On Sun, Nov 25, at 05:24PM, Morlock Elloi wrote: | Are you saying that governments are providing a valuable service by propping up | arbitrary prohibitions and thus establish a value system against which we can | bang our heads ? If you got that out of the quote you left in the email I am lost ;-p But as a general rule, no. Keeping in mind of course that "value" is subjective, because arbitrary regulations are in fact very valuable, ask the Kennedys. The problem with prohibitions (which are never arbitrary) is that they make for an uneven playing field in the great game of "The free Market" thus hurting the whole, but often there are those (few though they may be) who profit from prohibitions. --Gabe -- Churchill, Winston Leonard Spencer --On the eve of Britain's entry into World War II: "If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse fate. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.