The old law should simply be repealed. It is assinine. I'd be mildly surprised if even communists have had the audacity to pass laws like this. It's interesting to note the year of this law in Washington and the year of the October Revolution in Russia. I guess quite a lot of legislators in Washington were asleep at the switch during the 1917 legislative session. I remember a Bob Dylan song lyric from the 1980s (Sundown on the Union, I think): "I can see the day coming when even your home garden Is gonna be against the law." What's bitterly ironic is that if
Washington had such a water law in 1917, a home garden was probably already against the law when Dylan did that song!
Such laws have got to be illegal (i.e. unconstitutional under
the State &/or Federal Constitution). If not, I'd better start
researching the laws on air usage. With equal force of reason, air must also be
owned by the government. I'm a little concerned about the legality of my breathing. I probably owe a lot of back taxes or permit violation penalties on all that huffing and puffing I've
done jogging around early in the morning on the public sidewalks. I'm sure there was a lot of wasteful conversion of ambient air. There's no way to win, though, because if the state of Colorado is any guide, it would/should also be illegal in Washington to hold your breath. You see, in Colorado, where it is illegal to capture and use raindrops, it is illegal to re-use your bath water!! You can only use your tapwater once, not twice. So, when applied to air, holding your breath would involve making
repeat use of the air you've inhaled. That would be illegal (unless, of course, you owned a government permit to hold your breath).
The breathing thing might be hypothecal, but this advice isn't: The next time you're outside & it begins to rain, do not
intentionally tip back your head and gather any rain in your
mouth--unless you have a permit!
I've had the stupid idea that powers not given to the government are reserved to the people, but I guess that is passe and the constitution has been amended to allow the government to have control of all matter (I don't mean all matters, I mean, literally, all matter?) unless otherwise returned to the people.
I am left to wonder if there remains any common sense belief that there are natural rights that a human has simply because she or he is a human? Are there left to people, as Thomas Jefferson would so idiotically state, rights "endowed by their creator"?