Thus it was written in the epistle of Craig M. Lalley,
> See if the law applies to particular Americans as opposed to all
> Americans.

Allow me to urge some caution here.  There is a law, for example, which
requires that all males upon attaining the age of 18 must register for the
draft.  Surely this qualifies as a law despite it only applying to males
between 18 and ___ (I don't remember . . . 25, perhaps).

>            See if the law exempts public officials from its application.
> See if the law is known in advance.

Surely any act of Congress
  a) cannot be known prior to its being proposed and
  b) is available to be known prior to its passage via the Congressional
     Record:
       http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces150.html

>                                     See if the law takes action against
> a person who has taken no aggressive action against another.

Once again, this seems like a strange test.  Many laws are not concerned with
agressive acts, it is true, but their action is not punative in nature.

> If you conduct such a test, you will conclude that it is virtually
> impossible to find a single act of Congress that adheres to the
> principles of the rule of law.

With all due respect, that's a pretty enormous claim to make and I, for one,
am extremely dubious about it's validity.

> Most Americans have no inkling of what rule of law means. We think it
> means obedience to whatever laws Congress enacts and the president
> signs. That's a tragedy.

Some Americans forget that Congress and the President *are us*.  They are
Americans, and we elected them.  Friend, may I recommend that you run for
Congress?  It is (unfortunately) rare to find someone who sees the problems and
is willing to get involved in fixing them, and I would encourage you to take a
shot at it.

> However we do seem to be subject to the tyranny of apathy.

That is, I am afraid, too true.

Ted
--
Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]) | From the Tom Swifty collection:
Southern Adventist University    | "We publish one of the few dictionaries
Deep thought to be found at      | that define 'Tom Swifty'", said Tom at
http://www.southern.edu/~ashted  | random.

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