Brickbats

Steamy Georgia afternoons apparently have taken their toll on Southern gentility. Lawmaker Dorothy Pelote has introduced a bill in the state House of Representatives to ban people from answering the door in the nude. Currently, "the law allows [a person] to come to the door naked. It just doesn't let him go outside," Pelote says. "I don't even want him coming to the door naked."

A Chinese court has charged Hong Kong trader Li Guangqiang with using "an evil cult to damage a law-based society." He will spend two years in prison for his crime: bringing Bibles into mainland China.

Lab tests show that almost half of all purported cocaine seized in drug raids by Dallas police in 2001 was actually finely crushed Sheetrock. The same goes for almost one-fourth of all methamphetamine seized. Unfortunately, some of the immigrant defendants have already been deported. Defense lawyers say their clients were framed, either by police or by the force's secret informant, who reportedly earned more than $200,000 during two years of service.

Here's a zen riddle: How lumpy must a sauce be before it can be called a vegetable? That's the stumper facing the European Union's Customs Code Committee. The E.U.'s current "lump limit" is 20 percent, designed to nab importers who avoid higher tariffs on vegetables by disguising them as sauces. The tariff on sauces is 20 percent, while the duties on vegetables can reach 288 percent.

Want to golf in Germany? Start studying now. Germany is the only country in the world that licenses golfers. To qualify, potential golfers must pass a written test on the rules and etiquette of the game. And they must be able to play 18 holes in no more than 108 strokes. The cost of the license is about $1,000.

Since the British passed tougher gun-control laws in 1997, the murder rate for victims killed with guns has soared, and police officials say the number of illegal handguns grows daily. How have the nation's conservatives reacted? Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, didn't have any kind words for self-defense: "One doesn't want to create a society in which people are liable to be mown down if they enter a property."

Residents who qualified for concealed weapons permits in Genesee County, Michigan, got a little something extra. Along with the notice to pick up their permits, many applicants also received fliers from the Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence. The fliers included information about gun safety and dunned recipients for donations to the partnership, which helped lead efforts to ban concealed carry permits.

A Swedish anti-E.U. activist hanging posters in Belgium was surprised when police told him the act was a crime in the kingdom -- "disturbing the peace." But he was shocked when the authorities banned him for two weeks from Belgium and 13 other European nations, all parties to the border-opening Schengen Treaty.