366,453 Laws.

I imagine the very first rule around that first campfire was, "Do not kill the dude in the teepee next to you."  

That was back when those infamous hunter/gatherers finally decided to stop trying to kill wooly mammoths all by themselves and pitch their tents next to those other guys.  The ones who'd already pitched their tents together and built a fire together and started building a community...together.  And hunting those Mammoths as a group.

Back oh, some 40,000 or 50,000 years ago.  Or maybe even longer.    

So for the convenience of the other "campers," and the "safety in numbers" they represented (that saber tooth tiger was looming), the hunter/ gatherers gave up their right to go and do and say, where and what and whatever they wanted.  They gave up their anonymity, too.  They agreed to be bound by the rules and regulations and laws and ordinances and policies and procedures created by those they put in charge.  Or were ruling them by force, either way.  Think of it as the very first "HOA."

Thus, the price of "community."

You had (and have) a choice: you can enjoy the goodies associated with living in a community, you know, the dry cleaner on the corner and the $25.00 Big Mac Meal down the block, or you can choose to go it alone.  With a cabin in the woods, on a subsistence existence.  With the freedom to be "you."  To scream and shout and shoot your musket in the air.  All day and all night.

    But you simply cannot have both.

Back then there was one law.  And then a second.  And and then a fifth and a sixth.  And before long there were 240 of them, and then 8,000, and, as with Taxifornia now...

                  ...366,453 laws.  

Twice as many, BTW, as New Yawk.  And 5 times as many as Illinoway.  And on and on down through those Big Blue Cities.

How, I would ask, rhetorically, can anyone possibly navigate their way through 366,000 laws?  How does one manage to live and work and breed and travel and retire without running afoul of some or all of the laws and rules and regulations and infractions and policies that can hem you up? 

(Remember, it was Stalin who said, "Show me the man, I'll show you the crime.")   

And then not only forcing you to feed the circling pool of shark lawyers* with $bundles of your cash, which you may or may not have, but quite possibly also costing you your freedom?

I suggest you cannot.  I suggest that if you live in the right places, and you work in the right places, and you know the right people, in essence, "be born right," you'll likely skate right through this miasma of horses*it.  Without being aware, most likely, of just how close you always are to the "wrong side of the tracks."   

Where you were born could put you on a fast track to a lifetime of crime.  That "fork in the road" some of us face, can lead...and is leading..., every day, to much of our out-of-control crime dilemma.  Just think about cities full of 4th or 5th generation welfare recipients, with 40% unemployment, and no hope for a better future.  And the feeling that the "system's" against you.  

And until we resolve the policing aspect of our law enforcement, those who put some of us on that track, just because they can, we will not resolve the "revolving door" of criminal recidivism.  

The "Tab A, Slot B" on all this: The cities tell the cops they're being defunded, they have to increase revenue somehow, arrests equal revenue, the cops go where potential criminals (and revenue) are localized and likely under-represented by counsel.  A 1st bogus conviction leads to a 2nd, then a 3rd, and so on.  Happens every day, with no one to stop it.    

Oh yeah, among other things I'm a sociologist, so it's all okay.

I suppose if there's any good news here, it's that the police are only trained during their few weeks in the academy on those 40 or 50 laws that create revenue for their city or county or state.  You know, speeding and running stop signs and DUI's and the like.  And the Feds reward those cities with a high number of DUI arrests (not necessarily convictions) rates with big grants.  Plus lots of no longer needed military gear.  Including M-RAPS!  As if an up-armored Army military transport with guns sticking out of every window is just the thing inner-city Detroit kids need to see.

And then imagine a System where those campers we were talking about earlier now hire about 3% of their tribe to sneak around all day and all night trying to catch the others breaking a "law?"  So they could impose stiff fines.   

Masochists, much?     

Oh yeah, this may sound a bit cynical.  But having pitched my figurative tent next to others has left me unimpressed with many of the benefits I've now garnered.  My starter wife told me other day that she'd read my postings and some of them sounded "bitter."  I thought for a while...and then confessed, to her and to you; I am bitter!  When officials we elected are working overtime to destroy the Country I love and fought for, I tend to be a bit "bitter."  

Maybe that's why those who haven't given as much...seem to care so little.     

All of this is offered solely to provoke your thoughts.  As it did mine.  I asked myself this same basic question awhile back.  You know, how do we live amidst 366,000 laws, and the police who can use any of them to bankrupt us?  To incarcerate us?  To ruin our lives?  Anytime, any day?  Perhaps without merit?  Especially if it's without merit?  

Like I said, if they want to find a way to convict you, they'll find a way to convict you.  That is called "lawfare," Fellow Patriots, and it shall not stand.  

Remind you of anybody?       

And then I then did some research, and came up with this humble little posting.  And like a bad joke, you can only forget it by telling it to others.

So now I've shared with you this "bad joke."  And it now becomes your problem...

*    Did you know there are more lawyers in Orange County, Taxifornia than in all of Canada?  34,000 to 25,000.  How about that?