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| Page one of the officially engrossed copy of the Constitution signed by delegates. A print run of 500 copies of the final version preceded this copy. (Source) |
- Don't leave food out which attracts wild life, especially the sort which would just as soon eat you and the food you left out.
- Dress for the conditions in your area.
- Don't leave fires unattended.
- Don't go out in weather that can kill you, unless you're prepared for it.
Yes, there are others, lots of them. But I have to assume that if you're reading this, then you don't live out at the back of beyond. You'd be too busy to waste time on the Internet.
People of common sense and good will need very few rules to keep them from each other's throats. Because in many cases, that's what all the rules are for - guy cuts you off in traffic, though you might want to, you ain't gonna kill him. If the cops are around, they'll explain the rules to him. But if he had any common sense, and wasn't a jerk, he wouldn't have cut you off anyway.
Most people don't need a lot of rules, but those whose task it is to represent us (which is how we citizens see it, not sure how the subjects view it) seem to think every problem can be solved by making more rules, more laws.
Yes, because that works so well ...
Theft is against the law, yet people still rob ...
Murder is against the law, yet people still murder ...
Making more laws doesn't solve anything, enforcing the ones that are on the books just might.
Some years back (twenty to be exact) there was a big fire in a local nightclub¹, lots of people died. The laws which were on the books might have prevented that, common sense would definitely have prevented that.
Turns out that a lot of rules and laws were broken, but those whose job it was to make sure the rules were followed (stupid people need to constantly be reminded of what the rules are) didn't do so. So what did the politicians do?
Made more rules.
"No smoking within 50 feet of an entryway into a building ..."
Yes, precisely the sort of thing which would stop people from installing highly flammable sound proofing inside a club, then setting off pyrotechnics inside that club. What could possibly go wrong?
Ask the families of the hundred who died.
Common sense, not doing stupid things, sad to say, but most people can't handle that. Ever go shopping?
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- Treat a stop sign like a yield sign?
- Don't stop for pedestrians in a cross walk?
- Weave in and out of traffic like some maniacal clown?
- Speed up when the light turns yellow?
- Don't dim your high beams for oncoming traffic?
- Don't use your turn signals?
Yup, those are all rules, many of which people ignore or, to be charitable, are ignorant off. Breaking them doesn't make you an axe murderer, but it just might make you an asshole.
Be considerate of others, hell, it hardly takes any effort at all.
Rant complete.
And don't create laws that punish the victims more than the criminals.
ReplyDeleteCut down the number of laws. No reason to have gun-enhancement laws for murder or robbery.
Ah, but they want our guns. They want us to be subjects, not citizens.
DeleteTo be totally honest, they want a neo-feudal state where the power-elite rule segments of the population, the land and businesses as feifdoms and all the subjects are treated like peasants, serfs, indentured servants and various forms of actual slavery like debt-peonage and chattel slavery. Guns, cars, electricity and gas, private land ownership and the dumbing down of the school systems are just the start of attacking citizenry and the Great Leap Forward to a Cultural Revolution that will give those in power and those who are friends of those in power complete control of the nation's and the world's populations.
Delete@ Beans
Delete"they" already have a neo-feudal state
you pay taxes? for what exactly? for anything the power-elite/purchased-politicians decide?
I'm retired and I'm still paying taxes on my taxes - and living in Florida yet.
Beans - You're not wrong.
Deleteboron - You drive on roads maintained by taxes. Tthe military, police, fire services, all paid for by taxes. Are taxes too high? You bet, it's the extra "tribute" we're paying for no apparent community benefit we should be worried about.
DeleteThe more dumba##es that survive the more they beget more dumba$$es. My state's legislative session goes for four and a half months, too much time to pass laws IMHO.
ReplyDeleteFull time legislators = too much time to do stupid things.
DeleteNYS Legislature and Federal Congress are 2 prime examples of that^^^.
DeleteSuz
Exactly!
DeleteYou have exposed yourself as a decent person, to a goodly chunk of the citizenry this shows you to be a mark.
ReplyDeleteSo be it.
DeleteLet them try.
DeleteCommon courtesy is as much of any oxymoron as "common sense"
Boat Guy
👍
DeleteExactly my list , it is to the point of not even wanting to drive anywhere! Get off of my lawn!
ReplyDeletePrecisely.
DeleteMost people don’t encounter axe murderers, but most encounter inconsiderate arse-pipes. It’s the ‘small stuff’ that tends to blight more lives than the capital crimes.
ReplyDeleteMajor crimes are concentrated in certain areas. They get all of the press, the politicians don't want to fix those areas, that's how they blight the rest of us with their "doing something" nonsense.
Delete(From a quote somewhere) "Few people are eaten by lions. Most suffer the ignominy of being pecked to death by ducks"...
DeleteSounds about right.
DeleteMy grandfather would say "If people would just follow the Golden Rule, most problems would be solved". He was right.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
DeleteMuch of this attitude comes from the Great Society experiment under LBJ, although I vaguely recall Tommy J. decrying too much legislation and over eager Congress back at the start of the 19th century. People have been taught that government is The Source of All Good, and that the government must Do Something!!! about every problem, real or imaginary.
ReplyDeleteTake California. We had a part time legislature until the late 1950s or early 1960s. Then, in a fit of madness, it was changed to full time. Burrocrats (sic) need to be seen as Doing Something!!! all the time, if only to pump up their sense of self importance. And The People, bless their hearts, see Legislators as a waste of tax dollars if they aren't cranking our laws like people buying Powerball tickets on a billion dollar pot. So, what happens? The wethers (look it up) and capons in office poke their noses into every corner of life, and listen to the peck-n-sniffs, Grudys, and boudlerizers and get busy Doing Something!!! about everything in sight and most things that can't be seen. And so we have the group fornication that is California today.
Come to think of it, Jimmy Madison had a comment on it in The Federalist:
"The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessings of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood: if they be repealed or revised before they are promulg[at]ed, or undergo such incessant changes, that no man who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow."
Unfortunately, The People, or too many of them, have found that they can vote themselves panem et circenses in perpetuity without consequence. Or, more correctly, believe when told they cvan.
Goes further back. The Progressive movement under Woodrow Wilson, who used tactics that a later generation would condemn actual German Nazis and Italian Fascists and Imperial Japanese for using. Then there's the massive socialization of the nation under FDR. LBJ was just the nail in the coffin, so to speak.
DeleteJoe - Congress has been (basically) a crowd of self-interested, greedy bastards since the organization was founded. Nothing seems to have changed.
DeleteWilson and FDR are not, repeat not, American heroes.
DeleteAs I said, both Tommy J. and Jimmy M. made comments about legislative overreach and excessive lawmaking.
Delete"Honest" Abe was allowed to make the creation (federal government) greater than the creators (the free and independent states). The 17th Amendment destroyed the tension between the House and Senate, turning the Senate into an upper class House of Representatives.
The 17th remains a bad idea.
Delete“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy--to be followed by a dictatorship.” ― Alexander Fraser Tytler
DeleteFDR was Evil, Wilson was Demonic. Thomas Woodrow Wilson was a very nasty piece of work.
DeleteTB - I've seen that quote before, not sure I really subscribe to it. It's more my experience that dictatorships don't last. We also don't have a democracy, important consideration in that the majority doesn't always get its way. 'Tis the beauty of a constitutional republic ...
DeleteIf we can keep it.
StB - Pretty harsh, not sure either man gets to the level of a Hitler, Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot. Could be they were just assholes.
Delete"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and Religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." - John Adams
ReplyDelete"Common sense is not all that common" - Socrates, probably
Yup, spot on.
DeleteJust a minor comment. Kamala...The phrase is "LIFE, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness". That Document is the basis for this country and those three issues are key. YOU don't get to restate it to fit your position on an issue.
ReplyDeleteAyup. Not 'happiness' per se. But the ability to persue happiness and one's dreams. Not to open a can of worms, okay, I'll open a can of worms, but even the slavery practiced here in the US that was ended by the American Civil War of Northern Aggression and Southern Independence left many of the slaves much happier than when they were freed. It was that whole 'pursuit of happiness' that made the slaves free.
DeleteAnd now I'll shut up before I stick my feet even farther down my throat while speaking truth.
juvat - Not to belabor the point, but our VP is a complete idiot. Listening to anything she spouts is painful. Those who believe her are even bigger idiots.
DeleteOne day I need to write upon the Civil War. But it is not this day.
DeleteI'm addicted to Freedom, the most expensive drug in the universe; the only way to assure my supply is to give it to others.
ReplyDeleteWithout Freedom, we are just another bullshit country run by the elites, for the elites.
DeleteNot so much "freedom" as "Liberty" and the way to assure it is to be willing to fight, kill and die for it, if necessary
DeleteBoat Guy
That's more to the point, and yes, you're right.
DeleteMost STOP signs should be yield signs.....
ReplyDeleteWhat's your criteria?
Delete