Ted, thank you for the discourse.

You said.
" 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)."

Come on now, while I admit to being too general, this one is too easy to
take apart.  Let's see, while being a fan of George W. Bush, even his
milatary record is questionable.   How'bout Al Gore and his "doing time
in the fields of Vietnam"?

Do you really believe that if Bill Gates's son is drafted, he has the
same chance of ending up on the front line as say some nobody from the
inner city.

At one time, someone could avoid active duty by attending college.
Guess what happened when that option went away?

While it is true ALL must register, it is the concequenses of the law
that have value.

Another point you tried to make is the availability of the congressional
record.  Hence laws are known in advance.  Here's a little bit of trivia

The Ten Commandments contain 297 words.
The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contains 266 words.
A recent federal directive regulating the price of cabbage contains
26,911 words.

You would need to be a Lawyer and Biological Scientist and a phycopath
to dwelve into the arena of following every law passed.  Heck, our
represenatives don't even read every law they vote on and sign their
names to.

Each year 1000's nah, hundred's of thousands of new laws are passed.
And how many are removed?  Ever hear of just one being taken off the
books?

The complexity of law has made it unavailable to the common folk.
Simply being charged with a crime can ruin someone without the financial
resources to defend themselves.   I am not talking about an aggressive
crime, lets just say that the government wants to use your property but
doesn't want to pay for it.  Or the city counsul doesn't like the
business your in.  etc...

You also recommended that I consider running for congress.  Well I would
love to but, ya know the price tag... did I mention I have 3 kids?

Thanks again.

-Craig


-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Ted Ashton
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 1:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Rule of Law

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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