Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:56:44 -0500, Tim Daneliuk wrote: > > >>There is a difference between what is *illegal* and what constitutes >>a *crime*. > > > Why thank you, you've really made my day. That's the funniest thing I've > heard in months. Please, do tell, which brand of corn flakes was it that > you got your law degree from? > >
<Small Words & Simple Concepts Mode> "Crime" is at least partly a moral precept. More properly, "crime" is a term that broadly embraces the idea of "harm" especially to others. "Illegal" is a exclusively a legal precept. It is a "crime" to murder someone, but if the state cannot prove your guilt you are found to have done nothing "illegal", for example. We would hope that the latter proceeds from the former, but it does not always. You would be doing something that is illegal if you smoked marijuana, but by no rational definition would have actually committed moral foul or "crime" (except, possibly, upon yourself). I realize these two words are conflated in common use and am thus sympathetic to your confusion. This is my fault. What I actually should have written in the first place was: There is a difference between what is *wrong* (and thus ought to be illegal) and what actually constitutes a formally illegal act as a matter of law. We'd like the two to be isomorphic but they are not due to self-important busybodies telling everyone else what to do. Clearer now? -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tim Daneliuk [EMAIL PROTECTED] PGP Key: http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list