Quoting submitter:

This is a recent conversion of an old IBM Mainframe application
to the fortune datafile format.

The "laws" were extracted from a S/370 Assembler program on a SHARE tape.
The comments in the program:

• 'MURPHY' THE OLE PHILOSOPHER 18 AUGUST 1988 *
• *
• MURPHY WAS FOUND ON A JES2 TAPE OF ALL PLACES WITH ABOUT *
• 500 OR SO SAYINGS. GOT ANOTHER 250 FROM AN UNKNOWN SOURCE *
• AND HAVE ADDED ABOUT 100 OR SO MYSELF. *
• * [list of changes omitted]
• *
• JIM MARSHALL, CAPT, USAF *
• (301) 688-6829 *
• * *---------------------------------------------------------------------*

Fortunes that a sufficiently twisted mind could perceive as offensive
have been moved to murphy-o. Thanks to the submitter for reviewing
these fortunes.

The copyright issues were considered before approval.

PR: misc/8519
Submitted by: Cy Schubert (misc/8519)
Approved by: The Fortune Teller