| #23: | Just released my latest Kilroy philosophy essay: "The Tyranny of Law" http://www.kilroycafe.com/ideas/law/ |
| #397: | The law is not a precision instrument, like a scalpel. It is more like a sledgehammer that breaks as many things as it fixes. |
| #407: | The law is a religion like any other, with its blind assumptions. If you're a lawyer, you have to believe, because you're a priest. |
| #408: | The blind assumptions of law are that problems are fixed by written rules and by battle in court, but both things can BECOME the problem. |
| #409: | The law, by its nature, suppresses creativity. Every new rule makes it more difficult for people to find unique personal solutions. |
| #410: | The law is necessary, but so is subversion of it. At some point you have to set it aside and analyse the real affects of your actions. |
| #411: | The law is not morality. It is a crude caricature of morality. True morality is taking responsibility for the effects of your actions. |
| #412: | You don't get off the hook for anything by saying "I obeyed the law." That is a coward's excuse. |
| #557: | Human life does not thrive under law or commerce, only in the hidden places that law and commerce ignore. |
| #560: | The function of law is to punish the guilty and bankrupt the not guilty. The only winners are the lawyers. |
| #561: | Society has a right to rule of law, but the individual has the right to seek the hidden nooks and crevices the law can't see. |
| #562: | Today you will probably break a dozen laws. Can you list them? You drove over the speed limit, walked on private property, etc. |
| #563: | It is okay to quietly break the law as long as a "threshhold of damage" is not crossed where you hurt someone or run the risk of doing so. |
| #564: | In practice, police don't ticket drivers for 1 mph above the speed limit, only 10+ mph. This is the unwritten leniency the law must have. |
| #565: | A healthy life can be lived only in the peripheral vision of the law, not under its direct gaze. |
| #595: | Why you need civil rights: because law enforcement will always be a flawed human operation with a built-in bias toward guilt. |
| #596: | Just by interacting with law enforcement you run the risk of being accused of a crime, so you want to limit that interaction. |
| #624: | The thing that keeps most lawyers from truly understanding the law is their unquestioning faith in it. |
| #805: | It's hard to find a lawyer who can "think outside the box," because the law, by definition, is totally inside the box. |
| #862: | To protect people from each other, you must have law, but then you have to protect people from the people enforcing the law. |
| #863: | The law, due to its human origins and human enforcement, will always be a royal screw-up. |
| #914: | No human can obey every law and government regulation. It's impossible! You must choose what to comply with and why. |
| #915: | The law, in practice, is more an escape from responsibility than an expression of it. |
| #918: | Do you take this man/woman as your lawfully wedded spouse, to clean up after, to make excuses for, to protect from reality, 'til death...? |
| #1045: | Rights are what protects you from the inevitable incompetence of government. - #law |
| #1047: | In Oregon and New Jersey, you can't pump your own gas. Attendants have to do it. It's the (stupid) law! AKA "socialism". |
| #1078: | Law is written by image-conscious legislators elected by dim-witted voters to address the public hysteria of the moment. |
| #1088: | Campbell's Law of Storage: Ones possessions will expand to fill whatever storage space is available. New blog entry: http://bit.ly/N5S3C |
| #1102: | California is a case study in dysfunctional democracy. Even the worst legislators are better than the people voting for laws themselves. |
| #1144: | The lowest excuse for ones behavior is, "I obeyed the law." |
| #1146: | Implied in every law is "may" -- that is, the option not to enforce it. Without this "implied may" our legal system would collapse. |
| #1147: | When the law says "shall" where "may" works better, sometimes you got to say, "Fuck it! Let 'em come after me!" and go with "may". |
| #1148: | The greatest sickness of prosecutors is to insist that if they CAN do something under the law, they MUST do it. They deny their discretion. |
| #1149: | True humanity lies in skirting the law. You don't openly defy it but subtly evade it to reach a morally acceptable conclusion. |
| #1150: | In law schools, I would add a required course: "Evasion of Law." It would teach how to skirt the law to achieve the best human outcome. |
| #1154: | Flooding the internet with porn is like legalizing drugs. It's still not healthy but it cuts out the criminal middle man. - #law |
| #1155: | The most common error in law is confusing "may" and "shall". Just because the law CAN be used for something doesn't MUST it must be. |
| #1185: | My assembled wisdom on Law: http://bit.ly/yiJyg (from my Twitter archive) |
| #1294: | The spread between law and enforcement -- e.g. between the speed limit and speed of ticketing -- can be called "enforcement gap". |
| #1295: | One advantage of entrepreneurs over corporations is greater ability to overlook the rules - to "play the gap" between law and enforcement. |
| #1296: | Any study of law is incomplete without an understanding of how it may be subverted. This is why laws that look good often don't work. |
| #1297: | Any proposed law must be understood from the perspective of the clever criminal. How will he turn the new law to his own advantage? |
| #1539: | The "Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility" says the perceived value of something declines with each add'l unit consumed. http://bit.ly/JuGNc |
| #1543: | Just because a law exists doesn't mean it will be enforced. An offense has to cross a threshhold of irritation before anyone bothers. |
| #1544: | Crimes are prosecuted only when they cross the bow of law enforcement or when someone has something to gain by prosecution. |
| #1688: | A mature attitude toward law is not "I must obey," but "What are the probabilites and global consequences if I don't?" |
| #1711: | The ultimate test of any law or public policy is how human behavior actually responds to it -- which no ideology can predict. |
| #1721: | An inmate on Nevada's Death Row has hung himself in his cell. That's against the law! |
| #1760: | The risk in law, indeed in any form of social intervention, is that people adapt in unexpected ways and the solution becomes the problem. |
| #1792: | A "legislature" is a body of popularly elected representatives who gather in the state capital to screw up the law even worse than it is. |
| #1829: | It's the law in Utah: At least one family member must be named "Joshua". |
| #1912: | Her mother-in-law was supportive through the whole divorce. "He's a jerk," she said. |
| #1931: | Doctors, lawyers, engineers and scientists must be properly trained and certified, but any idiot elected by dunces can tell them what to do. |
| #2048: | Law is an attempt to solve social problems by a system of written rules. The rules, alas, never quite work as intended. |
| #2049: | The crudities of law must often be fine-tuned by conscientious evasion and discreet disobedience. |
| #2060: | The only real solutions to people's prtoblems come from outside the law. Often, the noblest thing the law can do is stand aside. |
| #2061: | The biggest problem of law is that the people who write it are usually detached from it's effects. |
| #2062: | The only real solutions to people's problems come from outside the law. Often, the noblest thing the law can do is stand aside. |
| #2072: | The biggest problem of law is that the people who write it are usually detached from its effects. |
| #2163: | A lawyer is sworn to uphold the law. He cannot advise you on when and how to break it. You have to figure that out on your own. |
| #2424: | The law is not a precision instrument, like a scalpel. It is more like a sledgehammer, a crude tool insensitive to the circumstances. |
| #2429: | The law is not morality. It is a crude caricature of morality for those who have none. |
| #2461: | On my bucket list: Become a personal injury lawyer and portray myself on billboards and TV ads as a 30-foot giant protecting the little guy. |
| #2463: | "Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law." —Kant. Wrong! Your situation is unique, not universal. |
| #2515: | Benford's Law: In any set of numbers from the real world, numbers beginning with digits 1 or 2 are far more likely than 8 or 9. Weird! |
| #2602: | The irony of law enforcement is that it needs crime to justify its existence. It will scare the public to protect its budget. |
| #2878: | To those who already have a conscience, law is more an obstruction of morality than an expression of it. |
| #3034: | "Violators Will Be Prosecuted To The Fullest Extent Of The Law" is an empty threat. Justice would be overloaded and come to a halt! |
| #3076: | Doctor, lawyer, engineer, scientist, pilot — prestigious positions or stupid factory work? If you like being a small cog in a big machine... |
| #3382: | The law is a blunt instrument, like a sledgehammer not a scalpel. It changes things, but there's always collateral damage. |
| #3383: | Lawmaking is a neverending arms race against the pernicious effects of previous laws. |
| #3384: | The law doesn't really solve problems, merely redistributes them. Only human judgment, rooted in the moment, can solve problems. |
| #3385: | Criminal law, like a slaughterhouse, eventually poisons the souls of everyone working there. |
| #3646: | Obeying the law isn't a matter of "yes" or "no" but to what extent and under which circumstances. It's a moral calculation like any other. |
| #3683: | Technology, law and medicine offer false promises. They do not improve life on Earth because each advance carries a hidden cost. |
| #3694: | Have you been injured? Unfairly fired? Call our law firm. We'll help you get the maximum settlement. So you can gamble it away. |
| #3733: | The law is not morality, only a crude caricature of it. Some of history's worst atrocities were committed by people "just obeying the law." |
| #3734: | Law is not something perfect and pure handed down by God. It is a flawed set of rules... (One of my better essays:) http://j.mp/akktLV |
| #3753: | Government provides only half the regulation that controls our lies. The other half comes from risk of lawsuit. Both can be oppressive. |
| #3754: | Every new law is a small death of freedom. |
| #3755: | No society would be able to function if citizens weren't able to quietly evade the law to get things done. |
| #3756: | Lawmaking is a never-ending arms race against the destructive effects of previous laws. |