It’s Always Sunny in Madison

“This week, on Bounty Hunters . . .”

How can you not be in contempt of a kangaroo court.

@Dodgerblue: Have we ever established from where “kangaroo court” derives? The phrase always makes me think of classic Looney Tunes cartoons.

T/J: our friends at TSA, keeping us safe:

(CNN) — The Transportation Security Administration is facing criticism after three box cutters were discovered aboard a JetBlue flight at New York’s JFK airport on Saturday.
The tools, like those terrorists wielded in the 9/11 attacks, tumbled from a man’s carry-on as he was stowing it in an overhead compartment on Flight 837 to the Dominican Republic, according to a New York Post report.
A flight attendant alerted the captain, who contacted the Port Authority Police. Officers also notified the Joint Terrorism Task Force and the FBI.
A Port Authority source expressed anger over the incident to the New York Post.
“In case anyone has forgotten, the TSA was created because of a couple boxcutter incidents,” the source told the newspaper.

@Nabisco: Etymology unknown per the intertubes.

@Nabisco: This looks reasonably authoritative:

The earliest known citation of the term is American and appears in a collection of magazine articles by Philip Paxton (the pen name of Samuel Adams Hammett), which were published in 1853 under the title of A stray Yankee in Texas:

“By a unanimous vote, Judge G– was elected to the bench and the ‘Mestang’ or ‘Kangaroo Court’ regularly organized.”

But no definitive origination, apparently.

You won’t be laughing when we’re all in the Pepsi-Comcast-Halliburton Freedom Camps(TM).

@¡Andrew!: Of course, given Halliburton’s track record they will be ridiculously easy to escape from. A good shout will see a ton of the walls come down.

@¡Andrew!: USA brought to you by Koch Industries.

@Dodgerblue:
@nojo:

Partridge also gives the 1853 date & the American origin for the term (sans citation) with the present common meaning.

There are 5-6 pages of “kangaroo ______” phrases in Australian slang dictionaries, but the first Australian citation for “kangaroo court” is from 1960 and is probably derived from American sources during the war years.

@Dodgerblue:
box cutters made it through the scanners? at JFK?
heck of a job, TSA!

And if these tactics don’t work they are fully prepared to hold their breath and stomp their feet until somebody pays attention.

Re: boxcutters on plane; have you ever tried opening those tiny bags of peanuts?