American Taliban Watch

Parading about with your boxers boxers on display may be a tacky fashion statement, but it hardly warrants Atlanta enacting a law:

Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws. The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.

"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future."

The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.

How about a burqua Mr. Martin? That'd certainly cover those women up. They actually want to prevent women from showing bra straps? The spaghetti straps on women's clothing are slimmer and therefore more revealing than bra straps - perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to wear those either? Or is it just that Martin and his ilk associate bra straps with sexuality and sex, for them, is dirty?

How far removed is this from the Victorian practice of dressing furniture legs in skirts to avoid indecency?