[CLUE-Talk] Bowling for Columbine

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Tue, 3 Dec 2002 djperkins at americanisp.net wrote:

> > But, we have a habit of trying to pass legislation anytime there's
> > a new societal problem that gets a bunch of people worked up.
>
> The band-aid approach to legislation.  Seriously, aren't many laws an attempt
> to address a problem?

Yes, but there are many problems that cannot be solved by legislation.

Hate-crimes are a good example of this... I doubt that anyone who's
willing to beat up or kill someone because of their ethnicity or
sexual preference is going to be put off by a few extra years in
jail.

Drug laws are another example of bad legislation being heaped on
bad legislation. The DMCA is prime example of unneeded (and
harmful) legislation. The real "problems" that the DMCA attempts
to "solve" are addressed by prior copyright laws. (It's also
a gift basket to the entertainment industry, but that's another
story...)

Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
http://www.dissociatedpress.net/