sf > wrote in
:

> On 8 Jan 2004 22:32:21 GMT, Michel Boucher
> > wrote:
>
>> Actually, politicians are not that smart. Program creators and
>> administrators are career civil servants for the most part, with
>> a dash of academic input and sometimes industry input.
>> Politicians, if they are smart, do as they are told.
>
> Perhaps Canadian politicians aren't very smart, but in the
> US, a great many of our politicians were once lawyers and
> that's why we have laws and regulations only a lawyer can
> understand. They know how to take care of their own.

Obviously, you missed the point. Politicians are smart in their own
area (they know how to get reelected), but not in the elaboration of
regulations. They don't write their own regulations but rather
approve regulations drafted by departments to administer X, Y and Z.
It's more efficient to have departments propose amendments than have
politicians do it.

Politicians will propose amendments to legislation or regulation in
debate, and these amendments may or may not be adopted, but they sure
as hell don't spend all their time writing reams of regulations.
Lawyers or not, they're not THAT good. If they were, they wouldn't
have chosen to remain rank amateurs and would have taken real jobs.

The law may be abstruse and labyrinthine to those who have trouble
reading plain language (having read some US laws over the years, I
know they are not beyond being cracked), but regulations should
clarify and elucidate what is intended by the law when it comes into
contact with the public. If you're really not getting that service
(instead of just complaining about not getting it), then you should
question how you are being administered instead of defending it.

--

"I'm the master of low expectations."

GWB, aboard Air Force One, 04Jun2003