Posted 10:52 PM by Floyd

Last week I made fun of a San Jose Mercury News reporter who reported verbatim the astonishing claims of the Anti-Junior Sex League, for instance that they could decode any commonly used encryption scheme. (I suppose from the government body point of view, there is no harm in undertaking projects that will require funding until the heat death of the universe.)

No mockery of servile journalism would be complete without a mention of the Merc's "Mr. Roadshow", Gary Richards. Richards is completely and utterly unable to doubt the word of a safety or transportation issue, viz:

Q A co-worker told me that it's against the law, and you can get ticketed, if you have a for-sale sign in your car and it's parked on the street in front of your house. He also said that you can drive with the for-sale sign, but if you park you have to take the sign down. Is this true?

Martha Denning
San Jose

A True. Since 1958, San Jose has had municipal code section (11.36.100) on the books to prohibit vehicles for sale on a public street, and so does the state. The reasons for this law are to keep car dealers from turning streets into used-car lots and to keep individual owners from using the street to sell their cars. Safety is also a factor, as the law prevents cars from slowing down in a travel lane to look at cars for sale, potentially causing traffic congestion or rear-enders. If you are trying to sell your car this way, simply remove the sign while parked on the street.

Uh-uh. And For Sale signs on houses are also banned, because people could slow down in the traffic lane to look at homes for sale, potentially causing ... oh, you mean they're not? Well, if I didn't have Mr. Roadshow around to explain the state's ways to man, I might think that the title of this article -- "Safety, other reasons make it illegal to put for-sale sign in parked vehicle" -- could really be stated as "Safety, dislike of low-income lowlifes make it illegal to put for-sale sign in parked vehicle".