From fork-admin@xent.com Tue Sep 24 17:55:30 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.example.com Received: from localhost (jalapeno [127.0.0.1]) by jmason.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 070DF16F03 for ; Tue, 24 Sep 2002 17:55:30 +0100 (IST) Received: from jalapeno [127.0.0.1] by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0) for jm@localhost (single-drop); Tue, 24 Sep 2002 17:55:30 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g8OGAEC11404 for ; Tue, 24 Sep 2002 17:10:14 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACE072940DA; Tue, 24 Sep 2002 09:06:08 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@example.com Received: from imo-r09.mx.aol.com (imo-r09.mx.aol.com [152.163.225.105]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 522F329409A for ; Tue, 24 Sep 2002 09:05:51 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ThosStew@aol.com by imo-r09.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v34.10.) id 2.1a3.92f0d57 (4418) for ; Tue, 24 Sep 2002 12:09:26 -0400 (EDT) From: ThosStew@aol.com Message-Id: <1a3.92f0d57.2ac1e836@aol.com> Subject: Re: liberal defnitions To: fork@example.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Mac sub 45 Sender: fork-admin@xent.com Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com X-Beenthere: fork@example.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 12:09:26 EDT X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL,EMAIL_ATTRIBUTION,KNOWN_MAILING_LIST,NO_REAL_NAME version=2.50-cvs X-Spam-Level: In a message dated 9/24/2002 11:24:58 AM, jamesr@best.com writes: >This situation wouldn't have happened in the first place if California >didn't have economically insane regulations. They created a regulatory >climate that facilitated this. So yes, it is the product of >over-regulation. > Which is to say, if you reduce the argument to absurdity, that law causes crime. (Yes, I agree that badly written law can make life so frustrating that people have little choice but to subvery it if they want to get anything done. This is also true of corporate policies, and all other attempts to regulate conduct by rules. Rules just don't work well when situations are fluid or ambiguous. But I don't think that the misbehavior of energy companies in California can properly be called well-intentioned lawbreaking by parties who were trying to do the right thing but could do so only by falling afoul of some technicality.) If you want to get to root causes, we should probably go to the slaying of Abel by Cain. Perhaps we can figure out what went wrong then, and roll our learning forward through history and create a FoRKtopia. Nonpartisanly, which is to say casting stones on all houses, whether bicameral or unicameral, built on sand or on rock, to the left of them or to the right of them, of glass or brick or twig or straw, Tom