Right Conduct

Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one. - Mark Twain 




Sorry Mark, but laws don't control (or protect) anyone. Philosophy does; that's why it should be taught in the schools. Laws only determine who to punish.

No There Shouldn't

Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find the greatest injustice. - Arcesilaus

Remember that when you are tempted to say "There ought to be a law."

Improper Administration

You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered. - Lyndon B. Johnson


You can count on any legislation being improperly administered. Too bad he couldn't have followed his own advice.

Behavior

Men are rewarded or punished not for what they do but for how their acts are defined. That is why men are more interested in better justifying themselves than in better behaving themselves. - Thomas Szasz


If you don't speed you won't get a speeding ticket.

Rightful Liberty

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. - Thomas Jefferson 


Tom would be appalled to see how much the tyrants have willed and how much voluntary servitude there is today.

Just Don't Paste

Authors from whom others steal should not complain, but rejoice. Where there is no game there are no poachers. - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach 


It is not the copying which causes a problem it is the ease of publishing the copy which causes a problem in the digital age.

Guarantee of Performance

A demand for commitment without a guarantee of performance is domination, not service. - John Hayward


Most laws written by most governments fall under this statement.


(Other posts on Government)

Judges Criteria

We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges. - Barack Obama 


I thought Judges were supposed to judge according to the law - that judging by emotion was legislating from the bench.


(Other posts on Law) 

Fair Play

Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished. - Jeremy Bentham 

Never expect someone who wrote the rules to play fair.

Second Amendment Sense

A constitutional guarantee subject to future Judges assessments of its usefulness is no constitutional guarantee at all. - Justice Anthony Scalia (June 26, 2008)

  
It's about time someone said this.

Sanctioned Force

Confronted with the choice, the American people would choose the policeman's truncheon over the anarchist's bomb. - Spiro T. Agnew

We are now confronted with this choice. I choose the anarchist's (or terrorist's) bomb. The policeman's truncheon will not eliminate bombing but will effect the freedom of everyone. Never trust anyone with sanctioned force.

Black Markets

If you destroy a free market, you create a black market. - Sir Winston Churchill

Mankind desires freedom for themselves but is less enthusiastic about the freedom of others. It is this imbalance between the desire to do as little as possible for the greatest gain and the desire to do as is desired which leads to regulation of markets. The balance is provided by the black market.

Moral Confusion

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King Jr.

It is true you cannot legislate morality. Law is established by people to help preserve basic human rights. The problem arises when the two are confused. Politicians make their living by creating this confusion.

Individual Rights

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual). - Ayn Rand

The founders of this country knew this - the majority could be wrong. The Constitution (as it was written) limited the majority but the amendments and interpretations soon morphed it into what it is today.