New Law Day.

Today is New Law Day in Indiana, the day when things that were fine, moral, and upstanding yesterday become evil and a cause for SWAT teams and prison terms.

For example, yesterday, if a little old man with a "Proud WWII Veteran" baseball cap and a cane came up and set beer down on the cash register, you could use your judgment and guess that he was probably over 21 and go 'head and ring him up. Yesterday, a regular customer who looked like she might be under 21 could place the beer there, and you could use your judgment and say "Oh, okay, I know her; I saw her ID yesterday."

Today, however, using your judgment becomes a Class B misdemeanor. You could get arrested for not checking that WWII vet's ID.

And as everyone knows, if you resist, you could get shot.

For not checking that WWII vet's ID.

And this seems sensible to some people.

First comes the concept of drinking ages. Then comes the concept of "carding". Then comes the concept of mandatory "carding". But that's okay because soon we will have mandatory cards.

So we can threaten to shoot people for not checking ID. (Because we all seem to forget that that's what backs up all laws: The power of the state, which is a polite way of saying "the threat of naked force".)

And this seems sensible to some people... What a world.

They had just passed a law like this in Tennessee before I moved up here, and it was good to get away from it, but the crazy seems to be following me.