Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2006 June 8-31

The San Bernardino County, California, Board of Supervisors has ordered a book on Japanese comics removed from local libraries. A resident complained that "Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics" contains illustrations of sex acts. "This book is absolutely inappropriate for a public library and as soon as I was made aware of it, I ordered it to be removed," said board chairman and county executive officer Bill Postmus. Postmus has also ordered library officials develop a policy "for protecting children" by limiting what they can check out.

A German court has ruled police have the right to strip search fans going into soccer gamessoccer games, even if they have no specific grounds for the search. The ruling came in a complaint filed by a 16-year-old girl who was strip searched by police before a game last year. Police told the court they singled her out because she appeared so "inconspicuous" and that type of fan had caused problems in the past.

Megan Forbes was getting ready for church one Sunday when Boulder, Colorado, police showed up and arrested her for ignoring a court summons. Why had a summons been issued for her? She replaced the door on her garage. Forbes lives in a historic district, and the law requires she get permission from the city before replacing the door.

A Saudi Arabian judge has sentenced restaurant owner Nabeel Al-Ramadan to 90 lashes. His crime? Hiring two women to take telephone orders at his restaurant. The girls worked beneath veils. But local authorities still considered their presence to be a violation of decorum. Al-Ramadan fired the two after complaints. But that didn't end his legal troubles. He's appealing his sentence.

China has banned new domestic editions of foreign magazines on any topic other than science or technology. Titles that have already been approved can continue publishing, but the moratorium will hurt lifestyle and entertainment magazines, including the Chinese edition of Rolling Stone. The magazine has published one issue, but authorities say its publishers never obtained permission to publish. China doesn't allow foreign companies to publish magazines. Rather, they must make licensing agreements with state-owned publishers.