"[T]here are forces at work which cannot be dispersed by the stroke of a lawmaker's pen" is a statement as profound as it is succinct. Well done.
This made me think of gun-free school zones and how they appear to be completely ineffective at preventing children from getting shot at school. #EXAMPLE
This reminded me of the story of how we got unleaded gasoline as described in a recent RadioLab episode titled, “Heavy Metal.” https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/heavy-metal
It starts with this guy Clair Patterson in a lab trying to figure out the age of the earth by dating a meteorite. The first thing he has to do is calculate the amount of lead in the meteorite — except his readings are way off. He realizes he has to control for that variable by determining the amount of lead in the lab.
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from the episode transcript:
LYDIA DENWORTH... (read more)