In New Jersey, we ‘rule’: Along with making lots of tomatoes and cranberries, we make lots of rules. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of laws, statutes, ordinances, regulations, and rules on the books right now in New Jersey.
 
During their lifetime, those laws do a great deal of work. They direct, dictate, prescribe, proscribe, regulate, rubricate, administrate, authoritate, axiomate, canonize, discipline, dominate, legalize, dominionize, reign and govern.
 
But before those bills can become codified and put down in stone as laws, there are dozens of steps in that bill’s long journey to law-fullness. If you remember your Schoolhouse Rock, then you know how a Bill on Capitol Hill becomes a law. The process is similar in New Jersey, albeit a tad bumpier…
 
A bill is introduced, and gets assigned a number. It gets sent to a committee, and then a sub-committee. It’s studied, amended, marked-up, debated, voted on, and sent to the floor for a vote. Then sent to the other house, where the same thing happens. Then, it gets sent to the governor for thumbs up. Whew! Quite a trip!

Now, there are some bills that never make it out of the gate ---in a legislature controlled by the Democratic Party. Today, many of those stuck bills are introduced initially by members of the Republican Party, some of whom are part of the Right-Wing Conservative Libertarian Gang ---Assembly and Senate members like Michael Doherty, Alison Littell McHose, Steven V. Oroho, Richard Merkt, Alex DeCrocce,  and Michael Patrick Carroll.

So, here is the challenge:
 
Some of the ‘bills’ below are actually laws on the books somewhere on the planet—the US or elsewhere.
 
Some are bills that are languishing in the darkness of the desk of some committee in the Senate or Assembly, and introduced/sponsored by one or more of the Right-Wing Conservative Libertarian Gang.
 
Your job: Which is it: Fact or Whacked?

• Bear wrestling matches are prohibited.  
• Masks may not be worn in public.            
• If you have been convicted of driving while intoxicated,you may never again apply for personalized license plates.
  
• It is illegal to manufacture imitation cocaine.
• No one may “suddenly start or stop their car at a fast-food restaurant.
• Animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship.
• English shall be the official language of the State.
• Deadly force may be used against black bears in certain cases.
• Permits parent of twins or higher order multiples enrolled in public school to select shared or separate classroom placement of their children.
• Wind easements are permitted in state                                    
• Licensed dealers may provide firearms for display at fund raising events sponsored by certain tax-exempt organizations.
• Right of employers to require employees to speak English while engaged in work.
• State will not recognize marriages in other jurisdictions which are void in State.
• Constitutional amendment limiting each house of Legislature to considering no more than 40 bills or resolutions for third reading and final passage at each meeting thereof.
  
• Changes perimeter for bow and arrow hunting around occupied building.
• One may not mutilate a rock in a state park.                        
• If an animal is left tied to a parking meter, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would for a vehicle.
• It is illegal to give a pet alcoholic beverages.