In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
Hunter Thompson
Even the Cato Institute and Business week get it. In an article titled ‘It’s Too Easy To Get Hard Time‘, Ciro Scotti reports that “With more than 4,000 federal crimes alone now on the books, you’d have to be Mother Theresa not to be in jeopardy at some point.”
Do we really want to live in a country where a person’s action and motive aren’t the primary reasons for incarceration–it’s whether a prosecutor or politician points a finger in your direction? Isn’t it a sad thing when “it’s against the law” no longer provides a useful guide to proper behavior? Must we have to teach our young people two sets of rules: what you really do, and what you tell the cops?