Here's an idea for a new rule

A few people keep too many dogs, so there's an ordinance against that. Someone left their sandwich board sign out where somebody tripped over it, so there's an ordinance about that.

On Thursday county commissioners did a third reading on extending the bear-proof container ordinance to most of the rest of the county because people are having trouble outsmarting bears.

There's a proposal out there to make people fence their landscaping off because otherwise the wild horses will get hauled off by the feds.

We're seriously talking about charging businesses $100 for the privilege of conducting legal commerce in Douglas County, because, with apologies to Robert Earl Keen, the road doesn't go on forever and the party always ends.

Genoans have long complained that they can't grow produce because the deer eat anything that isn't made of wood and some things that are.

Are we going to have an ordinance that requires gardeners to put up a 12-foot fence to keep the deer out? It might be just as useful to legislate that the sun may not set in Nevada's oldest town before 5 p.m.

Rules are what allow us to get along with one another. They're an important part of keeping our society on an even keel.

But at some point they can become burdensome and wasteful.

So we're proposing a new rule. We call it the conservation of rules.

Every time we feel the need to apply legislation where common sense should suffice, some other rule should come off the books. Just a little something to make us think before we turn to the government to solve our problems.