Just a half a mile from the railroad tracks
I have mentioned that too many laws mean no law. I also wanted to talk about the need to have laws clear, and well defined. So I wanted to write about the law, and the need for fewer of them. My alter-ego over on the rim recently wrote on music, so why not?
Because Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American Blind justice, and there wasn't nothin' he could do about it, and the judge wasn't gonna look at the twenty-seven 8 by 10 colored glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explainin' what each one was, to be used as evidence against us. Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant.
Just Youtube the song, or google the lyrics. The whole song revolves around this incident, and the absurdity of petty laws.
Why mention all of this?
Today the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Besides those are people who are unknowingly breaking the law.
The point of law is to maintain order. It is not to be used to give advantage to this person, or that company, in fact, if it is to be justice, it has to be blind, without passion, emotion, or prejudice. This is why Hate Crime Laws are all wrong, why certain parts of the Civil Rights Act should have been ruled unconstitutional, and why the government has become the leviathan that it has.
The President, as he is heading out the door, has decided to set records commuting sentences. I have argued that we need to look at our drug laws, and fix them, so I have no issue with that. EXCEPT. Of those sentences that he has commuted, several of them also had gun convictions commuted.
Gun sentences.
Some of the very few that the feds have prosecuted, and the President has let them out. SO. Why do we need new gun laws?
So much of our political process, and policy discussion revolves around the fact that the Federal Government is horrible at enforcing its laws, to the point where we say that we need more Gun Laws. Or Immigration Reform. Or Drug Laws. Tariffs, Treaties, so on.
The Civil Rights Act is a perfect example. It did nothing, constitutionally, that wasn't already included in the Post Civil War era amendments. Completely unnecessary, especially after Brown vs Board, and other rulings. More laws, more restrictions.
Being a libertarian means being a libertarian. Gary Johnson did not show well, because he wouldn't take the hard positions to differentiate himself. He waffled on whether individual citizens could discriminate in their business clientele. A libertarian would have said that he or she could do whatever they wanted. He chose the jack booted thugs of the PC police.
Too many laws. Maybe before we pass new ones because of our "broken systems", we should either enforce the laws, or better yet, if they don't meet the needs of justice, just scrap them.
Because Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American Blind justice, and there wasn't nothin' he could do about it, and the judge wasn't gonna look at the twenty-seven 8 by 10 colored glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explainin' what each one was, to be used as evidence against us. Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant.
Just Youtube the song, or google the lyrics. The whole song revolves around this incident, and the absurdity of petty laws.
Why mention all of this?
Today the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Besides those are people who are unknowingly breaking the law.
The point of law is to maintain order. It is not to be used to give advantage to this person, or that company, in fact, if it is to be justice, it has to be blind, without passion, emotion, or prejudice. This is why Hate Crime Laws are all wrong, why certain parts of the Civil Rights Act should have been ruled unconstitutional, and why the government has become the leviathan that it has.
The President, as he is heading out the door, has decided to set records commuting sentences. I have argued that we need to look at our drug laws, and fix them, so I have no issue with that. EXCEPT. Of those sentences that he has commuted, several of them also had gun convictions commuted.
Gun sentences.
Some of the very few that the feds have prosecuted, and the President has let them out. SO. Why do we need new gun laws?
So much of our political process, and policy discussion revolves around the fact that the Federal Government is horrible at enforcing its laws, to the point where we say that we need more Gun Laws. Or Immigration Reform. Or Drug Laws. Tariffs, Treaties, so on.
The Civil Rights Act is a perfect example. It did nothing, constitutionally, that wasn't already included in the Post Civil War era amendments. Completely unnecessary, especially after Brown vs Board, and other rulings. More laws, more restrictions.
Being a libertarian means being a libertarian. Gary Johnson did not show well, because he wouldn't take the hard positions to differentiate himself. He waffled on whether individual citizens could discriminate in their business clientele. A libertarian would have said that he or she could do whatever they wanted. He chose the jack booted thugs of the PC police.
Too many laws. Maybe before we pass new ones because of our "broken systems", we should either enforce the laws, or better yet, if they don't meet the needs of justice, just scrap them.
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