[Loud Mime]

Ping!

Founder's Quote Ping - Please let me know if you'd like on this list...

...and have a great weekend!

[edcoil]

We need to pass a Constitutional Amendment that no bill can be greater then one page of 8 x 11 sheet of paper, single sided. All sponsors must sign the back side.

[Greg F]

“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow.”
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (Federalist No. 62, 1788)
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I thought of this quote today when I learned that Florida had passed legislation, at the prompting of the insurance lobby, to end “no fault” car insurance in Florida. I didn’t even have a clue they were talking about something that would affect me so directly.

[Ramius]

"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow." -- Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (Federalist No. 62, 1788)

I like this. It is commonly said that "ignorance of the law is no defense". I understand the necessity of that, but it occurs to me more and more often that our system of laws is becoming so absolutely complex that it really is becoming more valid to argue the point.

For people like most of us, who purposefully endeavor to be law-abiding, it seems clear that first we must know what the law is. That's getting harder and harder.

[theBuckwheat]

And how many hundreds of pages is today’s Federal Register? For those not familiar with this official document, it is the publication of record of the US Government. Agencies issuing regulations to implement law publish them here, where they have the weight of law.

This is the web site of today’s edition:
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html

[Jeffrey_D.]

“Taxes should be proportioned to what may be annually spared by the individual.”
Thomas Jefferson (letter to James Madison, 1784)

I’d have to disagree with Thomas on this one

[Antoninus]

Chuck out the vapid John Stuart Mill quote (any 1960s radical could have written that) and this is a good list.