Blue Laws

When I was growing up, I lived in a little town next to a big city. This town, like many others, had blue laws. For instance, stores were not allowed to be open on Sunday. After washing clothes on Sunday, it was forbidden to hang them out on a line to dry. One could not mow grass on Sunday. Today we think these rather funny.

To paraphrase Solomon, of the making of many laws there is no end. I visited the University of Illinois law library with a friend. It was a library in its own building with several stories of law books. It is amazing the way more and more laws are made. I was told once that every time we get in our cars, we break a law. And of course there is that notorious IRS and the fact that even their own agents do not know it all.

God gave the Jews 10 Commandments based on two, love God and love neighbor, and then some 600 more; and that was all that was needed. By the time we get to the days of Jesus and Paul, we see numerous laws that various religious leaders followed.

I received the following from Grove Books, an English publisher. Since England has been around a little longer than us, they certainly have had more experience with "blue laws." Under the title of "The UK's top 10 most ridiculous laws" comes the following:

1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen's image upside-down.
3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store.
4. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned.
5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter.
6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman' helmet.
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail that of the Queen.
8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing.
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour.
10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow.

This made sense to the politicians who created these laws and I am sure some cultural factors went into them, but then I wonder: some people just have too much time on their hands, even several hundred years ago. Maybe it is just being in a position to make such laws that causes otherwise rational people to think irrationally. Or maybe they are just irrational to begin with. Maybe we should just do away with the profession of professional politicians and go back to citizen servants, those who would live home and work for a couple of months a couple of times a year, make some decisions, and come home.