-=> Quoting Robert Craft to Walter Luffman <=-
 RC> I still want to see a cover sheet of a single page which
 RC> give the following information:
 RC> Title
 RC> Purpose
 RC> Cost [in Dollars and Resources]
 RC> Constitutional Authority [section and paragraph]
 RC> Penalties
 RC> Surely that's not too much to ask, is it?
Now yuo're suggesting something that sounds entirely reasonable.
That doesn't mean it will ever happen, of course, but I like it
a lot.  A summary, limited by law to a single page, that
provides certain mandated information would force the people
who write legislation to bring many of the "dirty little
secrets" in current bills to light.  Perhaps more important,
a one-page limit (specifying a mandatory minimum-size font to
limit cheating) would force the authors to keep their bills
relatively simple -- if you can't properly summarize it in one
page of ten-point monospaced type, it's too complex to
understand and you'll just have to start over, Senator!
I'd go a step further, and limit summaries of legislative
amendments to two-thirds of a page.
 
 RC> And how about flowcharting the effects of legislation and
 RC> making the flow chart part of the legislation? Too much
 RC> clarity there, hmmm?
 
 WL> Makes too much sense to ever happen -- unless they can
 WL> find a way to do it without being required to prove that
 WL> the charts are accurate.
 RC> Make them give it to a programmer.
That might not solve anything.  Just compare the latest
version of any popular software with its predecessors.
Programmers have gotten lazy; they write what John C. Dvorak
calls "bloated code", and only partially to accomodate
pressures from the sales and marketing people.  (Remember
when word processors didn't include desktop-publishing
features and their own programming languages?)
 
 RC> I was never big on Doc Savage, but I still have the Lensman
 RC> series. I really want to see that series done a la Star
 RC> Wars. The story line is far better and we've the special
 RC> effects to do justice to the visuals. 
I've seen a Japanese anime' production of "Triplanetary",
which wasn't all that faithful to any part of the Lensman
saga but was entertaining nonetheless.  It used to show up
now and then on the Sci-Fi Channel, and may still air once
in awhile.
As for a live-action depiction of the Lensman series, it
would be a tall order...but yes, I believe it could be done.
Might require a stiffer rating than the usual PG-13, though;
Doc Smith wrote some pretty gory scenes, and even the sight
of Gharlane of Eddore and his minions would have to be more
frightening than anything we've seen before just to do
justice to the images Doc conjured up in the reader's mind.
Then there's the ending to "Children Of The Lens" with its
only somewhat-ambiguous suggestions of incest....
Walter, Forked Deer River Ilks
wluffman@usit.net
... The botanical name of the American Yew is "Taxus taxus." Honest.
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