Hmmm…
In the course of my employment, I have been going through lots of states’ recent laws. I am looking for very specific information, and sometimes the state makes it easy to find. Other times, not so much, and I have to prowl through the whole gamut of recent laws. And there have been some good ones.
I honestly think that if the average citizen could see what their elected representatives are really up to, they’d revolt.
For one thing, lots of things are being turned into new crimes, and most states have a Fiscal Impact Statement or something of that ilk that goes along with them. Is it obvious to the average joe that creating some new categories of crime will cost the taxpayers some moolah? Okay, sure, you think, but you’re getting some criminal off the street. Right. Some criminal who, maybe, had salvia divinorem growing in his yard. Or who didn’t pay his child support. (Or her yard, or her child support, whatever.) So it’s not so much like taking a criminal off the street as like taking a taxpayer out of the economy–of course someone else can come along to fill the job–and of course making the former taxpayer’s dependents a little more dependent.
Gee, I started this intending to be a little more lighthearted. There is cause for rejoicing. New Hampshire’s legislature has voted to permit dancing on Sunday. And Oklahoma’s senate passed a concurring resolution that repudiates the concept of Jim Crow laws in Oklahoma. In February of 2008 they passed this. So hey, Oklahoma, welcome to the 20th century…oh, wait, you’re still a little behind.