Ignorance of the law

Ignorance of the law is no excuse!

Unless ....  

The one in the news right now is -- unless your last name is Clinton.  
But that's just today.  
Pick your favorite way to complete the words after "unless ..." - then read on.

Knowledge of the fact that someone is breaking the law has not been an excuse for as long as I can remember.  
Unless, of course, you know the right people - have enough money - have enough power - Etc.

That's not fair.  It's not right.
Would anyone really disagree with this?  At least - would they do it publicly?

Wouldn't it be nice if that kind of thing didn't happen?

And what about the second line up there in the image -
the one that says "excuses no man from practicing it"?

Is it realistic?  Can one really be expected to practice laws that we don't know anything about?

The items below come from stupidlaws.com - 

I have to say, had I lived in Ohio or San Francisco, I would have been guilty on both counts.  
For the one in Mount Vernon - I've never done those things (at least not since being a little kid) - but it would never have occurred to me that I could have done so if I'd only asked permission!  I wonder - as a kid - would I have been sent to jail since I didn't know to ask permission?

Anyway - the point is that there are stupid laws on the books.
There are also many that make perfect sense.
And, as can be seen from the Ohio bathtub law, even some of the ones that appear stupid have a reason for being there.
But still.  It's tough to know them all.  Especially when some are just so stupid.

So why no excuse for not practicing the law?

I think it's pretty clear - it's just not possible to know all the laws.  And it's just not possible to practice all of them - simply because some are so unknowable!

And yet - that's what we expect.  
Let me rephrase - it's what we expect of others.  
Well - we expect of some others.
Not of ourselves.
Not of our friends.
Not of our family - at least not of the family members we get along with.
Not of our leaders - at least not the ones we voted for.  Or plan on voting for.

And none of that's fair.

As usual - my point isn't to decide what's right and not right - or to take sides - on any of these issues.
Because the point I want to make has nothing to do with the laws of man.  As I said - there's nothing right or fair about either the laws that people put in place or about the way we view the enforcement of these laws.  Weird laws are sometimes (often?) put in place by people with friends in high places / money / power - to benefit themselves in some manner.  And that's unfair as well.