene? No, its just how life is. Get used to it, stop trying to live in your protected shelter of a world. People can say what they want.
NoNameDenton @ Feb 21st 2007 7:29PM
How stupid do you have to be in order to be offended by a mud flap
Tal @ Feb 21st 2007 7:32PM
I thought this type of "politically correct" image was only portrayed in the "Bible Belt".
I'm getting f....ng sick of all of this holier than thou BS. Did any of these do-gooders never read "Catcher in the Rye"? You can't erase every thing you think is lewd, evil or pornographic.
Don't law officials have better things to do than police such insignificant displays?
Family values? Teach your children your family values and have them understand not all of the world believes as you do. Be undersatnding of others but don't legislate your beliefs on me.
Jim Sanders @ Feb 21st 2007 7:40PM
Ugly girls are really jealous of the mudflap girl's double DD breasts.
When ugly girls gain political power, they attempt to take revenge.
It's a jealous lover revenge kind of thing.
DanMan @ Feb 21st 2007 9:18PM
"As for forms of government let fools contest, for that government that governs the least governs the best." - Somebody famous
Democrat, Republican, who cares the above quote is the only thing that matters.
Jro @ Feb 21st 2007 9:23PM
Focusing on mud flaps to prevent sex predators??? I think there is a better use of tax dollars than that. Castration would probably work.
HotRodzNKustoms @ Feb 21st 2007 9:37PM
SO this is the Democrats idea of improving America... targeting mudflaps? Pathetic.
tcc3 @ Feb 21st 2007 10:16PM
Keep your laws off my mudflaps