Magic

We have been infiltrated. The enemy, a lawyer, is teaching our bioethics course. Besides the fact that he constantly refers to everything from medical illnesses to being dead as boo-boo's, he seems like a relatively nice guy.

Regardless, today we are talking about HIPAA laws and the disclosure of information. Apparently, you can get screwed over if you release information in an improper format to another health agency. Not even the public. No, if you don't format information appropriately when sending information between two health care centers, you will get screwed over. You need to use "magical language." No seriously, that's what he called it: magical language.

I bring this up because my sister is a third year law student, and when I was consulting with her about a moving violation, we started discussing broader issues. I think it's ridiculous that my fate and my justice can just lie in the hands of other people. I don't really trust people. People are fallible. But my older sister said something to the effect of "the things that happen in courtrooms are kind of like magic. I can't really explain why things happen the way they do. They just do."

Which is great. While I'm spending most of my time drudging through reality, lawyers get to dream of worlds where they can bend laws to mean whatever they want. We can't change the rules of medicine. I can't cure asthma by hugging the inflicted. It seems unfair that law is malleable, while heath is not.