When I lived in California, I noticed that they had a special way to enact laws that School House Rock never taught me. And I’m seeing it being done here in Austin now.

Here’s how it works: Say the legislature wants to enact a law that is very unpopular because it will cost everyone $100 a month. It would never get passed because everyone would howl unceasingly. Instead, they propose a law that will cost everyone $10,000 a month and when everyone howls and protests and demonstrates against it, the legislature will back down and say, whew, you citizens were right, that is too much. Let’s modify the proposal so that it only costs $100 a month. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, protesters go home, and everyone is happy that they stopped a disaster.

My fellow Ricochetti, I invite you to imagine yourself as a police officer on patrol. While driving in your squad car you hear a radio broadcast of a robbery that has just occurred, one in which the suspect shot the victim. You are supplied with a description of the suspect and his getaway car, and moments later you spot him driving. You radio for backup and continue to follow at a distance, and when your backup arrives you try to pull the suspect over. Rather than stop, he accelerates away and a pursuit begins.

Conditions for the chase are relatively safe at the outset, with light traffic and no outrageously erratic driving by the suspect. But as the suspect’s desperation increases, so too does his recklessness, and before long he sideswipes a car, drives on a sidewalk, and does other things indicating he will try anything to escape. You are informed the car the suspect is driving in stolen, offering you no clue as to the suspect’s identity.