Time is running out! You have til August 1 to buy anhydrous ammonia..

As of August 1, 2005, 61 new laws will go into effect on the Minnesota books. Among them would make it a felony to

...steal, purchase, or possess anhydrous ammonia with the intent of cooking meth. Anhydrous ammonia is used as fertilizer, and farmers' supplies of the product are often the target of meth producers.

Fair enough. But I thought it was already a crime to make meth.

Also, as a public service, the Ice Palace reminds you that you have only 3 days as of the time of this writing to exceed 100 mph without automatically losing your drivers license for six months. You also have only three days left to provide police officers with false information before it becomes a crime to do so, or to steal gasoline without automatically losing your license for 30 days.

Still other laws give citizens permission to do things that really shouldn't require the permission of the state in the first place:

A new law, carried by Sen. Don Betzold, DFL-Fridley, renders as useless any rental or homeowner association prohibitions against displaying the American flag or the Minnesota state flag. Anyone denied the right to display a flag must file a lawsuit, which could result in getting money for damages. Rules pertaining to the size of flags that can displayed are unaffected by the law.

and

Yet another law will allow high school students to take pain relievers such as Tyenol for minor ailments while in school (...well, right now minors could get an abortion without parental permission; this just takes away the argument on the pro life side regarding the paradox of the requirement for parental permission that was always required in order to take a tylenol).

At any rate, 61 new laws will be on the books in the state of Minnesota. In the context of the hundreds or even thousands of old laws, I wonder if simple enforcement of those already existing laws would have made the invention of most of those new laws irrelevant. For example, enforcing a shoplifting law or larceny law should have taken care of the gasoline drive-offs. Obstructing justice should have taken care of providing false information to police. As far as giving one permission to fly the American Flag, I would have figured the First Amendment would have had that one covered (freedom of political speech, anyone?). Still, I believe that lawmakers think that they have to have something to show for their salaries and per diems that they make off of the taxpayer dole. I suppose they have to support their habit of obstructionism and hyperbole somehow.