The law is like a programming language

Programing languages are made up of little functions, one might pop up a box that says: “Do you really want to quit?” and will have little “Yes” or “No” buttons. You really would imagine that this would lead the program to end, but depending on how the function is written, it might not necessarily do that. It might assume that the programmer is going to make the thing end some other way. In fact, it could be made to fire up the printer. That would be really strange, but it could easily be done.

Now imagine that the total body of laws is like a computer language and that the little piece of the program (function) that asks if you want to quit is like a new piece of legislation. It could be used in unexpected, and even nonsensical, ways if judged and lawyers concluded that it could. Imagine if some law accidentally gave a legal advantage to people who periodically blew a bugle when publicly speaking. Thousands of bugles would be sold and used, no questions asked.

So if we can begin to see the law as amoral (neither moral or immoral), then we can best make use of it. This is especially true for laws regarding religion. As the conservative Supreme Court and state governments roll out more laws protecting religious freedom, expect more and more groups making odd claims to being religious. The problem is that if they build their case correctly, like a computer program that acts strange but doesn’t crash, then they “will” legally be religious. Strange days are sure to come.

Vote in odd years too, and actually figure out what you are voting for

Well I just came from my polling place after having voted on about 13 constitutional amendments. They all sounded great when I read them, but I also had the distinct feeling that I didn’t know what the heck they were really about. Since they are all constitutional amendments, voting yes for any of them would technically mean growing the government since even the most benign would require some sort of money to operate. To add to the confusion, for example, when one of them was talking about wanting to buy land around military bases for expansion, there was probably one specific military base and one specific piece of land in mind. What does the military base land amendment do after it has accomplished it original mission, so to speak? In an attempt to learn more, I got some suggestions for research:

House Research Organization
Texas League of Women Voters

Note to Staff: Watermelon in the ice machine

I love this stuff, its hard to explain why.  I hope that one day as historians sift through what remains of culture, they don’t over look the little touches.  Notes about cleaning the coffee pot and not sitting on the counter are as much a part of what we are as anything we like to believe about ourselves:

To whomever put the watermelon in the ice machine:Please remove it immediately as well as the ice that it has been sitting in. Just as a helpful hint, the shell of a watermelon is not the cleanest in the world as it is handled by shoppers in the grocery store, gets transported in your vehicle and as well gets carried by you in to the building. Would you want to use the ice that is contaminated by all of that to put in your drink? Please be more considerate of others in the building and if you decide to bring an entire watermelon to work, please bring and use a cooler of ice to store it in, not the company ice machine.

If there are any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.