Sleeping With the Fishes

Near the land of dead voters comes related news. Its seems as though a dead goldfish in a northern Chicago suburb was mailed a voter registration card.

I wondering why the extra outrage over the fact that "Princess" the goldfish has passed on. Would Princess cast a more informed ballot had she still been circling her tank?

Today's "let's-make-sure-everyone-is-happy" sentiment includes the notion that we must seek out all those who don't seem to care on their own, and make sure they are registered to vote. In the process we've registered the Mickey Mouse, the Dallas Cowboys, dead goldfish and the same person 600 times.

Publicly-funded voter registration drives have been proven to be highly partisan, loaded with fraud, and based entirely on the quantity of registrations, not the quality of the actual registration.

Voting is our only voice in a government that has become too big to listen. Now you can register and vote the same day (without verification of your address); you can vote online; and you can vote absentee under one of many assumed names and registrations. How loud is your voice now?

Casting a huge net into the homeless shelters and drug rehab centers, fishing for registered voters does not empower us. It weakens us.

Voting used to viewed as a serious privilege, that came with some individual responsibilities and safe guards. Now Princess the (dead) goldfish will be canceling out my vote. Are we better off?

Alex de Tocqueville once said, "In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve." A lesson we will soon learn. The only trouble is, I'm not so sure we all deserve it.

Random Electrons

A blog by any other name is still a blog.

An exercise in futility by those desperately seeking self-worth?

A meaningful reflection into one's inner soul?

Perhaps somewhere in between.

If we were more inclined toward the former, what must this say about the blog author -- me? Tapping away, forming words (and incomplete sentences) that are destined to be read by no one. Utilizing time that could be better spent curing cancer or feeding the starving children of the planet.

Or maybe we lean toward the latter. Inspired brilliance recorded on the world wide web, destined to motivate the global mortals to productive existences.

Nah. As a former co-worker once said, "it's just a bunch of random electrons."