On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 16:13:52 GMT, "Kevin Brooks"
wrote:


"Peter Skelton" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 20 Jan 2004 14:06:16 GMT, "Kevin Brooks"
wrote:


"Andrew Chaplin" wrote in message
...

snip


Hawks are great flyers but not too bright (where have we heard that
description before?). We had a Swainson's hawk fly in front of our
troop position just as we opened in Fire for Effect. The unit medical
WO, our local hunter and wildlife nut, had it stuffed and mounted, and
it was on the wall of the Medical Inspection Room until he retired.

Probably lucky he does not reside south of our mutual border. A lot of
the
birds of prey are protected here. And, as is apt to happen when lawyers
and
bureaucrats get together, the intent of the protective laws has been
twisted
beyond reason. Find an owl from the list that has been killed by a car
and
want to preserve it? You may find yourself facing federal charges. Maybe
you
are a fly fisherman who likes to tie his own flies and you collect a few
feathers from the carcass of a hawk or owl? Ditto. You actually need a
*permit* to hold feathers lost by the bird you may have picked up in the
woods (there was a court case involving just that here in Virginia--in
the
end the defendent was able to show he was "descended from the Iroquois"
(and
thus his possession was covered by a claim of religious freedom) and won
at
the federal appelate level. Ridiculous that he had to go to that level,
much
less that he had to resort to his ethnic ancestry...

We have conditional and absolute discharge, ie. the court saying
don't do it again, and don't bug us with this trivia respectively
to deal with this sort of sillyness. Isn't there something
similar in the states? Life can get a bit unpleasant for a judge
who lets things get tied up with too much effort for too little
crime.

No, because that would deny the legal beagles another source of perpetual
income--if we ruled out frivolous criminal charges and (worse yet) frivolous
lawsuits, half of the esteemed bar would perish due to lack of business.

And the downside is?

(should be a smiley up ther, I suppose)

Peter Skelton