You're Being Watched. We're All Being Watched. And We're All Criminals.
We have too many laws and now we have the government spying on all of us with ease -- and a great deal of impunity -- and this is a very dangerous combination.
Edward Snowden quote on the surveillance state, via WashingtonsBlog:
Because even if you're not doing anything wrong you're being watched and recorded. And the storage capability of these systems increases every year consistently by orders of magnitude ... to where it's getting to the point where you don't have to have done anything wrong. You simply have to eventually fall under suspicion from somebody - even by a wrong call. And then they can use this system to go back in time and scrutinize every decision you've ever made, every friend you've ever discussed something with. And attack you on that basis to sort to derive suspicion from an innocent life and paint anyone in the context of a wrongdoer.
At Wired, Moxie Marlinspike notes, "We Won't Always Know When We Have Something To Hide":
For instance, did you know that it is a federal crime to be in possession of a lobster under a certain size? It doesn't matter if you bought it at a grocery store, if someone else gave it to you, if it's dead or alive, if you found it after it died of natural causes, or even if you killed it while acting in self defense. You can go to jail because of a lobster.If the federal government had access to every email you've ever written and every phone call you've ever made, it's almost certain that they could find something you've done which violates a provision in the 27,000 pages of federal statues or 10,000 administrative regulations. You probably do have something to hide, you just don't know it yet.
This is the subject of the book by FIRE co-founder, Harvey Silverglate: Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
"STEP AWAY FROM THE LOBSTER, AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR." Lobster crimes would explain the U-2 over L.A.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/05/us-usa-airport-losangeles-idUSBREA440TS20140505
Walter Moore at May 7, 2014 10:38 PM
The public is required to obey the laws. I have long thought that the government should be required to ensure that this is possible. Practically speaking, this means that:
- Laws should be written in "plain english" (think of the instructions for the federal tax forms).
- There should be a maximum total length allowed, so that the average citizen can actually read them.
Publish the results in book form, available in print or electronically. What isn't in the book, isn't an enforceable law.
What would be a reasonable maximum length? How about a fat novel - 250,000 words or so? Those 27,000 pages of laws and millions of pages of regulations would need some trimming...
a_random_guy at May 8, 2014 12:40 AM
@ Walter Moore. . .
What you propose makes excellent sense. But it will never happen: making the law plain and simple would put hundreds of thousands of lawyers out of work, and millions of bureaucrats and paper-shufflers out of work (most of whom are union members. . . .)
The system is self-perpetuating, and only a major shock to the system will have a chance of correcting it.
Or, in the short version, an economic collapse, Yellowstone Caldera eruption, or the Zombie Apocalypse are needed to fix things: we've gone well past the point of self-repair, there are too many entrenched interests defending the current morass. . . .
Keith Glass at May 8, 2014 4:30 AM
For what (very very little) it's worth, many of the regulations do not apply to individuals, but to businesses - often in certain industries. For instance, power plants (outside of Texas, where the power lines don't cross state lines and fall under interstate commerce) are required by regulation to fill out bunches of forms. These include things like their revenue and costs (but not to the IRS, that's a tax rule), power produced, etc. That regulation (and it's kin) don't apply to individuals.
As I indicated, this is a very small improvement, but at least not ALL of the zillions of lines of regs apply to ordinary citizens.
Shannon at May 8, 2014 5:30 AM
"... apply to ordinary citizens."
Correct until the wetland regulations or tax requirements that were created for corporations/businesses are determined to applicable to homeowners or even small businesses.
What's galling is that BIG business doesn't get IRS audits, doesn't go to jail for tax problems (like a small business owner does), and so on.
Bob in Texas at May 8, 2014 6:07 AM
What Keith said.
A 'business' is really just an association of individuals.
Lobster at May 8, 2014 6:56 AM
Hmm, I wonder what that minimum size is for lobsters. My local market had 9-ouncers for sale the other day--should I have turned them in? If I did, is there some asset-forfeiture provision that would let me claim the lobsters? (Yum!)
Rex Little at May 8, 2014 9:07 AM
The system is self-perpetuating,
The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy
lujlp at May 8, 2014 1:48 PM
Good lord, why would tax-fattened lawyers and politicians ever reduce the laws? Laws don't even apply to them!
No way this is going to happen. Ever.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 8, 2014 2:22 PM
Security cameras watch our every move, but if we try to access those images to find out who stole our car or broke into our home, our requests are refused!
jefe at May 8, 2014 7:57 PM
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