Take My License (And All That Jive)

Last night I decided to take a break from drinking root beer and playing Modern Warfare 2 to re-watch State Property on DVD. It stars Beanie Sigel and a bunch of third-tier rappers who had some connection to the Salad Days Era Rocafella. Wow did some of these guys waste their chances or what? Anyway, for those who haven't seen it, it's just a bunch of awful acting and gangster movie cliches. It didn't hit me the first time, but the climactic courtroom scene in State Property was bitten straight from Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55" video. Maybe Lil Romeo and Mike Epps can do a straight-to-Blockbuster version of "3 Lock Box."

I CAN'T DRIVE...-55! (NO HOMO)

An Italian court has ruled the government must pay 100,000 euros ($157,700) in damages to a man who was told to retake a driving test because he was homosexual. When 26 year-old Danilo Giuffrida told doctors he was gay at his medical examination for military service, they passed the information to the transport ministry, who told him he must repeat his driving test or have his license withdrawn due to his "sexual identity disturbance." Giuffrida agreed to re-take his test, passed it for a second time, but the ministry renewed his license for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality. The judge ruling on the case in Catania, on the southern island of Sicily, said the actions of the defense and transport ministries showed "evident sexual discrimination" against Giuffrida and ran counter to his constitutional rights. The behavior of the ministries led Giuffrida to have "a grave sense of mistrust towards the state," added the judge, who ordered them to pay him 100,000 euros of damages in his verdict issued on Saturday. Giuffrida's lawyer said the case marked the first time the state had been punished for sexual discrimination, and he hoped Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would "summon Giuffrida and apologize to him on behalf of the state and all Italians." Giuffrida said the sentence was "a step forwards for civil rights because from now on what happened to me can't happen again."
(Good looking out Kingpin)