The Only Job An Ex-Convict Is Qualified For, It Seems, Is As A State Bureaucrat
Bonehead award one, a “government as good as it gets” bonehead award, goes to New York State for teaching a Bronx convict to cut hair while he was in jail, expressly for the purpose of allowing him to make an honest living as a barber when released, and then denying him a barber’s license because he’s an ex-convict!
"If the state offers this vocational-training program to persons who are incarcerated, it must offer them a reasonable opportunity to use the skills learned thereby after they are released from prison," said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Herbert Cahn in response to a lawsuit filed by the former convict against the state.
NY Post 21-Feb-03
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Thank you reader Steve Miller for sending this story to me.
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Lawmaker With Non-Functioning Legs versus Lawmaker With Non-Functioning Brains
Bonehead award two, an “unclear on the concept” bonehead award, goes to O’Fallon, Missouri state representative Cynthia Davis for stopping wheelchair bound fellow representative, Chuck Graham, from continuing to speak in the Missouri House citing the rule that expressly says that members “cannot be recognized on the floor to debate unless they are standing.” Graham has been confined to a wheelchair for 21 years following a car accident. Others told him to continue speaking after a brief but complete silence.
Disabled Citizens Alliance For Independence (DCAI) 11-Dec-02
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Apparently No Rocket Scientist
Bonehead award three goes to a Cypress, California man who was arrested for setting off his aerial fireworks in his condominium bedroom causing a fire that resulted in $135,000 in damages. Nobody knows why he did it.
Los Angeles Times 24-Feb-03
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From The “Educating The Stupid People” Files
Reader Kevan Chippindall-Higgin of CRMWeb Ltd in the United Kingdom wants you to know that a bonehead award should go to all those people who made it necessary for the Woking Borough Counsel to put “Caution, Hot Water” signs in their public restrooms.
Quips Kevan, “Convention has it that taps with a red cap or the letter H generally dispense hot water, so clearly anybody familiar with running water (which is most people in the UK) should not be too flummoxed by this innovation.”
But it seems that the council was a bit flummoxed by all this as well because they stuck the warning sign, not over the hot water tap, but over a soap dispenser, apparently not quite knowing themselves where hot water comes from.
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WEIRD EXTRAS
Human Shields Learn Their Place In Iraq
"Don't worry, it is a small army camp."
Comment made by an Iraqi official to the first Western “human shields” after they complained to the Iraqi government about being placed near an army camp instead of being placed at civilian locations as they expected.
UK Telegraph 23-Feb-03
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Today We Bestow Four Bonehead Awards 
