Weer'd World

Uncle was nice enugh to cite me as a Quote of the Day. It was a bit of a throw-away comment I made, but I thought I’d expand on it.

The quote was on how I had a radar detector from my days when I had a heavy foot (I still have a heavy foot, but I also have cruise control to take the foot out of that game). The particular model I had, had an additional feature. I guess in some states radar detectors are illegal, and there are devices that police use to detect radar detectors. Well my device had a feature where it detected those detectors and would go dark to “hide” from them. Interesting.

The world is filled with people doing various things to still do an otherwise prohibited activity. In the gun world we have things like cartridges built exactly to .50 Caliber, Barrels shortened to just over 16 or 18″, things like the hand-crank AK-47 make for mock-full-auto-fun, but still legal. Go see The Numbers Game for more.

I know some home brewers. Some of these people do all sorts of neat tricks to keep their yeast cranking out alcohol so they can have strong drink made at home without having to break the law by distilling spirits. Of course during prohibition, people would drink stuff like cooking vanilla.

When I worked for the government on the commercial fishing fleet the government would often close certain areas of the ocean…the fishermen would simply fish the “Fence Line”.

Of course the war on drugs has created all sorts of technology wars, be it sticking dope bags up your ass, or building a submarine. BTW check this money quote out!

When semi-submersibles are stopped at sea their crews usually scuttle them, sending boat and cocaine to the bottom in a minute or so and leaving no evidence of trafficking. Until 2008, in accordance with maritime law, the crew was rescued and, if there was no physical evidence of wrongdoing, released without criminal charges. To address this legal loophole, the US Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act was enacted in September 2008, making it a “felony for those who knowingly or intentionally operate or embark in a self-propelled semi-submersible (SPSS) that is without nationality and that is or has navigated in international waters, with the intent to evade detection.”[28] The penalty is a prison term of up to 20 years in the U.S.[41]

Good luck enforcing that law, Squids!

The take-away from this is that if you make a law you’re going to have to spend time and money enforcing it. If people want to skirt the law you’re going to have to broaden the law, and spend MORE money watching things closely. At some point this always becomes REALLY stupid, and starts sounding mostly like the local snoop at the condo association wanting to make sure nobody paints their unit a color they don’t like, and everybody eats their vegetables.

How about we let grown-ups be grown ups, and if they want to do something stupid or dangerous, give them our blessing?