Hungary to "forbid homelessness"

[Rev. Rye]

You know, I remember that the Southern US made laws like this after the Civil War. You see, after the slaves were freed, they were thrust into a society that hated and feared them, and they were more or less taken from the homes of their owners, who, regardless of how evil they were, at least were able to provide a roof over their heads (except, of course, when they didn't.) So, therefore, they weren't really given jobs and didn't have a home, so, after the war, they started Black Codes, which, among many, MANY, other provisions, allowed the arrest of any homeless blacks (read: the vast majority of freed slaves). The punishment was either an exorbitant fine or a set period of hard labor. Since anyone who was sleeping on a park bench was unlikely to be able to pay the fine, they usually chose the latter. And, here's the interesting thing: it was explicitly stated that white people could get out of this by swearing a papuer's oath, but that the blacks had no such luxury. That way, through a legal loophole, the south was able to have slavery within the post-13th Amendment law.

The parallels with this situation in Hungary are too easy to see.