Comment by SideburnsOfDoom

it seems to be based on an idea that the default is that a thing is illegal until a law explicitly allows it.

I didn't get that idea at all, and I think you are misreading it. Many examples are given of things that recently were or still are explicitly illegal.

If you want to read up on when Marijuana was made illegal, you can start here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_history_of_cannabis_in_th... but I'm not sure of the relevance.