The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, A.D. 56-120 ** Congress passed and the president signed 125 bills into law in 2009. Your tireless federal regulatory agencies were even busier: They issued 3,503 rules and regulations. Regulations considered in recent years have included energy-efficiency standards for clothes washers and pool heaters, SUV emission rules and the Consumer Product Safety Commission's designs to regulate escalators (safer than unregulated stair steps, by the way) as a "consumer product." The year's Federal Register - the daily depository of federal regulations - already tops 61,000 pages. According to research...