September 16, 2004
Robert Jackson and Ayn Rand (opinion, quote)
One of the quotes that has stuck with me most since I read Atlas Shrugged [bn.com] is (somewhat paraphrased): "If we make everything illegal, then we can arrest whoever we want!" Atlas Shrugged came out in 1957, but before that, [cato.org]: in 1940, Attorney General Robert Jackson (later Justice Jackson) warned federal prosecutors: "With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone." The great danger, said Jackson, is that "he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted."
"Everything illegal?!", you exclaim in disbelief, "why, that's preposterous!" Read on, brave soul...
Posted by yargevad at September 16, 2004 03:09 PMdo you think most everything, then, should be legal? are you a bit of an anarchist, dave? interesting...how can i get you to vote for Kerry, then?
Posted by: chris at September 20, 2004 10:07 AMstellar example of converse error, intentional or not... i'll assume that was intentional.
here's what i don't like about john kerry: 1) his civil liberties record, and 2) his stance on privatizing Social Security. that's just from the limited research i've done so far.
but still, i'm strongly inclined to vote for kerry, because i get the willies when i think about having a legislative and executive branch controlled by the same borgcube (read: party)
bush is a liar (more than normal, for a politician) and kerry is a pussy, but with divided goverment, there will be more dialogue.
robak sent me a link today that i really like... it's along the lines of something i've been thinking about recently, and apparently i'm not quite as original as i sort of thought. the gist of it is that i think issues-based voting would be superior to the current two-dimensional system... back to work!
Posted by: yargevad at September 20, 2004 03:43 PM