To: AV Press
Date: 03/2005
Re: Decay in America (aka: Shakespeare, you were right)
Background: I'm not great on how our legal system has come to be administered in recent decades. In my view the system, if not absolutely out of control, at least is careening down the mountain like it was steered by a drunken monkey.
Each time a judge "expands" the law he administers another slice in our 'death of a thousand cuts'. Sometimes the slices are pretty deep.
I love the latest ruling in one of the union-financed lawsuits against the opening of new Wal-Mart stores in California...the "physical decay" theory (AV Press, Sunday March 20).
In case you missed it, a California judge has accepted the anti Wal-Mart lawyers' argument that opening a new store could be blocked because, by making other stores less desirable, it would cause "decay".
This is a really neat new concept that I see as having wide application. Is your neighbor putting in a new lawn? Sue him! If he is allowed to proceed it will cause your home, with it's weed-infested lawn, to "decay". Or did the gas station down the block lower their gas price below what you are selling gas for? Sue! By making your gas less desirable they are causing "decay".
We spend billions to defend against external enemies, yet the real threat to America seems to be internal. Shakespeare, you had it right.