Murphy's Laws of Government and Politics No. 2

Warning: Much of the following is capable of generating anger, frustration, nervousness, hot and cold sweats, and other adverse reactions to those of the left-leaning liberal political persuasion. To everyone else you may die laughing. Read on at your discretion.

As stated in the previous Murphy’s Laws of Government & Politics #1, the quoted laws are from a lifetime collection of Murphy’s Laws I’ve acquired from numerous sources over several decades. Below are a few more of the laws from my collection that can appropriately be applied to today’s federal government, and many state governments, as well.

“Misinterpretation Principle: A law, no matter how carefully worded, will be misinterpreted. Corollary to the Misinterpretation Principle: A law, no matter how explicitly its application is limited, will be misapplied.” I think that many laws are deliberately written in such a manner as to enable misinterpretation and misapplication, especially at the federal level.

“Rudin’s Law: In any crises that forces the chambers of Congress to choose among alternative courses of action, they will choose the worst one possible more often than the correct one.” Additionally, they will pass a bill to address a specific “crisis” after adding dozens of riders that have nothing to do with the original bill, but sends loads of money to special interest groups.

“Soper’s Law: Any bureaucracy reorganized to enhance efficiency is immediately indistinguishable from its predecessor.” This one can be easily applied to all levels of government from city to national. I might also add, “and will cost more as well as delivering fewer positive results.”

“The Fifth Rule of Politics: When a politician gets an idea, he usually gets it wrong.” Sunderland’s Corollary: A politician’s ideas will always increase your taxes rather than lower them.

“Brooke’s Law: Whenever a government agency’s system becomes completely defined, some fool politician discovers something that either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition.” Sunderland’s Corollary: Either way it makes it worse.

“The Not I Law of Culpability: In any social framework, i.e. government, social organization, family group, etc., the actual membership of such a group is always one more than that shown on the table of organization. This invisible member is always responsible for everything that goes wrong.” For example: If a reporter asks the government agency who was responsible for the boondoggle, at least one of the members of the agency in question will respond, ‘Not I.’”

“Todd’s First Political Principle: No matter what they’re telling you, they’re not telling you the whole truth.” We’ve gotten so used to this one that we would probably die of shock if those in the federal government (or at any and all levels of government) told us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!

“Todd’s Second Political Principle: No matter what they’re talking about, they’re talking about money.” This is another no brainer. No matter how it is phrased government programs and policies will always negatively hit our hard earned income, one way or another, and often times in more than one way.

“Welwood’s Axiom: Disorder expands proportionately to the tolerance for it.” Though not strictly a political or governmental law, Welwood’s Axiom sure seems to fit the current state of most of the nation. I’m sure you can see this axiom at work frequently in the reporting by our national news media.

“Wiker’s Law: Government expands to absorb revenue and then some.” Until we take back control of our government from the local to the federal level this will be an ever increasing problem. We, the people, must be the ones who tell government how much to spend and what to spend it on. We must be in control of government, not government in control of us. We are not (yet) a socialist nation, but we seem to be headed in that direction.

“The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy.” There are two basic things every bureaucracy needs is more money and more power. Again, if we the people do not take back control of our governmental systems we could very well end up like Venezuela and North Korea. If this seems far fetched, I suggest you look into the histories of the various socialistic countries and discover how they got that way.

“Whistler’s Law: You never know who’s right, but you always know who’s in charge.” This guy is right on. Those who are supposed to be serving you and I firmly believe they are in charge and they are not hesitant to let you know that they have the power and not you.

“The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.” I hesitated to put this one in my list, but then I figured what the hey!?! I’ve probably already upset a bunch of readers, one more controversial statement won’t hurt. I AM NOT suggesting violence of any kind, I am stating that you and I have fundamental rights that are listed in the Constitution of the United State, and the ability to defend self and property is right in there. Read Amendment II of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States.

Hope you got a chuckle or two. Nonetheless, the truths contained in these bits of humor can also make you cry. We need to bring more and more pressure to bear on our elected officials to become really true representatives of you and I, and NOT a bought politician of some big corporation.

While you’re looking up Amendment II take a look at Amendments IX and X. You should be astonished, amazed and angered at how far out of line our nation’s federal government (and many state governments) has progressed. And no wonder, American Government courses is rarely, if ever, taught in our public school systems. This, too, needs to change. Parents need to take back control of our education system, as well.