Can you revise that link slightly? It goes to the Tennessee legislature front page. I'd like to get a look-see at the actual bills.

--|PW|--

I took the two numbers for the Bills, and searched for them in the legislation database, and they didn't come up valid...

MG:

Don't you realize that Osama bin Laden uses these things? And Saddam Hussein? This measure is to stop the spread of terrorism, to keep our children from emulating the terrorists. Media Girl, why do you hate America?

--|PW|--

We've had that same law in Texas for lo, a couple of generations now.

What's that you say? You think you bought a dildo here in Austin? That's an "anatomically correct condom education model" to you, young lady.

:::

If you can prove you're using those models to demonstrate how to put on a condom, that's fine. If you're thinking about using them for a more personal sort of education, that's not. (Oddly, the law doesn't prevent people from owning sexual devices; it just makes selling them illegal. But don't let your collection get out of hand: If you're hiding more than six dongs in your closet, that's intent to "promote" -- a class A misdemeanor.)

:::

As recently as the late Eighties and early Nineties, at least two high-profile raids were conducted on [Austin] shops by two prominent vice squad commanders. Forbidden Fruit was raided by the notorious Bubba Cates in 1989 (for offering dildos, vibrators, and other so-called contraband); and four years later, Planet K got stung by Cates' successor Jack Kelly, for selling a plastic inflatable sheep.

:::

"They came flying through the door, busted in, and ransacked the place, and took everything they could get their hands on," recalls Lynn, the owner of Forbidden Fruit

The irony -- that most sex crimes are committed by men, yet the people targeted by "obscene device" laws are predominantly women -- isn't lost on Lynn, who speculates that the men writing the laws "must have three-inch penises" to be so concerned about regulating female pleasure. Still, no one has talked seriously about rescinding the law since it was passed in 1973.

Well, most of Lynn's merchandise might be bought by women, but I dunno about the inflatable sheep. That sounds to me more like official government-issue police gear. They probably still have it down in the property room -- right next to the monkey patches.