Imagine Football with Activist Refs...

Governmental entities love vague laws, and our lawmakers serve the beasts what they want.  Why? Because vague laws = power.  Why?

Because the vaguer the law, the more subjective it is.  The more subjective it is, the more power is vested in the policing authorities.

An interesting alliance of the conservative Heritage Foundation and criminal trial attorneys recognize this and are doing something about it on the criminal law side...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100504/ap_on_go_co/us_too_many_crimes

But the problem extends well past criminal laws.  In the suburban township I live in, there are laws that dictate how much impermeable cover I can have.  Fine.  However, they have interpreted "impermeable cover" to mean both compacted granite and loose riverstone, neither of which is impermeable from any objective point of view and the latter of which might be the most permeable covering on the planet.

This is the danger of government.  It seeks to destroy our Rules of Law.  Our Rules of Law dictate a playing field.  You can make good decisions knowing what the rules are.  When the rules can be arbitrarily changed, you are entirely at the mercy of those that interpret the rule.  Arguably, one can make the case that even very well written rules, over time and subject to Judicial Activism, lose their meaning as reasons are found to chip away at something as straightforward as "the sky is blue" to mean, eventually, "the sky is red".

Imagine the following football game with Activist Refs...

"It's first and down here in Soldier Field where the Chicago Bears are taking on defending Super Bowl champs the Houston Texans.  There's the snap... he looks, finds a receiver downfield, and completes a pass for a 20 yard gain and, what?  A change of possession?  It seems that the safety stumbled, opening up room for the receiver to get past him, so the ref has called it a "change of possession", presumably because the safety could have perhaps intercepted had he not stumbled! OK, and exciting game underway here that sees the ball change hands on the first down.  The Bears with the ball now on the 50 yard line.  Hand off the the Bears halfback, who is stopped on the line, but wait!  The refs are saying that the ball be placed halfway to the goal line, because the Bears running back is Native American and gay!  Good call, the Native American and gay fans in the stands are going wild, applauding this audacious call."

It is no longer about the game, it is about the refs.  Enjoy that game over a $9 beer at your bond-funded stadium... 

Comments

[ontherocks]

I suppose you have already tried to convince them of how much easier life would be if all aquifers or oil reservoirs were made up of unconsoliated conglomerates. We probably wouldn't gripe about unconsolidated breccias, either. It would save a fortune on frac'ing.

Have you tried to convince them that you are practicing xeriscaping in order to conserve water?

Have you tried doing a video of what happens to water (dyed with food coloring to help illustrate) when you pour it onto the crushed granite/river rock ground cover?

What about declaring that your permeable rock ground cover is actually an aquifer-recharge zone? (That last one might be too risky as they may take it too seriously.)

Maybe it is their brains that are actually impermeable to logic.

[impermeablegreymatter]

Actually, your personal example is *not* one of vagueness. If your town had a law that said the outside "shall not be distasteful", *that* would be the vagueness issue that the criminal statute article talks about.

Your issue on the "impermeable" is one of just not following the law as written, *not* one of being vague.

Instead of complaining, out in river rock then sue the council. Standard statutory interpretation does not allow "a" to be "not a", and your demonstration at trial would cost your city 30k or so (at the very least) to lose. So make 'em pay....

The other view is that the "material" is impermeable, to which you respond that the granulates of sand are individually impermeable, thus sand or soil itself is violative.

But, as I said, the way forward is to make the martinets *pay* (through the fun stuff of suit and depositions) for their efforts at expanding.

[open choke]

I stand corrected. You are absolutely right. It is the "attractive color" regarding house paint code that is subjective and vague.

[Hondo Lane]

Choke, "defending Super Bowl champs the Houston Texans"...you owe me a wireless keyboard and a diet coke.

[lacoste shirts]

Life need many surprises, the key is to decide how you look at things. Perhaps a beautiful T-shirt can bring a great surprise to you. Now, you can find your surprises from our website.