Laws are never perfect. They can either benefit good citizens or criminals.

Before U.S. Airways was gobbled up by American Airlines, it used to run flights between Tel Aviv and Philadelphia. We took one such flight on our way to Las Vegas. According to the booking, it was supposed to arrive in the City of Brotherly Love around 6:30 in the morning. Taking into account Customs and getting to our next gate, we didn’t have much time for morning prayers, which are much more easily performed in a terminal rather than on an airplane. I was surprised when I saw on the screen during the flight that our expected arrival time was moved up to 4:30 AM. This was great news. Then it started to slip and slip until it reached 5 AM, when we did actually arrive. As I deplaned, I bumped into the captain and asked about the changes in timing. “We had a really good tailwind that took off a lot of our flight time. As the Customs hall does not open until 5 am, I throttled back so as to arrive then.” His reasoning was impeccable.

All of us act according to rules and expectations. If I know a place where I can leave my car and there is no need to pay and parking authorities never visit, I can park there for free. We actually have free parking in our neighborhood; when it is not available, we have free parking in our parking lot-turned-bomb-shelter from 3 PM to 8 the next morning. I often plan my arrival home to be later than 3 and have a fixed phone alarm for 7:45 when I need to remove the car from the parking lot before being charged.

Western countries have lost their moxie. There was a time when they used to shoot, string up, or electrocute people in need of such punishments for their antisocial behavior. Punishment of the few meant a better life for the many. If we were a real country, we would allow people to do the following after appropriate single-digit warnings:

Let border guards shoot........

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