In many areas, Hidden Law and Formal Law coexist, provided that cops and lawyers and politicians stand discreetly aside and let Hidden Law work where it can. For many years, and to some extent even today, Hidden Law regulated abortion by saying you could have one, but people shouldn't find out about it. I am told that a middle-aged relative of mine had an abortion as a teenager, but this is a family secret, which I therefore do not know. Keeping abortion out of sight and mildly stigmatized is a good way to keep it legal, available, rare, and morally disreputable. I grant you this is an uneasy compromise, unsatisfying if you believe abortion is either murder or a civil right.
Squirt guns are guns and therefore violate weapons policies.
Why Bush deserves credit for his environmental policies. The right way to get rid of the Confederate flag. Why the right loves Bush more than it fears China. Andrew Sullivan on why you need to watch Timothy McVeigh die. The unappreciated genius of Al Gore.