Churchill quote says how I feel about local government (editorial)

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. ~ Winston Churchill 

This has been my thought all along, but this morning on Twitter (hat tip to @HenryJennings) I saw the sentence that said it succinctly.

I don't have studies by social scientists to back this up. I'm sure they are out there somewhere. These are my own thoughts based on my own feelings. In any situation where there are too many rules, I feel like I there is no way I can obey them all so I just give up. That's fine if it's a game or even a relationship. It's quite different when it's laws instead of rules and we are talking about life.

We've had civilized society for awhile now. There has to come a point where we have enough laws. They may need tweaking from time to time as new technology comes along or as attitudes change, but I think we pretty much have it covered. For example, we already have laws about reckless driving. Do we really need one against texting while driving? Are we also going to make laws against putting on make-up, reading, or eating while driving?

Bottom line is this....I hope we never get to a point where I'm afraid to leave the house because I might do something wrong that I forgot was illegal and get a ticket or a fine or worse yet go to jail.