>This was something new to me. I hope I can do the same in my agreements (for loans, insurance, etc)...
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>Apparently, When President Bush signed the bill forbidding torture, it was accompanied by a "signing statement" that said, in effect, that he will disregard the law when he sees fit.
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>Does this mean that the law is all show and actually meaningless?

I was listening to a high-brow radio prog the other day, all about oaths of allegiance, treaties and such, in the Middle Ages, and it seems that they only stuck to these agreements if they felt it in there hearts to do so, and felt nothing about breaking them if "they hadn't really meant it". The practice of crossing the fingers when one tells a porky (pie) is something to do with making the sign of the cross to protect the liar. So W is just keeping up an old tradition.