A quote to consider while I compare Carty Finkbeiner's state of the city to his campaign promises - especially timely in light of the tax preparations that people being this month and the ongoing discussion of how long Congress will have to actually read the upcoming stimulus bill...
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be to-morrow." ~ James Madison (likely), Federalist No. 62, 1788
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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2 comments:
Here's a similar quote from 1770:
Fidelity to the public requires that the laws be as plain and explicit as possible, that the less knowing may understand, and not be ensnared by them, while the artful evade their force. Mysteries of law and government may be made a cloak of unrighteousness. The benefits of the constitution and of the laws must extend to every branch and each individual in society, of whatever degree, that every man may enjoy his property, and pursue his honest course of life with security. -- Samuel Cooke
Maggie,
Any consideration of our esteemed Mayor bring to my mind a couple of quotes from Laurence J Peter:
"The incompetent with nothing to do can still make a mess of it."
"There is no stigma attached to recognizing a bad decision in time to install a better one."
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