Let us fashion this world in our image

First the Tale, Then the Bill

"When it comes to California lawmaking, the political is increasingly personal. Many of the 2,500 or so bills legislators draft each year are inspired by the experiences of friends, relatives and constituents, by newspaper headlines and occasionally even by themselves.

"What good is having 423,000 constituents if you can't take advantage of what they know?" says Assemblyman Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), who has written five laws suggested by constituents through his annual "There Oughta Be a Law" contest.

In the current two-year legislative session, lawmakers have proposed penalizing anyone who has sex with a corpse; creating new legal protections for hate crime victims and their families; limiting the jail terms for law enforcement officials who accidentally shoot someone to death; and impounding cars to stop potentially dangerous drivers like the one who plowed into the Santa Monica Farmers' Market last year. All of those bills were prompted by events with limited, if any, hard evidence that widespread problems were imminent.

"Unfortunately, most legislation is a function of slogan and anecdote," said Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, a former Democratic state Senate president pro tem. "They start with their philosophy, and then there's an anecdote that tries to prove the point."

This type of lawmaking is hardly unique to California. But some political experts say changes in Sacramento's culture over the last decade or so have made it much more pervasive."

(but then there is 'Megan's Law'....jim)