Looking Back on Laws
I wrote this before Washington State became more enlightened, but I still like it.
Laws.. I’ll start off bluntly by saying I think we need a lot fewer of them. If you ever doubt it, I’d encourage you to go to the nearest school and pick up a neat little 12 pound volume called the Common School Handbook. It is 4 times larger than the bible, the book of Mormon, and Grimms Fairy tails combined.
It is filled to the brim with every bright idea that found a majority vote of the state legislature, and slid past the governors veto pen. And that’s just the state rules. It take a CD ROM to hold the policies and procedures necessary to support those laws. And that’s just for the schools.
We all live our life out here where the other 172 pounds of law books apply. I honestly don’t believe it is possible for a normal person to go through a waking, working, day without breaking some law some how.
Breaking a law is easier than you might think. It could be something as simple as obstructing traffic by driving 54 miles an hour on a two lane road where every one else wants to drive 70, or it could be speeding by driving 60 on the same road the next morning.
Heck in here in Kennewick Washington, it could be something as simple as going to the hardware store and buying a water heater.
Don’t laugh too quick, I have a dear friend who made the mistake of being a plumber. He happened to install a hot water heater for a city councilman. Now this city councilman had made a serious mistake of his own. He happened to be on the outs with the City Building Department.
A big OOPs.
These guys found out about the water heater and then went and dusted off the law books. Seems it was illegal to install a water heater without a special permit.
Like I said big OOPs. Of course only one such permit had been issued in the last several years, but that didn’t stop the forces of law and order.
The result was the that the city councilman and his wife spent a weekend barricaded inside their home while the police waited outside. Kind of makes you think that tax levy to buy new police cars might not seem like such a crisis now. Might be hard to convince the tax payers that we need more money to police water heaters.
Of course, don’t think the city of Kennewick isn’t tough on other problems. To keep things balance, the police department did confiscate a store full of marijuana trading cards and other similar items deemed drug paraphernalia. The same stuff one can buy legally almost anywhere in the state of Washington.
That wouldn’t have been so bad but the city’s been collecting taxes on the sales from this shop for a while now, and had granted the license knowing full well what was being marketed. Nope, it seems the owner made the mistake of calling the police about some BB gun holes in his front door. Next thing you know, he’s a criminal element selling drug paraphernalia. You know how it is, Marijuana trading cards today, Hot water heaters tomorrow. Like I said, I think we got a few too many laws.
Laws.. I’ll start off bluntly by saying I think we need a lot fewer of them. If you ever doubt it, I’d encourage you to go to the nearest school and pick up a neat little 12 pound volume called the Common School Handbook. It is 4 times larger than the bible, the book of Mormon, and Grimms Fairy tails combined.
It is filled to the brim with every bright idea that found a majority vote of the state legislature, and slid past the governors veto pen. And that’s just the state rules. It take a CD ROM to hold the policies and procedures necessary to support those laws. And that’s just for the schools.
We all live our life out here where the other 172 pounds of law books apply. I honestly don’t believe it is possible for a normal person to go through a waking, working, day without breaking some law some how.
Breaking a law is easier than you might think. It could be something as simple as obstructing traffic by driving 54 miles an hour on a two lane road where every one else wants to drive 70, or it could be speeding by driving 60 on the same road the next morning.
Heck in here in Kennewick Washington, it could be something as simple as going to the hardware store and buying a water heater.
Don’t laugh too quick, I have a dear friend who made the mistake of being a plumber. He happened to install a hot water heater for a city councilman. Now this city councilman had made a serious mistake of his own. He happened to be on the outs with the City Building Department.
A big OOPs.
These guys found out about the water heater and then went and dusted off the law books. Seems it was illegal to install a water heater without a special permit.
Like I said big OOPs. Of course only one such permit had been issued in the last several years, but that didn’t stop the forces of law and order.
The result was the that the city councilman and his wife spent a weekend barricaded inside their home while the police waited outside. Kind of makes you think that tax levy to buy new police cars might not seem like such a crisis now. Might be hard to convince the tax payers that we need more money to police water heaters.
Of course, don’t think the city of Kennewick isn’t tough on other problems. To keep things balance, the police department did confiscate a store full of marijuana trading cards and other similar items deemed drug paraphernalia. The same stuff one can buy legally almost anywhere in the state of Washington.
That wouldn’t have been so bad but the city’s been collecting taxes on the sales from this shop for a while now, and had granted the license knowing full well what was being marketed. Nope, it seems the owner made the mistake of calling the police about some BB gun holes in his front door. Next thing you know, he’s a criminal element selling drug paraphernalia. You know how it is, Marijuana trading cards today, Hot water heaters tomorrow. Like I said, I think we got a few too many laws.