It's official

I have now heard everything!

As I was driving home tonight I was listening to KFNX Phoenix. I prefer KTAR but this time of year they do baseball coverage every single night. Since I think I'd rather have the skin on my forearms removed with a heavy rasp than listen to baseball pre-game coverage I switched to my preferred comedy channel. Nope, not comedy central. I prefer my comedy heavily ironic and Michael Savage[^] is perfect. I can't take him seriously no matter how hard I try.

I note that I'd rather have the skin on my..., well we've done that mental image, rather than listen to ANY sports broadcast whether it be here in the US or in Australia or anywhere else in the world.

At 7PM Savage was muted for the news. Almost lost in the noise was this gem. It seems that someone or other has got up a petition for an amendment to the state constitution to be voted on during the November election. What is this amendment you ask?

For each statewide election, held each two years, every Arizona voter who actually bothers to vote will be entered into a lottery. The lottery will pick a single name and that person will win a million dollars!

Well I suppose that's one way to get people to the ballot!

You understand that having grown up in one of the few countries of the world where one has to attend a polling place on pain of a small fine for non attendance I'm well into the habit of voting. Of course, having had one's name marked off on the roll it's entirely up to one whether to record a valid vote or not. There's no one standing over your shoulder in an Australian polling booth watching who you vote for!

I won't have the vote by the November elections this year but I hope to have the vote for the next Presidential election. You can be assured that I will vote neither because I hope to win a million bucks (though that'd be nice) or because someone will fine me 50 bucks.

I will vote because I will (hopefully by then) have the right to vote. Maybe if a few more Americans took their democratic heritage seriously and truly understood it there'd be no need for a million dollar incentive.

Getting cocky ain't I! :-)