Rex, in my opinion preemptive regs exist to stop problems before they begin. And I understand your thinking on the black and white issue, but think about this:
A percentage of today's society spends a great deal of time trying to get around various laws. Looking for loopholes, technicalities, dubious interpretations....it's even a profession or two. Maybe, just maybe, all those endless pages of federal rules and regs exist partially to try and explain, define, and make clear what SHOULD be clear in the first place. I still contend that too many folks want to live by the letter of the law, rather than it's intent. They know what the law really means, but they search out the technicalities to try and get away with something.
In that respect I think we agree....we both wish the laws were simple, and black and white. Where we differ, is in the reasoning we give to explain why they are not that way at all. One side blames the govt. entirely, and the other lays partial blame on that faction of society that helped bring this upon ALL our heads.
Sorta' like that old question...which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case, which happens first...society stands up and starts proving that they are willing to govern themselves accordingly, or the govt. backs off and gives them a chance to handle it themselves?
Tony, we agree much more than not on a lot of things...
You said, "A percentage of today's society spends a great deal of time trying to get around various laws. Looking for loopholes, technicalities, dubious interpretations....". Why is that statement true? I believe it is because the laws defy common sense, and are not created to regulate any activity, business or action, but to completely obliterate them. Further, they are so overly intrusive, deceptively written, and overly broad, they are impossible to comply with....so the common person has no choice other than to get around a law.
Tony, to bring this to a more personally relatable level....you asked where do rights begin and end...why are your 5 Freedom Indiana ponds not currently producing pollution? Why would you "selling" a single fish, without doing a single thing differently in managing your ponds require you to now have a NDPES permit, a 404 permit, a business license, report your feed, mitigate any stream your ponds discharge may eventually reach, etc, etc, etc. Laws/regulations are now so onerous, they more often than not have the exact opposite effect than intended.
A genuinely objective person really has to look no further than the new mountain of EPA regulations on the coal industry to realize the EPA has no interest in Environmental Protection. "Legal" because they supposedly pertain to pollution, yet these were publically and openly created NOT to protect the general health and welfare of people, but to make it so expensive and impossible to comply with, the industry dies out. Remember those infamous words? We must neccisarily make energy costs skyrocket in order to make "green energy" more affordable".
