Friday, December 17, 2010

California Judge OKs Festivus as a recognized religion!

California. Where even the Judges are leaving the bounds of sanity in order to appease prisoners and drive up costs.

Calif. Judge OK’d Seinfeld’s ‘Festivus’ as Legitimate Religion, Ordered Special Meals for Inmate

Locked up in a California jail, Malcolm Alarmo King wanted healthier meals. In an argument apparently made to a friendly court, he won a ruling from Superior Court Judge Derek Johnson that he should be fed double-portion kosher meals.

Battling to keep its food costs down, the sheriff's department argued that King himself admitted "healthism" was the so-called religion justifying this request. But Johnson wasn't daunted, calling a sidebar with King's lawyer, Fred Thiagarajah, and the county prosecutor and asking for suggestions about a religion he could cite in the kosher-meal order to nail the issue down once and for all, the Orange County Register reported.

“I said Festivus,” Thiagarajah tells the newspaper—and Festivus it was. The holiday (Festivus for the rest of us) was popularized by the writers of the Seinfeld television show, county counsel argued to no avail.

Seriously, Festivus a real religious holiday requiring double-size kosher meals as part of its requirements? I never saw that part of the festival on Seinfeld, and in any case Festivus is a holiday, not a religion.

The inmate should have argued he was a follower of Seinfeldlam -

"There is no god but Seinfeld, and Kramer is his prophet".

When they inevitably get laughed at they could then declare -

You insult our prophet, no soup for you!

That would have at least have been logically consistent in having a religion that has holidays rather than a holiday becoming a recognized religion, even if it is a religion about nothing based on a show about nothing. Of course, in the once great state of California, it seems that even a base layer of logical consistency on which to pile absurdity is not required.

1 comment:

Murphy's Law said...

Judge Johnson is an idiot and Fred Thiagarajah should be disciplined by the state bar association for making such a disingenuous proffer in court.