Important: The United States' Constitution

If you're not a resident of the US of A, you're welcome to stop reading here.

[ http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html ]

I'd like to present (what I think is) the most important part:

I. Freedom of Speech, Religion, Press; Right to Peaceably Assemble & Petition the Gov't
II. Right of the People to Bear Arms.
III. Prohibits State-mandated housing of soldiers outside of Wartime.
IV. Prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. Establishes requirement for probable cause.
V. Rights dealing with criminal charges: Grand Jury, Double Jeopardy, Due Process, Eminent Domain, May not Self-Incriminate.
VI. Rights dealing with Trials: Fair and Speedy, Jury of Peers, Notification of Accusation, Right to Confront Accuser, Right to Obtain Witnesses, Right to Retain Counsel.
VII. Right to Trial by Jury in Civil Cases
VIII. Prohibits Cruel/Unusual Punishment, Excessive Bail/Fines
IX. Rights not expressly defined by Constitution are still the People's
X. Anything Power that isn't given to the Federal Gov't is either the State's or the People's, if it's not given to the State's.

 It is critically important that you know your rights. Orwell wrote an iconic phrase: "Ignorance Is Strength". Truer words have seldom been spoken; the ignorance of the masses is all the elite require to stay in power.

Educate yourselves.

Stuff I like: Simple English (and thoughts on lawmaking)

If only my textbooks could be this succinct and straightforward.

[ http://simple.wikipedia.org ] covers a lot of subjects (but not as many as normal wikipedia) in simple english.

For instance:

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is [...] used to shoot very small particles into each other at high speed. [source]

is much simpler than

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature. [source]

 To be frank, I think if our laws were required to meet the following requirements, we would have a much more easily understood and comprehensive legislative system:

- Written in english, conforming to Wikipedia's Simple English guidelines
- 12 point font, PT Serif,
- Double-spaced, 1-inch margins around the entire page
- Not allowed to reference any other laws (except to repeal them in their entirety).
- Conflicts between laws are not permitted- if a law conflicts with an older law, it must be rewritten (or the conflicting text excised) until it is a standalone document.

It might also help to number/label them such that their name gives you a relatively good idea of when they were passed as well as what they reference and if they've been appealed or not, a la:

51 - HLTH.R
2070 - SEC

would translate in plaintext to: 51st law passed, Health-related, Repealed.
and 2070th law passed, Security-related, (not repealed implied).

No preceding zeroes or anything like that. The numbering of laws is unrelated to the tags that follow them- there is no 51 - HLTH and 51 - SEC; only 51 - HLTH and 52 - SEC.

If more distinct categories must be made, the form is as follows: -

[<.>subcategory][...<.>subcategory (as necessary)[<.>R (if repealed)].

Thusly, searches can be made via number, category, and subcategory (or subcategories), and it is immediately clear if a law is still applicable or not. Furthermore, the restrictions on size and content will guarantee (so far as I can tell) that laws will remain straightforward and understandable by all parties.

If you have spotted a loophole that I've left for someone to exploit, please let me know.

Also, of interest but not worthy of its own post: [ http://xkcd.com/832/ ].

TIME TO LAWYER UP

American viewers will know exactly what I'm talking about:

In a litigious society, there is a colossal number of frivolous lawsuits. [ Link 1 ] [ Link 2 ] [ Link 3 ]

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort ] is something you should read.

Actually, all of these are things you should read.

[ http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html ]

It's important to at least be up-to-date - the law applies to you whether you know it or not.