heh Okay I'll take the bait - I actually DO believe that people should be allowed to stand up and yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre - I just think people should realize that it could put innocent people at risk, and also disrupt their enjoyment of the film, and so they wouldn't ever think to.

I believe that we shouldn't need laws to tell us what to do, we should just inherently know the difference between right and wrong. But the vast differences in DNA and in environmental conditioning make that unrealistic, even silly sounding. No laws? W00 HOO!!

But we both know that as a society, as a race, even as individuals, we aren't that "evolved" (or "infected with the self-responsibility memotype", for you fellow NLP weirdos)

We need laws, it's obvious. We need to protect ourselves FROM ourselves, to a reasonable extent. Imagine OTC crack cocaine for a moment, and what that would create. A nation of addicts, even if they could afford to support themselves, could you imagine the decisions and re-focus our entire country would undergo? We can make an argument that social change simply happens, that there is no real correct ultimate outcome of existance so nothing really matters anyhow - and like Communism, that might make sense for about five seconds, on paper.

But for those of us who want to enjoy our short few years on this planet and try our best to make the most of it, I think some reasonable laws are necessary. We really DO need protection from ourselves.

The big question, obviously, is how MUCH do we need, and from what?

As soon as laws become subject to interpretation, problems arise. And that won't stop, until we are all assimilated...

"Resistance is colorful"