If people chose their words carefully enough, there wouldn't be nearly so many of the ambiguous cases that come down to legal action.
On the other hand, the reason that trial lawyers are so reviled involves so many of them being sleazy money-grabbers who inflict a tremendous net loss on society (despite acting as though the opposite were true) -- at least on the plaintiff's side.
Quiz Bowl angle: A very inane question (that I don't think anyone would ever ask anyone else), "Do you like protests?" I think most players and officials dislike protests, to the point of (in some cases) disliking protesters. Nobody likes an angle-shooter.
I hate situations where protests arise, because with the best possible questions and game officials those situations just wouldn't come up. Any time a protest is worth deliberation, every possible outcome is somehow unfair - the trick is to find the least unfair outcome. Often being (seemingly) excessively rule-bound is the least corrupt way to get there.
Posted by Matt Bruce at February 7, 2007 06:47 PM