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Law Facts

Law facts and facts about laws: statutes, odd ordinances, and the rules still on the books.

21 facts on this shelf

John Ashcroft can't catch terrorists, prosecutes greenpeace?

In 2002, Greenpeace held a protest against a cargo ship smuggling illegal mahogany wood from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest into a Miami port. In swift response, Attorney General John Ashcroft prosecuted Greenpeace, and leveled no charges at the smugglers.

John Ashcroft went to extraordinary lengths, digging up an obscure 1872 law against "sailormongering" a law designed to prevent brothel owners from boarding ships and luring sailors to their establishments.

John Ashcroft failed to get one conviction out of the more than 5000 terrorist suspects and had little success imposing his right-wing Christian values. Ironically, he repeatedly violated the Constitution including over-turning voter approved measures protected under "State Rights" part of constitution which says anything not addressed in the Constitution shall fall to the state level.

His efforts as attorney general were focused on attempting to impose the right-wing Christian agenda his financial backers believed in. Sadly, these actions were taken against Constitutional voter-approved laws relating to euthanasia, medical marijuana, and gay marriage.

How do you count cards in blackjack?

A blackjack card counter performs a simple calculation...over and over and over again. The goal is to bet more money when a deck is loaded with big cards 10,Jack, Queen,King, & Ace because the chances of a dealer busting increases. To figure out when the deck favors the player they do the following:
The card counter begins with zero. For every card that appears either they add 1, minus 1, or keep it the same.
If the card is a 2,3,4,5,6 you add 1. If the card is 10,j,q,k,ace you subtract 1. If it's a 7,8,9 the score remains the same.

So, a card counter will bet small while they keep count and if their tally reaches +5 or greater they increase their bet. This system relies on the law of large numbers which says while the bettor will lose or win money on a given day over time the bettor will have the advantage and thus be profitable long-term.

p.s. This is much easier said than done. This formula was introduced in Beat The Dealer in 1966 and the casinos are doing just fine. Good luck!

What are the classifications of Treaties?

A treaty is an international law agreement between organizations of state, including sovereign states.

Classifications of treaties are organized by the subjects with which they deal with. For example, political treaties are in relation to wars and boundaries, Legal Treaties include the extradition of criminals, copyrights, and patents.

Treaties are confined to only high priority and important formal agreements. The less formal accords are called, conventions, acts, declarations and protocols.

Greeks and Romans have elaborate ceremonials to emphasize the sanctity of Treaties

When did people in the united states start paying Income Tax?

In 1862, to support the Civil War, Congress enacted the nation's first income tax law. Congress eliminated the income tax in 1872 and it had a short-lived revival in 1894 and 1895.

In 1913 the income tax was brought back and became a permanent part of American life. It provided a seemingly unlimited source of funds to finance ever-growing government, and it gave the government an excuse to pry into every aspect of your life.