Question:  Who governs or enforces these 'laws' like Godwin's Law?
Answer:  It would be a moderator, if this was a moderated list.  Any messages in response to the 
dead / off-topic thread would not be allowed to be posted, if the moderator was doing his job.

<rant>
Since this, of course, is not a moderated list, it is up to us to kill the thread.  The only way a 
thread survives, is if people keep replying to it.  So, you want a thread to die?  Has it gone off 
topic?  MAN, have some SELF CONTROL, and just don't reply to it.  Just because a message is posted 
does *not* mean there needs to be any response to it whatsoever.  If there is no way in the world 
that you can't just let it go, have some respect for others on the list who consider such messages 
to be as bad as SPAM, and do whatever it is you're going to do *off list*.
</rant>

Sheesh...