Fun_People Archive
26 Jun
The long wand of the law

Date: Mon, 26 Jun 95 10:31:53 PDT
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: The long wand of the law

Forwarded-by: spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene "Chief Yuckster" Spafford)
Forwarded-by: snag@holli.com (Joseph Poirier)
Forwarded-by: "Mitchell E. Gold" <goldm@rpi.edu>

     From the THE NEW MEXICAN, Santa Fe, NM, newspaper, Monday 3/6/95
   Mark Oswald, staff writer, reporting in his column, Capitol
   Chronicle, on the current two-month New Mexico legislative session.
   =====================================================================
   During discussion by the Senate of a serious piece of legislation
   concerning the psychology profession last week, Sen. Duncan Scott,
   R-Albuquerque, proposed an amendment. It says:

   "When a psychologist or psychiatrist testifies during a defendant's
   competency hearing, the psychologist or psychiatrist shall wear a
   cone-shaped hat that is not less than 2 feet tall. The surface of the
   hat shall be imprinted with stars and lightning bolts.

   "Additionally, a psychologist or psychiatrist shall be required to don a
   white beard that is not less than 18 inches in length, and shall punctuate
   crucial elements of his testimony by stabbing the air with a wand.
   Whenever a psychologist or psychiatrist provides expert testimony
   regarding the defendant's competency, the bailiff shall contemporaneously
   dim the courtroom lights and administer two strikes to a Chinese gong."

   Usually, anything proposed by Scott - whose hard-core conservatism is
   like cod liver oil for the Senate's Democratic majority - goes
   nowhere.  But his wizard-hat amendment was warmly received and passed
   by a voice vote.  It is now part of Sen. Richard Romero's psychologist
   bill, as the measure moves to the House.

© 1995 Peter Langston