LEGALISM
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
—I Tim. 4:3
3035 Less Law For Less Lawlessness
Washington (UPI)—More and more, law enforcement officials are coming around to the conclusion that the only way to reduce the crime rate in America is to make everything legal.
Moves in various parts of the country to decriminalize marijuana are illustrative of this approach. If adopted nationwide, proponents claim, decriminalization would produce a dramatic decline in the number of arrests for illegal pot possession.
There is also talk of employing the legalization technique to stamp out violations of laws against pornography, prostitution, gambling and assorted other vices.
One of the leading advocates of decriminalization is an organization called Less Lawlessness Through Less Law (LLLL).
“Hiring more policemen, imposing curfews, building new prisons, enlarging the judiciary—these measures only treat the symptoms of the crime wave,” Bargood Fie, a LLLL spokesman, told me.
“If we’re ever going to have a genuine improvement in the situation we’ve got to attack the root cause of crime—the laws.”
3036 The Half-Penny Dispute
Mr. Peter Currie, a Scotsman by birth who lives now in Birmingham, England, won a dispute with the electric company, thereby asserting the dignity of man over machine.
The battle began when Mr. Currie received an electric bill for 2, 12 shillings and sixpence. A true Scot, he examined the charge closely and figured it at 2, 12 shillings and five pence halfpenny—and accused the company of overcharging him half a penny.
The company explained that its electric calculator always works to the nearest penny. “Robbery is robbery whether committed by a machine or not,” Mr. Currie retorted, so the company returned the halfpenny, as well as another one owed him on a previous bill.
—Spectator
3037 She Must Remain Dead
The Farm and Ranch Review reports that a London young woman was wrongly identified “as a drowning victim and declared dead at the inquest.” How does she now react to the decision? The coroner declares: “Once a verdict is recorded it can only be altered by the High Court, and until they quash the verdict you must remain legally dead.”
3038 His Living Means Law-Breaking
In Sardinia, Italy, Mario Mamelli went to the city hall for a new identity card. He was told that he had been officially dead for 19 years and that, by remaining alive, he was breaking the law.
—Time
3039 Emperor’s Privilege Extended
During the Council of Constance, Emperor Gismondo was rebuked by the Cardinal of Piacenza because he had used incorrect Latin in violation of grammatical rules. The Emperor promptly replied in a courteous tone: “If we stand above the law, why can’t we stand also above grammar?”
—Italian Renaissance
3040 An Employment Dilemma
For 24 hours Tom Garrett of Los Angeles and his family were held prisoners in their apartment by two escapees from the San Luis Obispo County Jail. A few days later when Garrett, who is an unemployed aircraft worker, went to the State Employment Service Office to pick up his weekly $40 unemployment insurance check, he was told that he was held prisoner—he couldn’t have accepted a job if one had been available. And the law specifies that an unemployed worker must be available for work “every day of a normal work week.”
When Governor Goodwin Knight heard the story, he sent Garrett his personal check for $40, commenting: “The law is very strict on that point.”
3041 Ardent Supporter Backfires
Signor Dorando, the Italian champion, ran in the Marathon at Olympia in 1908. He was two laps ahead of the next competitor and only thirty yards from the goal when he suddenly collapsed. Slowly he recovered consciousness, as the crowd surged around him yelling and urging, he regained his feet. Had he even crawled in on hands and knees he must have won. But an ardent supporter, as Dorando tottered, put his hand on his back, with no pressure, and merely to steady him, as he afterwards said. Instantly the judges threw up their hands: Dorando had lost the race.
—D. M. Panton
3042 Pastor Skated To Church Trip
A pastor discovered one Sunday morning that the roads were blocked and the only way he could reach church was to skate on the river which he did. When he arrived the elders of the church were horrified that their preacher should skate on the Sabbath. After service they had a meeting and he explained that it was either to skate or not to get there. Finally one asked: “Did you enjoy it?” When the young man said no, they decided it was all right.
—Selected
3043 Books OK Not Words On Sabbath
During the afternoon, I asked Dr. Klausner (professor in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem) if he would sign my autograph album to which he replied, “No, I am sorry; but it is the Sabbath.” I did not know until I made inquiry that night that the Talmud asserts that writing two words in succession is work, and if a man even signs his name on the Sabbath he has broken the Law.
As those of us gathered in his study discussing one subject after another, Dr. Klausner would climb a little stepladder and bring down some heavy tome from his shelves, open it, point to some relevant passage, then return the book and soon take down another. The Talmud says nothing about bringing down books from shelves as work—to write two words would be labor, but to develop a perspiration by reaching up for volumes and vigorously discussing them is not work!
This is a perfect illustration of what our Lord meant when he talked about his contemporaries “holding the tradition of the elders” (Mark 7:3).
—Dr. Wilbur M. Smith
3044 Forty Stripes Save One
The Jews were forbidden by the Mosaic law to inflict more than forty stripes on an offender, and for fear of breaking the law they stopped short of the number. If the scourge contained three lashes, thirteen strokes would equal “forty save one,” or 39 stripes.
—E. Cobham Brewer
3045 Thief In His Range
A gentle Quaker, hearing a strange noise in his house one night, got up and discovered a burglar busily at work. So he went and got his gun, then came back and stood quietly in the doorway. “Friend,” he said, “I would do thee no harm for the world, but thee standest where I am about to shoot.”
—The Kellogg Messenger
See also: Justice ; Stubbornness.