There is one: lobbying.
If we don't take money out of politics our country is going to go down for good.
My impression is that the general consensus has that being about the time that Microsoft learned its lesson about ignoring lobbying. Maybe Oracle had something to do with it, but it seems like Microsoft probably missed that particular ship.
Yes, its disgustingly over the top, but then, what isn't these days?
As I understand Texas law (which I wouldn't surprise to find judicially nullified someday, like similar Oklahoma law), you are allowed to use lethal force on someone stealing your property after a verbal warning.
Which is in no way analogous to the point you're making. US law very much does not support "self-help" as its called to redress wrongs after the fact.
Hell, 'stand your ground' applies in a decent plurality of states these days.
Stand Your Ground in 22 states. As in no duty to retreat any place you have a right to be, which prevents second guessing from the calm and comfort of a courtroom. Or as Oliver Wendell Holmes put it in the 1921 US Supreme Court case Brown v. United States, "Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife."
Why?
In one case I "watched" by reading the Boston Globe as it was tried, a man was sent to prison because he wasn't willing to leave his sleep daughter to the tender mercies of an home invader.
Too many people wonder why Michael Dukakis won only 10 states in 1988; not those of us in the the state who were paying attention to e.g. these judges he elevated to the bench.
In this decade, I'd go to the anecdote from WI last year of the dude who, upon a high school party being broken up by the cops next door, shot a kid hiding from the cops on his porch and wasn't charged.
As for the Wisconson case you're referring to, the facts not surprisingly paint a very different picture. Per this news item: http://fox6now.com/2012/05/05/photos-of-bo-morrison-crime-sc... and others, the porch was only technically one, it was fully enclosed and furnished like an interior room, had an appliance (fridge/freezer?) and other indoor style stuff, and critically, from looking at the outside, it appears to be fully a part of the house. I say critically because the outdoor pictures make it very clear this can be legitimately scored as a home invasion, whatever friends and family of the deceased propagandize.
And per this from the shooter's wife, "[she] told investigators she heard her husband say, “What are you doing in my house” twice, then “Stay where you are” twice, and later a single shot was fired."
So only "weak", no duty to retreat (in 46 states) Castle Doctrine comes into play. He was not shot out of the blue or from behind, there was a confrontation, so as long as the couple have proper account of the story and the authorities don't catch them lying the failure to prosecute looks like its solid. Just like the Zimmerman/Martin was before it become a political show trial.
ADDED: Not surprisingly for a state that was until that year solid Blue, Wisconsin as of 2010 didn't have a strong Castle Doctrine, the case law explicitly says "The doctrine is for defensive and not offensive purposes."
When you hear "unbelievable" stories like this, you should be suspicious, they're generally unbelievable because they're flatly not true, except in the sense of Revolutionary Truth, which as techies we shouldn't approve of (our computers do not care about politics, just that 1 + 1 = 010).
Yes, he's in that awkward period between 18 and 21 where he's legally an adult who can't legally do a bunch of adult things, like the relevant posited drinking (according to the more detailed accounts I read he wasn't hiding from the police, the party was broken up by the incensed homeowner of the property where it was happening arriving), but if you're going to call young men who aren't even "teens" "kids", we have no basis for a discussion, we cannot get past your idée fixe that he was automatically an innocent.
But see my other reply in this sub-sub-thread: what middle ground is there between being forced by the law to retreat from your home and being allowed to use lethal force upon a reasonable apprehension of a sufficient threat? Do you really believe in allowing criminals to chase you out of your home, abandoning your loved ones who can't defend themselves?
It's ancient, ancient doctrine; per Wikipedia "The legal concept of the inviolability of the home has been known in Western Civilization since the age of the Roman Republic." When it comes to Western law you can't get older than the Twelve Tables in 450 BC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Tables), in which I assume this was codified.
This is determined after the fact all the time, presumably in the Wisconsin case, and definitely in the Zimmerman/Martin case before it was politicized.
Note as usual all this is subject to judicial nullification, in my home state of Missouri as of 2010 the latter part of our crystal clear Castle Doctrine has been nullified through middle level appeals court required jury instructions. Our higher level judicial appointments are not surprisingly done according to the Missouri Plan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Plan), so the usual suspects control the process, not the people through their elected representatives.