FIRST THING WE DO

Let's kill all the lawyers. OK, I realize that the line of Shakespeare's was spoken by a rustic and all that. And I'm not really as bloodthirsty as all that. Quite.

But if life has gotten to the point where it is considered necessary to employ at great cost an interpreter to speak one's case for judgement, then things have gotten out of hand. A prominent Middle Eastern reformer railed against the “scribes and the Pharisees” for their capitalizing on the sufferings of others. Who was it? No, no, don't tell me, it's right here on the tip of my tongue....Dead guy, right? OK, maybe not.

Let's talk conflict of interest for a moment here. Hiring lawyers to make laws is like any other professional society – they exist to limit public choice. The number of congresscritters who retire Cincinnatus like into private life is vanishingly small. They get jobs at K Street lobbyinig firms, at at DC based law firms. Or they die in harness, like Ted Kennedy.

The argument is made that the law is so complex that one must be a lawyer to understand it. To which I reply: “And your point is?”

Law made by lawyers will benefit lawyers. Closed circle. QED.

So here's a modest proposal. Declare the possesion of credentials in the legal field to be considered a presumption of conflict of interest making one inelegible to serve as a lawmaker, and that those same should be scourged from the public places.

I wouldn't go so far as the original Articles of Confderatin of The United States (as opposed to the Constitution of the Confederate States), and declare it illegal to charge moey for legal advice. But I'd like to .