Jockstrip: The world as we know it

Butt crack bill bombs in Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE, La., May 26 (UPI) -- Louisiana lawmakers have rejected a bill that would have outlawed low-riding pants that expose underwear and more.

Rep. Derrick Shepherd, D-Marrero, needed 53 votes to pass; it drew support from 39 lawmakers and opposition from 54, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported Wednesday.

"It would be unenforceable," Rep. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, said Tuesday. "At the end of the day, we as a body need to figure out what will happen if we pass this bill. You talk about a slippery slope."

The bill would have made it illegal to wear in public any clothing that exposes underwear, pubic hair, the genital area or the cleft of the buttocks.

The proposed law would not apply to swimsuits, clothes worn in homes or at fashion shows or "clothing worn by a person in the practice of their legal profession or trade," such as strippers.

Violators would have faced a maximum fine of $175, three eight-hour days of community service or both.

New mayor seeks no confidence vote

TOKYO, May 26 (UPI) -- The new mayor of a Tokyo district has raised the need to keep campaign promises another notch by asking to be kicked out of office.

Eijo Aoki, elected mayor of the Meguro-ku district in April, will ask ward assembly members to give him a vote of no-confidence in three years.

Aoki says he wants to bring the mayoral elections in line with the unified ward and municipal assembly elections by 2007, the Mainichi Daily News reported Wednesday.

By aligning the two elections, Aoki hopes to slash the $626,000 budget set for elections and increase voter attendance.

Some assembly members say no-confidence votes are not meant to be used in such a way.

When Aoki, 49, campaigned for office following the suicide of his predecessor, he said: "I will resign in three years and unify the ward assembly and ward mayoral elections." But under election laws, if a mayor resigns during his term and is re-elected, he can only serve remainder of the original term.

To rectify the situation, Hizzonor now says: "I will receive a vote of no-confidence from the ward assembly and lose my position."

Would-be robber gets it all wrong

LONDON, May 26 (UPI) -- A would-be British robber wound up going nowhere with his crime spree when his intended victims laughed and said no when he demanded cash.

Simon Kent, 24, tickled rather than terrorized shopkeepers when he tried to hold them up wearing a plastic bag with eye holes on his head and carrier bags on his feet, the London Telegraph said.

One gas station cashier told him he looked silly and a shop assistant just said no when accosted. Further, when he returned to a village store he had robbed a few weeks earlier, he fled when his plastic bag mask blew off.

Another time the cashier locked herself in a cupboard and wouldn't come out. Two assistants in a self-service store ran off and he could not open the till.

To make matters worse, his getaway driver, Michael White, 29, used his own car. Witnesses jotted down the number and both wound up doing five years in the slammer.