None of the above...

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me. None of the above.... What the heck am I talking about, you may be thinking. Well, let me elaborate.

I am talking about the ballot, to be specific the American election ballots. If you vote, ( and you really should!!) you know that in far too many cases there is no opposition to the incumbent candidate, and so they win by default. But what if you don't want the incumbent to continue in this position? What if they have managed to rig the system ( this is not a conspiracy theory, look up "gerrymandering" in the dictionary) so that they can pretty much keep their office until such time as they decide to give it up? Well, then we have no recourse except to continue to fight a losing battle to try and get these slackers and losers out of office with candidates that have no chance of winning against the stacked deck.

So why not a "None Of The above" slot on every ballot in every election? For every office up for vote, there should be the possibility that none of the candidates truly meet the community standard, and therefore we should not let them win simply by default. Give the American people back the power of the voting booth. Rather than a race when there is no actual race, it is up to the politico to be responsible and do a good job, because we can actually vote them OUT of office without the need to vote someone else in. Of course this would mean that there must be occasional times when there is nobody to do a particular job. Depending on the job, this could result in either a new election, with completely new candidates (anyone voted out by the" None of the above" vote would be automatically barred from running again for at least 2 election cycles.) Or perhaps the job is eliminated, thereby saving the local coffers the expense of the salary. Another possibility is that the duties of the eliminated position be spread around the local government offices. Not all government jobs are essential after all! ( Especially elected ones!!)

The important thing here is the chance to make REAL change in a government that has become far too bloated and ineffectual for the people whom it is supposed to be serving. By adding the "None Of the Above" Slot to the ballot, we would no longer have to make the choice of the lesser of 2 evils, and therein lies the true possibilities of change.

Until we have the choice to actually say, " no", we will not settle, we want better choices, we will continue to get screwed over by the system that we want, and expect to help us.

" A rose by any other name..."

As the Bard wrote in "Romeo & Juliet", "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." It is a truth of humanity and life in general, that no mater what you call something, it is what it is, and no changing of the name can make the debate more or less meaningful. What brings this up you ask, 2 things, assholes ( the people not the body part) and "Gay Marriage".

First the assholes, The internets seem to be stuffed full of them, crammed to the gills with jerks of every shade and texture who think they are being "truthful" or "honest" or "real". By writing in the comments of blogs and comics and news articles, they take the time to spill bile on the works of others. They feel that their opinion matter more than anyone else's and it makes no difference that they are tactless and generally ignorant of most social graces. I have pretty much given up on reading comments sections of many comics and blogs because of these argumentative and annoying know-it-alls and their need to argue every point of minutia, ad nauseum. Someone creats something that is funny or interesting, or beautiful to some people and that is great. Yet there are those who feel that it is their job to speak for those who don't like something. If you don't find it funny, or intersting or beautiful, go find something that you do like. You don;t have to ruin the enjoyment for those of us who do like it, for whatever reason we choose to find it enjoyable. I bet these are the same people who pinch babies just to hear them cry. Bullies are bullies, because no one can or has stood up to them. When the hide behind a computer keyboard and piss on everything the can find on the web and call it honesty, they are just jerks. Come tell me to my face that I suck, and I may respect you dumb ass! Until you have that much stones, leave your bile in your notebook and let the rest of the world enjoy the creativity of others as we see fit.

Now on the subject of "gay marriage", I couldn't care less whether two people of the same sex get married or not. Calling it a :"Civil Union' instead of a marriage makes no freakin sense at all, because all marriages equal a civil union if you have been "legally" married in the eyes of the state. If you have had a wedding at a church, it is called a "ceremony" and is nothing more than a ritual performed in front of friends and family, but it is not a legal union until the marriage certificate is filed with the local authorities. It gives you the right to file taxes as a couple, and to collect death benefits from insurance, and to cover a spouse with insurance. Now many of the opposition say that the insurance is the big problem it will increase premiums and make it harder to pay for insurance if all the gays can put their spouses on their insurance. As opposed to the straight people who make kids by the thousands each year and add them to their insurancd policies? It is less likely that a gay couple will add a child to their insurance. No unlikely, simply less likely. In many cases the gay couples who wish to marry, have already had and raised their kids, and they are independent persons with their own families. In the cases of the younger couples, perhaps they will have a child of their own, or maybe adopt, but the statistics say that it is likely that they will only have or adopt one child, and in rare instances 2. Breeders may have 3,4,5 or more kids. By design or by accident, they will have 2.5 kids ( that's what the statistics say!) where you get half a kid I have no idea! But still, adds to the insurance costs for everyone and it's not the gays we need to worry about! Marriage also allows for hospital visitation, and legal transfer of land, and to provide citizenship to those not born in America. There is no reason that makes sense for keeping these people from calling what they want a marriage. A rose called a turd blossom still smells like a rose, and if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you can call it a parrot all you want, but I bet it is still a duck.

So just keeping it real, Let them gays get married for cryin' out loud, who does it really hurt? No one!

Save the taxpayer, save the world!!

Funny thing, I was watching "Heroes" this evening. ( last nights episode on DVR) and when I was too busy to get to the ad zapper button, I heard that line, in a Turbo Tax commercial. The play on the line from the first season of "Heroes", "Save the cheerleader, save the world." The "dumb" guy in the ad, Gets happy and says, "Save the taxpayer, save the world!" and the "smart" guy replies, "that doesn't even make sense." But it really does make sense.

I have been saying almost exactly that for the last few months about these bailout /stimulus packages that have been going around and through the Government like shit through a goose. While we the Taxpayers sit home worrying about paying our bills on what little money we get from unemployment, or praying like hell that we can hang onto our jobs, the Dopes that we put into office year after year, continue to forget about us and send our ( and our childrens', grandchildrens', and great-grandchildrens') money to corporations and banks that have squandered billions of dollars, and look well poised to squander billions more.

I think that the part of this whole thing that really drives me crazy is that even while all of these banks and credit issuers are going under and being bought and sold left and right, WE are still expected to continue paying our bills. The companies have changed hands three or more times and the letterhead on the statements changes each time, but we still have to write a check to the new company. It pisses me off to no end, that corporations can trade OUR debt like a commodity. It seems to me that when the original company that we made our original agreement with goes under for whatever reason, our debt is erased with the name on the letterhead. And they are not allowed to keep the name on the letterhead when the company is acquired by a bigger company just so they can continue to take our money. I have to believe that the trading of debt as an asset, is one of the reasons that we are in this mess in the first place.

One of the points that still gets my goat, but is being addresses by some new legislation, is that the credit companies can take your payments every month and apply them to the lowest interest rate first. This allows them to keep the highest interest balances collecting interest for the longest time, thereby keeping you in debt forever. Or until you win the lottery or die! Sometime in the next couple years it will become illegal for the companies to do this, they will be obliged to apply payments to the highest interest debt first. And believe it or not this legislation was passed before the changing of the regime!

Anyway, if we the taxpayer had this money we really would probably save the world. It is the consumer who brings about the growth. Giving us the money to pay our debts, will give the economic boost to the banks and credit industry, it will free up our cash to use for purchasing new cars and for other luxury items. Sadly, it will be much similar to giving the money to the corporations in that the largest amount of people will just dig the same hole that they were just pulled out of, but there may actually be enough of us who have learned something from this mess and once we get out of the hole, we will do our level best to live within our means. Sometimes it's nearly impossible, but we sure try. I was just thinking that it seems that the harder I try to save money, the more likely it is that something comes up that requires me to spend way more than I really can afford. Whether it is truck repairs, clothes or a hospital bill, somewhere I always end up with some extra bill at the exact worst time for it. Murphy really was an optimist!

SO, that's my rant for today. Not really hot, but I guess I have to continue beating this dead horse! Maybe someone will pick up the cry and take it to the steps of congress and make themselves heard.

What to do when your bored, and other weird thoughts...

Found a news story today from the Associated Press, by Danica Coto, telling about a woman named Jennifer Figge, 56, who swam across the Atlantic Ocean. These are the quick Highlights of the story... "left the Cape Verde Islands off of Africa's west coast on January 12th swimming for 19 out of 25 days battling waves up to 30 feet. The distance from Cape Verde to Trinidad is roughly 700 miles." Yes the first time she set foot on ground was in the Caribbean Island of Trinidad. She still plans to swim from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands. I always wondered who does these things, is it just because you need to prove that it can be done, or do you do it for the fame? Or is it that you have talked about it so much to your friends and family that they finally tell you to either do it or shut up about it!! More power to the people who actually put up, rather than shut up.

Now on the knucklehead front. Ice Fisherman.... I don't think that they are in general abnormal, as ice fishing is not such a bad thing most of the time, as long as one exercises some brains! Another news story this week is about 100 or so ice fisherman who had to be rescued from the ice of Lake Erie after their fishing spot broke off of the main sheet and floated out into the lake. The rescuing departments ( sheriffs and fire depts. plus the US Coast Guard) used Helicopters and airboats ( hovercraft?) to rescue the trapped fisherman. Leaving much of their equipment and transportation out on the ice. So there are ATV's and snowmobiles floating on the ice of Lake Erie. Hmm? What happens if/when that ice melts or gets broken up by the wind? Of course it won't be on the order of the Exxon Valdez, but it still isn't good for the Lake Biosphere. The Agencies have informed these men that if they are dopey enough to need another rescue this season they will be billed for the service. The first one was on the taxpayer tit.

Then I ran across a letter to the editor that really struck a cord in my mind. Why is it that so many people live by the moto, "It's Not My Job.", rather than "Let me help you with that."? I guess that it has as much to do with litigation as it does with simple greed and laziness. The letter is actually about the honesty and integrity of people and their jobs. It was brought about by the pilot of the plane that landed in the Hudson River. This man did his job as best he could and everyone on the plane survived. He did what he had to do under extremely difficult circumstances and he remained calm and collected, which if you think about it is exactly what he is payed to do. He flies the plane and when the plane malfunctions for any reason, it is his job to make get it on the ground ( back to earth?) the safest way possible. His point was to reprimand the corporate CEO's and Other business honchos who have wasted billions of dollars in company funds and resources and yet still feel entitled to their huge bonuses and corporate vacations and golden parachutes at the cost of the taxpayer through the Government bailout/stimulus packages. But I read something else in there as well, Honesty in our workers. There was a story about a State Employee in NY who was collecting a salary of $94,000 a year while he did nothing. Why did he do nothing? Apparently this was retribution by other state officials for stepping on some toes (By suing the governor 10 years earlier). So to punish him they withheld his duties. How was this punishment? Sure he may have suffered from Boredom, but for that kind of money, I would be happy to suffer some boredom. I guess that he needed to continue to collect his money to make the point that he had a job, even if there was nothing to do there. Honesty and integrity are sort of intertwined, and anyone who has to work in other peoples house can tell you this in a huge way. We have all been accused either directly or indirectly of sticky fingers. And sadly there are some who do steal, and they make the honest ones look bad too. So we have to fight that much harder to keep our reputations.

Anyone from the meter reader to the cable guy, the appliance repair man to the exterminator has a reputation to protect. Not only that they do their jobs well, but that they do not use their access to peoples most personal places for dishonest activities, like thievery or spying. Of course temptation can surface in many ways from a lonely housewife looking for a little fun, to raiding a medicine cabinet for some prescription drugs, but a true professional will do their job and leave temptation in the wind. There is also a different kind of honesty, it is one of owning up to ones mistakes. An honest person will see and forgive an honest mistake.

Having worked in an industry where I have been allowed into peoples homes for many years, I have learned that some people are forgiving and others are total assholes. The total assholes will freak out about the smallest thing and cause a problem 100 times the size of the mistake. While the forgiving ones will truly be understanding of a human error and will allow you to make up for your mistake in anyway that you can but only for equal amount of your mistake. The Assholes will end up making you get a lawyer, because that's what makes them feel powerful, while the forgivers will recommend you to all of their friends. The forgivers understand when something is beyond your control, but the assholes will never understand that you aren't 100% responsible for everything that has come before you or after you, from original hidden problems to acts of nature.

The sad part is that these assholes are usually the same people who will squander the resources of big business and then claim that it isn't their fault. It is these people who are most likely to run business into the ground and then hold their hands out for government assistance in bailing themselves out. They are the people who will lay off the workers who make and buy their products so that they will still have enough money in the bank to pay their own salaries even as the companies falter. The people who will declare bankruptcy to escape creditors and skate away with a huge personal bank account that is completely free from the the business obligations that they should be liable for. It has been said that the crook will have the best burglar alarm and will make the biggest fuss when he is ripped off.

As our government once again prepares to stimulate the economy by giving money to big business who will once again squander the resources, I am left with my impotent rage at the lack of thought that goes into this mess. The billions of dollars sent out to the business that hide their wealth in off shore banks and build their new facilities in China and Mexico and Malaysia, it is insane to think that this is going to stimulate the economy. The American Taxpayer, who has worked his or her ass off so that the government can take their money in the form of taxes and then give it to the people who have raped and robbed them for generations, watches helplessly as their money does nothing. If this money was given not to the big corporations but to the working men and women of America the economy would flourish. There is no denying that if you put $50,000 in the hands of every taxpaying citizen in the United States with a net worth of under $500,000, the economy would jumpstart in a hurry. They would be able to pay off their debt, and start new debt. They would be able to buy new cars saving the auto industry, they would be able to go shopping and save the retail, industry, and they would be able to put money in the band and save the banking industry. They would need goods made in the foreign countries stimulating world economies as well. Pay us and watch the economy get stimulated and let the failing business fail if their management is so poor. It is what a free market is all about. But please don't just put good money after bad again and again.

rudely anonymous

What ever happened to manners? I mean it's bad enough that people are growing more and more rude as we get ourselves lost in our iPods and cell phones and we forget that we are in public. I say "we" not because I am particularly rude myself, but to encompass the entire population, because happy or not you have certainly been rude in your life, whether on purpose or by accident. Sometimes it is because we are returning the rudeness tossed at us, and sometimes it is situational build up and we just bubble over. But then there are the people who walk into a place and don't see anyone that they recognize and so they immediately make themselves the royalty in the room. Everything they do is for their own benefit or amusement. They lack manners in any form, whether it is the use of the most basic please or thank you, or even the current standard that passes for manners the quick look and slight smile, to indicate that someone else actually exists. These are the same people who treat waiters and clerks with disdain and expect exemplary service no matter what, and when they don't get it they make the employee's life miserable.

These are the people who will cut into line and grab parking spaces that you are obviously waiting for. It really shouldn't be illegal to vandalize their cars or kick them in the shins for butting in line. I have never understood this type of rude behavior, and it is too bad that society tolerates it as well, by making it illegal to teach them a lesson. A few trips to the dentist to get their teeth replaced or their jaw wired shut until it heals and they would start to understand that they are not the center of the universe. Lynching should be reserved only for those with the highest rescindivism rates. After the 4th trip to the ER for rudeness related injuries they should immediately be hanged as it shows that they have no ability to learn the rules of polite society.

There is still another class of idiot out there that has really gotten under my skin lately, this is the chatroom attention seeker. The idiot that hides in his/her anonymity and simply annoys people for the fun of annoying people. They have nothing intelligent to add to a conversation, so rather than simply reading and maybe learning something or maybe looking in other rooms where there may be a subject of interest to them, they sit and type repetitive lines waiting for somebody to respond to their idiocy. Then they attack and begin calling names and arguing with any point that is made. They make it nearly impossible to ignore them, and sadly each time you mention them they take it as attention and are encouraged to continue the lousy behavior. So what happens is that when new people come into the room they don't realize that this person is being ignored and they engage the idiot and there we go again with the rude dude attitude.

What really drives me nuts about these freaks is that half the time they are no more than kids, or in the really worst cases, young adults with time to kill and nobody to to grab them by the the throat and smack their head into the monitor! So what is the motivation for this behavior? Is it a lack of attention at home or the feeling of empowerment that they get from pissing off a bunch of anonymous strangers? What would happen if we could get the information on these idiots and have Vinny and Vito show up at their door and break a few fingers. Does it seem like I have some hostility pent up about this lack of manners? You're right I do! I was raised to be polite, not only to my friends and family, but even more so to strangers, because this is how you are perceived by the world and being rude makes you a less effective communicator. Rudeness begets rudeness and soon communication is gone and all that is left is hostile accusation.

I am reminded of something written by Heinlein in the character of Lazarus Long, "I am of the opinion that most human male children should be raised in barrels and fed through the bung. When they are 18 a decision must be made, whether to let them out or drive in the bung plug." I love that idea, because there are many a 21 year old whom I would love to stuff into a barrel and drive in the bung plug. He also said, "Manners are the grease in the gears of society. They make things run smoothly and are just as important in public as they are at home." I know that quote isn't perfect, but I can't find my book at the moment and get it perfect, but that 's the gist of it!

Do I have a solution? Nope. Do I think things will change? Probably, but sadly they will probably get worse before they get better. I think that it might be like alcoholism, where we collectively need to hit rock bottom and maybe even bounce a few times before we begin to climb out of the hole. My guess is that the current generation may find out that living with idiots like themselves is pretty crappy, and then they may begin to teach manners to their children. Yeah right!! ROFLMAO!! What's gonna happen is that eventually somebody is going to walk a mall with a sawed off shotgun and start blowing away line budgers and iPod zombies.

When the SWAT team surrounds the mall and orders him to surrender he tells them to say "Please". At the trial the jury finds him not guilty and instead awards him a multi-million dollar settlement for wrongful arrest and sends him to congress with a mandate to make rudeness illegal. The minimum fines for public rudeness are what may currently be considered cruel and unusual punishment. The escalation of the the fine for subsequent offenses move in three short steps to execution. The "3 strikes" law will make the world a much better place. There will also be no legal consequences for anyone severely beating a rude person in public as long as there are at least 3 witnesses to the rude behavior. The trials will be quick and public, the nearest 12 people will be rounded up and be the jury. The first 2 police officers will be the lawyers and one more civilian will serve as the judge. As long as the beating is found justified that is no repercussions, and the beaten rude dude, will be remanded to the authorities and given his proper sentence. ( the trial of the beater will serve as beatee's verdict as well ) I'm sure that this is just a pipe dream, but oh, wouldn't it be nice!

So thank you for reading and have a great day.

When things change....

When things change they never seem to change in the right ways. The administration in the state capitol changes, and the ideas are not new. The administration in Washington changes and the ideas are not new. The way to get things done is approached in a different way, but the ideas remain the same. I have sat back watching this mess of the financial markets and I know that there is nothing that I can actually do about it, but I do have something to say about it.

We the people of the American Taxpaying public have had to sit and watch as our tax dollars are squandered on every government SNAFU that comes along. Meanwhile the things that matter are going unfunded or under-funded. Education, Infrastructure, and research. The economy is free-market until there is a tilt in the market and suddenly the government is bailing out some business that has made bad market calls and lousy business deals, because, "the Market Needs them." Well if the market needs them so badly why are they not surviving on their own rather than the Government bailing their dumb asses out? My biggest complaint in this arena is the Automakers.

Why is it that the UAW will sit back and refuse to deal with the companies? The Legislature actually had the brains and the balls to step up and tell them that they would let the auto industry go bankrupt and thereby nullify the Union contracts, but then in steps President Knucklehead with OUR TAX DOLLARS and say that the manufacturers can have some assistance! What the fuck is wrong with this picture? It is the great ponderous Union contracts that have skewed our economy for so long in the first place. I don't have exact numbers, but I have seen some that have been bandied around in recent weeks, and it blows my mind when I see them. A worker whose gross pay and benefits package works out to somewhere between $48 and $73 dollars per hour? ( and you wonder why a new car costs so much?) Who is worth that? Maybe a diamond miner, but certainly not some bonehead who stands in one place putting a screw in a hole all day long. This is a small section of our population who has lived high on the hog for over 60 years. They have been the highest paid blue-collar employees in the USA for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid it was my dream to get a job working in an auto factory so I could get that high pay for doing next to nothing all day long. Paid vacations, and health care, sick days, and personal days and easy work. Man it was a dream!! Who needed college to put a bolt in a hole? They spent their money in every industry, from the clothing industry to the RV industry, buying anything and everything from the necessities of life to all the best toys that the world had to offer. Electronics, and fishing boats, motorcycles and ATVs. It didn't matter the cost because they had money to burn! Then the manufacturers started to see the light...

They realized that they could get cheaper labor in foreign markets. Guess what? Suddenly money was an object!! When you make top dollar at your job, and you get laid off, then you make top dollar on Unemployment. The catch is that Unemployment is a limited supply. And where does it come from? Taxes. Who pays taxes? People who are working! The more money you make the more taxes you pay, ( up to a point then the model skews the other way! ) so these high paid workers who were contributing to the tax base are now taking from it and at the highest rate possible. Their bills are piling up, ( high bills based on the pay that they were bringing home) and the debt continues to accrue. So the high pay cost them their jobs, but the remaining workers continued to make the big bucks, and when the time came they negotiated for even more money. So then more people got laid off to pay for the bigger contracts. Enter automation. Now there are machines that can do the work that men used to do, and at a faster and more accurate pace. So now there are less people contributing to the tax base. It's a cycle that has been repeated over and over in the ups and downs of our economy for the last 4o years at least.

Less people making the big buck is less people able to spend the money on the big ticket items. So that means the people that sell and manufacture the big ticket items are laid off. Now what? So they couldn't afford the crap they were selling in the first place, but the could afford the mid level items, and now they can't. So that's another level of people who are out of work. All because of these huge salaries that the UAW was making. It's trickle down theory in action the way that it really works.

People with BIG money don't spend it like blue-collar people do. Trickle down Economics only works from the Upper middle class on down. The true High income brackets save money, that's why they are rich. They hide money in off shore banks so that they don't have to pay to taxes on it. They buy specially made things and have collections of cars and homes. They socialize in their own circles and never need medicaid or unemployment. They have no understanding of what life is for regular people. They are the movers and the shakers of the business and government worlds. They don't see how skewed the economic situation is because they live in a different world. So they make deals and bail each other out, when they see a chance to blow some taxpayer money they take it.

$700 BILLION for a bailout of the financial institutions, and now more going to the automakers. Why throw good money after bad? Hey Mr. President, you really want to help America? Split that money up between the taxpayers. EVENLY! I have read various figures but even at the low end of the spectrum it works out to $27,000 for every taxpaying American. That is an economic Stimulus package! That measly $600 we got last year was a joke. It barely covered a couple tanks of gas!! ( especially when it peaked out at nearly $5 a gallon. !!)

YOU MUST VOTE!!!

The Master, Robert A. Heinlein once said, through his character Lazarus Long, " If you live in a society that votes, do so! If you don't have some one to vote for, you should have someone to vote against. If this doesn't work, find some well meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask who he supports, then vote the opposite. It satisfies your civic duty and you get to oppose someone you dislike. " Now I truly don't believe that this is the best philosophy, but I do believe that if you don't vote you have no legs to stand on when you don't like who wins. Since my 18th birthday I have only missed 2 election days. One because I was traveling and one because I completely forgot what day it was, ( and I was thinking about it all day while I worked!)

Now this leads me to a very important point that I would like to see addressed by our elected officials. I believe that election day should be moved to a weekend, be it Saturday or Sunday is no matter, but the other important point is this, It should also be a Mandatory Federal Holiday, meaning that NO business may be conducted while the polls are open. A system that works very well in most other democracies in the world. This means that no registered voter has an excuse other than being hospitalized or kidnapped. As the oldest democracy in the world we are faced with some of the lowest voter turnouts. Why? Because too many people think that either it doesn't affect them, or that their vote doesn't matter. This is often attributable to the television news. Exit polls are truly the most hurtful thing to a democracy, because people hear that so and so is in the lead or so far behind, and they guess that their vote won't make a difference. I say this from experience, because I have worked with people who have used this exact argument.

I believe in the Constitution and all of the rights and freedoms afforded us by this document, but I am a very firm believer that with these freedoms and rights comes a certain level of responsibility, that frankly hasn't been exercised in a few decades. The press has become worse than religious crusaders in dumping scandal and excess on the front page to be consumed with our morning cereal. The more seedy the story the bigger the typeface. Along with the rudeness of the pundits, and the ignorance of the populace in general, these things add up to cake and circuses. Some wise person many years ago said that," a democracy will stand until such time as the people realize that they have the power to vote themselves cake and circuses." For some reason I think it may have been Mark Twain, but I'm not sure. But the point that he was making is that people tend to vote in their own interest, rather than in the interest of the country as a whole. How human of us! The sad part is that Politicians have grabbed unto this fact with a vengance, and the pork barrel rolls happily along. This is the biggest problem with career politicians. This is why I truly believe that politicians should be picked just like jurors.

Now my second suggestion is to get rid of every type of voting machine, Touch screen, and punch card and go back to a simple #2 Pencil, and a sheet of paper. There are few democracies in the world that vote any other way. In the United States, every state has a different system, and there is no standard, except that they are all insecure. And since they are insecure they can't be fully trusted. A glass box with a slot in the top, and a voter with a paper ballot is the most trustable thing in the world. A simple column with a square box beside each name. A box for the party you wish to have your vote counted from, and an X in each appropriate box. It has worked for centuries, and as the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Our world is gonna change one way or the other. The best thing anyone can do is to educate themselves abot what and who they are voting for. ( or against!) but don't go simply by the rhetoric of the campaign, visit websites of the candidates, and the referendums, and read up on the issues. Don't fall for the Karl Rove Doctrine, which is that any lie repeated often enough will be taken as the truth. The best website to visit is factcheck.org they sift through all the crude and corruption and give you the truth from both sides of the fence. They are truly non-partisan and that is the best thing that one can hope for in a research organization.