[geeks] One of the things I love about America

[Mike Meredith]

On Wednesday 01 May 2002 18:19, Joshua D Boyd wrote:
> On Wed, May 01, 2002 at 05:55:24PM +0100, Mike Meredith wrote:
> > I persuaded someone to vote last year by pointing out that if none
>
> Or, write in some one, assuming you can do that over there.

You can't. Or at least if you do, they call it a 'spoilt ballot'.

> > people want things that are pretty much incompatible ... you can't
> > drop taxes to 0 *and* improve public services. Or at least you
>
> You can if you raise import duties.  But whether that is a good idea,
> I don't really care to ponder at length.

National governments tend to get a bit tetchy if local governments try
declaring independance which is what imposing import duties would imply
... I was talking about a local election.

The point I was making is that you can't spend what you don't have ...
at least you can't for very long. Admittedly the US government seems to
be trying to do this though!

> In recent months I've been changing my mind about Campaign Finance
> Reform, at least here in the US.  I'm not sure any of the ideas

It's been floated as an idea over here, although not much progress is
being made.

> influence, and possibly teachers union influence (where they have
> been known to say that they will start representing the interests of
> children when children pay dues, till then they look out only for
> themselves).

A union is supposed to only represent the interests of their fee-paying
members. If children need a union, they need their own and not expect
the teachers union to argue their case.

> Across the pond, it isn't legal to sell liquor on voting day.  So, I

Who came up with that daft idea ?

You don't need to be particularly sober to vote and it doesn't take that
long.

> bet people here would be pissed if voting day was on a Friday or
> Saturday.

Back when I was a student in Wales (where counties(?) used to have a
referendum every 7 years to decide whether they should be "dry" on a
Sunday or not) the saying went that if it was illegal for pubs to open
on a Sunday it just meant that you had to go in via the rear entrance.
And the pubs stayed open longer :)